Montag, 19. Mai 2014, 12:00 - 13:00 iCal
Steering with big words:
ideographs in research programs
Seminarraum STS, Department of Science & Technology Studies
Universitätsstraße 7 / II / 6th floor, 1010 Wien
Vortrag
Nowadays, science should address societal challenges, such as 'sustainability,' or 'responsible research and innovation (RRI).' This emerging form of steering towards broad and generic goals involves the use of 'big words': encompassing concepts that are uncontested themselves, but that allow for multiple interpretations and specifications. This paper is based on the premise that big words matter in the structuring of scientific practice and it empirically traces how three 'big words' -'sustainability,' 'responsible innovation' and 'valorization' (a term closely linked to knowledge utilization) - steer research activities within a Dutch research program of nanotechnology that is explicitly related to societal challenges. To do so, the theory of articulation is extended with the concept of ideographs. We report on how the top-down steering ambitions of policy are countervailed by the bottom-up dynamics and logics of researchers. We also conclude that when 'big words' are used in an organizational and administrative setting, it changes their effects.
Veranstalter
Kontakt
Karin Neumann
Institut für Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung
01-4277-49601
sec.sts@univie.ac.at
Erstellt am Mittwoch, 14. Mai 2014, 12:57
Letzte Änderung am Donnerstag, 15. Mai 2014, 12:53