‘Not Science but PR’: GM Food and the Makings of a Considered Sociology

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Murcott

This article sketches a sociology in the making that arises out of the case of GM food in Britain in 1999. It is presented with a view to moving, collaboratively, towards its further study. A ‘considered sociology’ is not original. It requires treating as an integral and enduring part of the field of investigation the historical and social characterisation of that same field. An evaluation of the sociology of food indicates that field's limitations for the examination of GM food, with one key exception. The article moves on to propose the need for (a) an as yet underinvestigated field of the industrialisation of food together with the role of science and technology within it, and (b) an examination of the industrialised (social) scientific production of ‘the consumer’. These may then serve as a basis for examining the manner in which public coverage of GM food could be characterised not as a matter of science but of a PR and is now publicly construed as a debate, ‘pro’ and ‘anti’.

Author(s):  
Rodrigo Borba

Sex work has long been of interest to a variety of fields, among them anthropology, sociology, public health, and feminist theory, to name but a few. However, with very few exceptions, sociolinguistics seems to have ignored the fact that commercial sex, as an intersubjective business transaction, is primarily negotiated in embodied linguistic interaction. By reviewing publications in distinct social scientific areas that directly or indirectly discuss the role of language in the sex industry, this chapter critically assesses the analytical affordances and methodological challenges for a sociolinguistics of sex work. It does so by discussing the “tricks” played by sex work, as a power-infused context of language use in which issues of agency (or lack thereof) are paramount, on sociolinguistic theory and methods. The chapter concludes that the study of language in commercial sex venues is sociolinguistically promising and epistemologically timely.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Grebenshchikova

Technoethics is a new, but rapidly developing field of ethical reflection of technoscience. It can claim to unite the various ethical projections of the science and technology development in a common approach. One of the starting points of understanding this role of technoethics may be NBIC-convergence. The ethical dimensions of the NBIC-projects is represented in these sub-areas of applied ethics as a nanoethics, bioethics, neuroethics and ICT ethics. In this article particular attention is paid to the biomedical field, which is a prime example of innovative high technology, as well as the interaction of different types of ethics.


2021 ◽  
pp. 89-112
Author(s):  
Gary H. Jefferson ◽  
Renai Jiang

This chapter assesses China’s science and technology (S&T) progress through the lens of the patenting literature in the context of China. In particular, after presenting an overview of China’s patent production over the past twenty-five years, it investigates the following questions: What accounts for China’s patent surge? What are the implications of the surge for patent quality? Does the nature of the patenting reveal China’s S&T direction and comparative advantage? How has the international sector affected China’s patent production? What has been the role of the government—the central, provincial, and local governments—in shaping patent production? And finally, how heterogeneous is China’s regional patent production; are patenting capabilities diffusing across China?


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-33
Author(s):  
Otabek Allayarov ◽  
◽  
Hasan Yarbaev

The articledescribes thatit is impossible the development of society without the development of science, in this senseour state pay attention to in the field of science in the context of science and social-political reform, spiritual renewalasin all countries of the world. Scientifically and practically defined the role of information technology in the development of science and technology, as well as the creation of effective mechanisms for stimulating research and innovation, the introduction of science and innovation achievements. Moreover, the role and significance of information technology in the development of scientific research in the field of technologywas stated


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Flávia Milagres CAMPOS ◽  
Shirley Donizete PRADO ◽  
Fabiana Bom KRAEMER ◽  
Francisco Romão FERREIRA ◽  
Maria Cláudia da Veiga Soares CARVALHO

ABSTRACT Objective: The present study aims to investigate the scenario of research on Food Service in Brazil based on the Stricto Sensu Graduate Programs in Nutrition, research groups, and scientific production. Methods: A search of the research lines including studies related to this topic and the researchers engaged in those studies was conducted. The research groups were identified on the Directory of Research Groups in Brazil website and the profile of the scientific production was based on articles included in the Scientific Electronic Library Online database. Articles published in international journals that were related to research lines focused on food production were also searched and analyzed. Results: The search identified only two graduate programs with research lines that describe the food production as the object of study although 13 graduate programs carry out research related to Food Service, especially focused on nutritional and sanitary aspects of food. The same trend was observed in the national articles. The internationalization of these two research line results from the academic publication in 22 different journals over the past 5 years. Thirty five professors were identified and most of them hold a PhD in Food Science and Technology. The number of research groups increased from two in 2000 to twenty nine in 2010. Conclusion: The inclusion of Food Service in graduate programs is still limited. The main trend observed is towards a closer relationship with Food Science and Technology in terms of the lines of research, professional qualification, and published studies.


Author(s):  
John Gastil ◽  
Laura Black

The discipline of communication encompasses a broad spectrum of humanistic, interpretive, and social scientific approaches to studying public deliberation. Early work engaged Habermasian theories of the public sphere, and rhetorical scholarship has foregrounded the deliberative threads running back to the discipline’s earliest history in ancient Greece. The bulk of contemporary work, however, has examined the dynamics of deliberation, particularly in the context of face-to-face discussions and dialogues in small groups. These studies have revealed the importance of narrative and dialogic exchanges during deliberation, as well as the critical role of facilitation and the maintenance of deliberative norms. Research has also assessed the practical consequences of participating in deliberation. The discipline’s practical orientation has led some scholars to seek ways to optimize deliberative designs to maximize simultaneously the quality of their decision outputs and their civic impacts on participants.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-226
Author(s):  
Neerja Upadhyaya ◽  
Ruchi Jain ◽  
R. Upadhyaya

Over millions of years, physiology and anatomy of the living organisms has been changed due to internal climate forcing mechanism. This has influenced the world wide distribution of species. External climate forcing mechanism has caused rapid rise in earth’s temperature and it is expected to rise by 2-4 °C by the end of the century. It has now been recognised as the most complex problem of present scenario and being concerned in almost every field of science. Climate change is the most sensitive issue which is a challenge not only for the government and society but also for each individual. In the present communication impact of external climate forcing mechanism on biodiversity and its extinction is being analysed and role of sustainomics for the same is overviewed. Studies reveal that the rate of speciation of flora and fauna is not in the accordance with the rate of externally enforced climate change. Thus, the increased rate of climate change has caused catastrophic mass extinction threat for plants, animals and insects in the anthrapocene era. The pattern of extinction and threatened species are not yet known. Various solutions for the problem have been suggested by the multidisciplinary researches, rooted by the sustainomics. These suggestions include to diverge from fossil fuel, to use renewables, to make and apply rules for 3Rs etc. Only cooperative involvement of social, scientific and industrial bodies may resolve the problem.


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