Science and Society

Martin Kemp (551) argues that while “what a scientist (or artist, author, composer…) looks like should not matter to us,” it is a fact of modern society that we as a culture are compulsive in our need to closely scrutinize the outward appearance of public figures. One of Kemp’s examples is British pop icon, author, and physicist Stephen Hawking. Arguably the best known scientist of the late 20th century, Hawking’s fame is not generated by his best-selling popular level books A Brief History of Time (1988) and The Universe in a Nutshell (2001), or his mind-bending theories of evaporating black holes, imaginary time, or multiple dimensions, but the fact that he has accomplished these laudable tasks in spite of the ravages Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) has wrought upon his body for the past four-plus decades. This paper will examine how cinematic works re-envision Hawking by accentuating and exaggerating his physical condition and the technologies required for him to continue his work.

A lo largo de la historia, la libertad de investigación siempre ha sido vulnerable, ya que tanto la ciencia en general como los científicos en particular, han sido objeto de persecución y de presiones políticas y religiosas que han tendido a censurarles. Aunque podamos creer que las presiones y la persecución científica son cosa del pasado, la libertad de investigación, así como la ciencia misma, continúan amenazadas por los “profetas sociales”, como Freeman Dyson los llamó. En este contexto de vulnerabilidad de la libertad científica, este ensayo constituye una reflexión sobre el papel del estado en el desarrollo del conocimiento.

Recent statements of the responsibilities of scientists have strengthened the responsibilities of scientists towards the societies in which they pursue their research. Scientists are now expected to do more than treat their experimental subjects ethically and communicate their results. They are also expected to benefit humanity. In a shift from the predominant views of the second half of the 20th century, social responsibility is now yoked to the freedom to pursue scientific research, rather than opposed to such freedom. First I will describe this change and some of its causes. Then I will address the fact that much of our institutional research oversight infrastructure was put in place with a now-outdated understanding of the societal responsibilities and freedoms of scientists. Finally, I will make some recommendations on how to shift the structures we have to be more in tune with the current conceptualization of scientific freedom and social responsibility.

Sustainability perspectives require non-standard scientific and political reasoning, now more than ever. The lexicons of ecology and political economy articulate epistemic catego- ries and imaginaries in which humans and environments are in mutual relationship avoiding an exploitation logic of the former. We support these scenarios allow to grasp the disconti- nuities between the past and the present of the environmental movements, between the scientific ideals of modernity and the contemporary ones. The need to connect two oppos- ing styles of reasoning is progressing: the theme of the non-neutrality of science and the need for science based political judgments. In this previously unknown combination of science and society, the current democratic practices of "multilevel co-production" between researchers and active citizenship (citizen-science) mark realistic governance pathways of the planetary ecological crisis to which governments seem to have to face, sooner as possi- ble.

Through this paper, it is the author's intention to present Merton's (Robert King Merton) scientific norms (CUDOS), which the author finds to be representative of the positivist framework of ideal-type science activity, in the perspective of the Marxist critique of positivism. Using the dialectical method, the author also analyzes the role of science in society from a Marxist perspective, while presenting the Marxist critique of the basic elements of positivist methodology. This is important in order to better examine and to show what are the similarities and what are the differences in the interpretation and application of the scientific ethos, as well as the role of science in society in the positivist and Marxist paradigms. In the conclusion , the author shows how these differences manifest themselves in terms of the relationship of the science to the dominant political ideology and social relations.

Values and Objectivity: A Discussion Following Longino Question of the role played by values in science and their effects on objectivity of scientific knowledge has been at the focus of heated and unresolved debates for decades. While these debates were not wholly unfruitful, accounts purported to be answers to this puzzling problem were inadequate. Following Longino's conception of science as social practice, I will argue their inadequacy is the result of their misconceptions of values and of objectivity in sciences. Although Longino herself argues against these views convincingly, my point of introducing them is to start the discussion from the very beginning, from the start of the modern science and Newton's four rule of reasoning in natural sciences. Although values can come into play in various stages of scientific reasoning, in this paper I will only focus on the evidential relation between data and the hypotheses and analyze how values enter into scientific reasoning. 1 On the basis of that analyses, I will suggest an alternative view regarding objectivity and justification. In that analyses it will be clear that neither self-evident nor logically true assumptions about the structure of the domain under investigation must be made in order to inquire a phenomenon. These non-self-evident assumptions are ineliminable, for they are what structure the states of affairs and relevance of them to hypotheses purported to be explanations of that states of affairs. But before that discussion I will briefly discuss the positivist and the historicist approaches to evidential relations, and in comparing those account to Newton's rules for natural philosophy and to neuroscientific studies on female intelligence, I will try to show their inadequacy and the role of background assumptions. In the light of these discussion, I will support Longino's view of science as a social practice governed by objectively agreed upon assumptions and 1 Nagel distinguishes 4 ways of values having effect on production of scientific knowledge; "(1) the selection of problems, (2) the determination of the contents of conclusions, (3) the identification of fact, and (4) the assessment of evidence" (Douglas 57). We are here only dealing with the second one.

Although more than a million academic papers have been posted on Facebook, there is little detailed research about which fields or cross-field issues are involved and whether there are field or public interest relationships between Facebook mentions and future citations. In response, we identified health and biomedical scientific papers mentioned on Facebook and assigned subjects to them using the MeSH and Science Metrix journal classification schema. Multistage adaptive LASSO and unpenalized least-squares regressions were used to model Facebook mentions by fields and MeSH terms. The fields Science and Technology, General and Internal Medicine, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and Sport Sciences produced higher Facebook mention counts than average. However, no MeSH cross-field issue differences were found in the rate of attracting Facebook mentions. The relationship between Facebook mentions and citations varies between both fields and MeSH cross-field issues. General and Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular System and Hematology and Developmental Biology have strongest correlations between Facebook mentions and citations, probably due to high citation rates and high Facebook visibility in these areas. **This is a preprint of an article to be published in the Information Processing and Management© copyright 2020 Elsevier. 2

In his review of my book, La  conquista islámica de la península ibérica y la tergiversación del pasado: del catastrofismo al negacionismo (Madrid, Marcial Pons, 2013), K. B. Wolf reveals a baffling misunderstanding of Ignacio Olagüe and his denialist approach to the origins of al-Andalus, which I dubbed in my book as an appaling academic fraud. Tragically misguided by Olagüe's most outspoken academic follower, Wolf's review points to the serious scholarly challenge this fraud represents for historical knowledge.

FP7-PEOPLE-2010 IRSES
Marie Curie Irses

Institutions organizing the Workshop within the EPSEI Consortium:

gLAWcal – Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development (United Kingdom)
Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences – CRAES (China)
Università degli Studi di Torino, Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza (Italy)
Aix-Marseille University, CEPERC (France)

EPSEI PROJECT
Evaluating Policies for Sustainable Energy Investments:
towards an Integrated Approach on National and International Stage

WORKSHOP ON CHINESE ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION AND WESTERN CONCEPTS

                                                                        held at
            Chinese Research Academy of Environmental    Sciences – CRAES (China)

                                                  Time: Morning, 1 Aug. 2014
                                          Venue: No. 2 meeting room, CRAES 
                                                              Beijing, China


8:30 - 9:00 Registration

9:00  Welcoming speeches

9:00- 9:10
Addressing - ZHANG Huiyuan, CRAES, Beijing China

9:10 – 9:15
Addressing – Paolo Davide FARAH, West Virginia University (WV, USA) & EPSEI Vice-coordinator at University of Turin Department of Law (Italy)


SESSION ONE

Chair and Moderator: ZHANG Huiyuan, CRAES, Beijing China

9:15 – 9:30
Vanessa KOPEC, Aix-Marseille University, CEPERC - Research Center for Comparative Epistemology and Ergology (France) & EU Commission Marie Fellow at Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES), Beijing China

The Concept of “Ecologic Civilization”: from Traditional Roots to Contemporary Commitments

9:30 – 9:45
Jean-Yves HEURTEBISE, FuJen Catholic University (Taipei), Department of French Language and Culture; Aix-Marseille University, CEPERC - Research Center for Comparative Epistemology and Ergology (France); Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory in Stanford University (KGC, USA)

Environment, Science and Society

9:45-10:15
Yang Rongjin, CRAES, Beijing China

Ecological Civilization Progress in China

10:15-10:30
Fernando DIAS SIMOES, University of Macau, Faculty of Law (China) & Member of the Scientific Committee of gLAWcal – Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development (United Kingdom)

The Role of Citizens in an Ecological Civilization

10:30-10:45
Paolo Davide FARAH, West Virginia University (WV, USA), gLAWcal – Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development (United Kingdom), EPSEI Vice-coordinator at University of Turin Department of Law (Italy)

The Influence of Politics in the Law Making Process in the Field of the Ecological Civilization

10:45 – 11:00
Discussion chaired by ZHANG Huiyuan, CRAES, Beijing China

11:00-11:10 Break


SESSION TWO

POTENTIAL COOPERATION OPPORTUNITY

11:10-11:30
Zhang Huiyuan

Introduction of Chinese Institutions Academic Background, Existing Research Job, Ongoing Research Plan within EPSEI and Future Plan

11:30-11:40
Paolo Davide Farah

Introduction of the European University and Research Institutions, Current Research Scope, Outputs Already Achieved within EPSEI Project, Ongoing Books and Perspective Scientific Plan for Establishing Further Collaboration

11:40-12:10 Round Table Discussion with all the participants

Paolo Davide Farah, West Virginia University, (WV, USA) gLAWcal – Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development (United Kingdom), EPSEI Vice-coordinator at University of Turin Department of Law (Italy)

Jean Yves Heurtebise, FuJen Catholic University (Taipei), Department of French Language and Culture; Aix-Marseille University, CEPERC - Research Center for Comparative Epistemology and Ergology (France); Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory in Stanford University (KGC, US)

Vanessa KOPEC, Aix-Marseille University, CEPERC - Research Center for Comparative Epistemology and Ergology (France) & EU Commission Marie Fellow at Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CRAES), Beijing (China)

Fernando DIAS SIMOES, University of Macau, Faculty of Law (China) & Member of the Scientific Committee of gLAWcal – Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development (United Kingdom)

Dagmar RYCHNOVSKÁ, Charles University, School of Political Sciences and International Relations, Prague (Czech Republic)

Wang Yexu， Independent Ecologist, former official of FECO, Ministry of Environmental Protection of China

YU Hai, Policy Research Center, Ministry of Environmental Protection of China

HAN Wenya, Associate Researcher of Ecological Civilization Research and Promotion Association

ZHANG Huiyuan, Director of Ecological Civilization Center, CRAES

Li Xiushan, Researcher of Ecological Institute, CRAES

ZHOU Yun, Director of International Cooperation Department, CRAES

YANG Rongjin, Associate Researcher of Ecological Civilization Center, CRAES

Lv Hailiang, Associate Researcher of Ecological Civilization Center, CRAES

Other colleagues in CRAES


This workshop has been organized and implemented withint the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 269327 Acronym of the Project: EPSEI, Coordinated by University of Turin - Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza.
For any information about the EPSEI project and its objectives, please address your queries by email to: [email protected]

Die folgenden Thesen entstanden im Kontext der Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Ur- und Fruhgeschichte e. V. (DGUF): „Schafft sich die Offentlichkeit eine andere Archaologie? Analysen einer Machtverschiebung“ im Mai 2015 in Tubingen. Die Tagung war gepragt von einer sich durch die Vortrage und Diskussionen ziehenden gemeinsamen Stimmung und Uberzeugung: Die Archaologien sind gegenwartig erfasst von einem umfassenden gesellschaftlichen Wandlungsprozess, in dem die Akteure klug handeln sollten, wenn sie weiterhin oder wieder integraler Bestandteil der Gesellschaft sein wollen, ausgestattet mit einer angemessenen finanziellen, personellen und regulativen Basis. Die Tubinger Thesen zur Archaologie richten sich an alle Kolleginnen und Kollegen in archaologischer Forschung und Lehre, in Denkmalpflege und Museen. Die Thesen wollen wichtige Aspekte der von den Tagungsteilnehmern identifizierten Prozesse thematisieren und Denkanstose geben.

Based primarily on a systematic review of the relevant literature between 2000 and 2017, this article reflects on the state of journalism about science in developing countries, with a focus on its issues, challenges and implications for their developmental processes and causes. Five major themes emerge from our analysis: (a) heavy dependence on foreign sources, especially the media of the Global North; (b) the low status of domestic science news in newsrooms; (c) uncritical science reporting that easily lends itself to influences of non-science vested interests; (d) tight grip of politics on science journalism; and (e) ineffective relationships between science and journalism. We will demonstrate that, while some of these problems exist in the North, they can have far more severe consequences on the progress of the South, where news plays an almost exclusive role in informing and engaging laypeople with science and its socio-cultural, economic and political implications.

We outline the perspective of ‘critical neuroscience’: a stance of informed critique pertaining to neuroscientific methods, practices, concepts, discursive effects, formative backstories, and societal impacts. Critical neuroscience brings together work from various vantage points with the aim to engage neuroscience practitioners as well as decision makers, stakeholders and the public to convince them of the feasibility of a vigilant critical stance towards the entirety of the ‘Neuro complex’, including its impacts on scholarship, academia and wider society. The text is a programmatic outline which traces major lines of influence and theoretical backgrounds and sketches working examples. It is an invitation to neuroscientists and critical scholars from different fields to engage in collaborative reflection on the present and future of human neuroscience in its varied and dynamic socio-cultural surroundings. The chapter is a revised and updated version of chapter 1 of our volume Critical Neuroscience: A Handbook of the Social and Cultural Contexts of Neuroscience (Wiley-Blackwell 2012).

Sommario
E’ sempre più diffusa l'idea di una scienza "pura" che indaga le "verità ultime” dell'uomo e dell'universo. Questa tendenza è proporzionale e funzionale ai processi di mercificazione e spettacolarizzazione dell'attività scientifica. Al contrario, la scienza effettiva non è "altrove", dunque contiene e riflette, in misura varia, lo spirito del tempo
Parole chiave
Mito, scienza, mediaticità, nascita della scienza, occidente, oriente, fisica quantistica, archivi, peer review, economia, ecologia.
Summary It is increasingly widespread the idea of a “pure” science, which investigates the “ultimate truths” of man and the universe. This trend is proportional and functional to the processes of commodification and spectacularization of science activity. On the contrary, the effective science is not “elsewhere”, therefore it contains and reflects, in varying measure, the spirit of time.
Keywords
Science, myth, media, emergence of science, western and orient culture, quantum physics, repository, peer review, economy, ecology, epistemology

Olexander Gabovich, Vоlоdymyr Kuznetsov, Nadezhda Semenova. Kyiv: Editing House “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”
ISBN 978-966-518-675-5 (In Ukrainian with Abstract and Content in English)
Certain principle aspects of the fundamental science state in Ukraine as of 2014 were analyzed. It was shown that no awareness exists in the country that the main although not unique task of the science consists in the creation of new knowledge. The special attention was paid to state academies of science, in particular, to the National academy of science of Ukraine. It was demonstrated that the active law concerning science as well as the project of the new law have substantial shortcomings from the judiciary viewpoint and inhibit a free progress of science in line with general trends of the developed countries. The existing status of the autonomous state academies, being a peculiar symbiosis the non-governmental organization and state institution, was criticized. The general concept of an elite and certain scientometric data were used for the analysis of Ukrainian scientific elite quality.  A very unsatisfactory situation with social sciences and humanities was shown. Criteria were discussed for the future audit of the Ukrainian science in order to reform it in the European style.
CONTENTS

PREFACE   6
INTRODUCTION
Problem Formulation   9
Deep and Surface Structures in the Context
of Scientific Values 20

CHAPTER I
EXPLICATIONS
Academy and «Academies» 24
«West» and Post-Soviet Interpretation
of the Term «Academy» 29
«Academy» and «Academicians» 31
Types of Membership in the National Academy
of Sciences of Ukraine 33
Potential of Ukrainian Science and Obstacles
to its Implementation 37

CHAPTER II
PHILOSOPHICAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS
OF THE ACADEMIC SCIENCE ORGANIZATION
The Constitution of Ukraine as the Source
of European and Native Legal Values 44
Was the Pre-Reform Russian Academy of Sciences Perfect? 47
Historical Overview of the State-Academies Foundation 51
Modern Settlement of Legal Relationships in Science:
the Role and Status of Academies 57
Which Category of Entities Do Academies Belong To? 61
Which is Higher – the Home Rule or the Rule of Law? 69
The NASU Charter as a Depositary of Soviet Law «Values» 73
Legal Conclusions 88

CHAPTER III
ELITES AND VALUES
The Concept of Elite 96
Basic Science as a Mechanism to Produce New Knowledge 101

New Knowledge as Precondition for the Researcher
Membership in the Scientific Elite 110
Prestige of a Scientist and his Presence in Social Space 112
Imperative Requirements to Ordinary and Personal
Academy Members Concerning their Research 118
Lifelong Stipend as a Motivation Against
the Scientific Activity 120

CHAPTER IV
EUROPEAN SCIENTOMETRIC VISION OF SCIENCE
AND SCIENCE ELITE IN UKRAINE
National and International Assessments
of Scientific Achievements 126
Who is Who in Accordance with Scopus 133
Google Scholar versus Web of Science
and Nature Index 2014 137
Summary 142
CHAPTER V
SOME PUBLISHED AND UNPUBLISHED
MATERIALS ABOUT SCIENCE
K. Twardowski. On the Dignity of the University 146
Symptoms of a Serious Illness,
or What is the National Science? 150
Letter to the President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko 158
Proposals for the Project «Conception
of the Development of Ukrainian Science» 159
O. Gabovich. Outsider's Notes 166
Open Letter «The First Step to Overcome Corruption
in Science and Education» 171
Info on the Session of the Committee of Science
and Education of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine 28.03.2014. 176
Press Release NAS of Ukraine 176
Press Release Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine 182
Some Speeches
V. Kuznetsov 184
I. Yehorchenko 186
Letter to the Prime Minister of Ukraine
Arseniy Yatsenyuk 21.06.2014 192
Letter from the Ministry of Education
and Science of Ukraine 195
Letter to the First Deputy Minister of Education
and Science of Ukraine I. Sovsun 196
V. Adzhiyev. Theses and Reputation: the Case of Albion 200
Abstract 204

In his famous 1959 lecture The Two Cultures, British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow lamented the apparent split of the "intellectual life of the whole Western society" into "two polar groups…. Literary intellectuals at one pole-at the other scientists, and as the most representative, the physical scientists" (Snow 11-12). Snow warned that such a division had serious consequences "for our creative, intellectual, and above all, our moral life. It is leading us to interpret the past wrongly, to misjudge the present and to deny our hopes of the future" (Snow 59). Given J.R.R. Tolkien's well-known love for the natural world (especially trees) and open disdain for the increasingly destructive technologies of industry and war, one might be tempted to offer Tolkien as a prime example of what Snow took as the stereotype of the literary intelligentsia. However, a closer examination of Tolkien's life and work clearly demonstrates that in fact he moved seamlessly between the two cultures in his own mind, aided by strong personal ethics, morals, and religious values which allowed him to evaluate the benefits and flaws of both culture's particular point of view. For example, his published personal letters frequently reflect keen observations and knowledge of weather, flora and fauna. His grand mythology of Middle-earth (which was, as he often stated, actually Earth itself) contains an impressive litany of astronomical knowledge (including such items as constellations, motions and phases of the moon, eclipses, meteors, and aurora) as well as attention to biological detail, such as the observation that "Elves and Men are evidently in biological terms one race, or they could not breed and produce fertile offspring" (Letters 189). His self-reported childhood interests included not only fairy-stories, but also "astronomy, geology, history, [and] philology" (Flieger and Anderson 189). He argued in his famous essay "On Fairy-stories" that fantasy "does not either blunt the appetite for, nor obscure the perception of, scientific verity. On the contrary. The keener and the clearer is the reason, the better fantasy will it make" (Flieger and Anderson 65). Even his choice of a career-"I am primarily a scientific philologist"-reflected his internal integration of the "two cultures" (Letters 345). Perhaps the clearest and most concise statement of his personal view on the preferred relationship between scientific and the creative cultures is found in a letter to Milton Waldman, where he writes that

An analysis of the ways in which digital health innovations are being co-produced by mainstreaming of artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and cyber-physical systems (CPS) in healthcare.

CPS blurs the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds, and creates a dynamic digital map of all things in existence that can be analyzed in ways that are much more sophisticated than a bar code scanning system.

Examples of CPS include self-driving cars, wearables for digital monitoring of heart arrhythmias, industrial AI powered robots in smart factories and health robots delivering home care services to disabled persons and rural communities. Another interesting prospect of digital health powered by AI, IoT and CPS is remote phenotypic data capture and characterization of pharmaceutical outcomes in clinical trials in ways that are user-centric and meaningful to patients. For rural or remote communities with limited access to medical product information, the IoT could bring about pharmacy and health services innovation.

There are unprecedented societal challenges at intersections of digital health with AI, IoT and CPS as well. For example, the physical and virtual worlds markedly differ in speed, scale and temporalities, as do our physical self and digital footprints. Our efforts to map and develop effective solutions to societal corollaries of AI, IoT and CPS need to bear in mind such asymmetries between the physical and virtual worlds. A societal issue such as privacy may emerge in different forms and intensities in the physical and virtual contexts. Digital data are highly fluid and can rapidly move across spaces and places whereas the physical data and humans are much slower and exist in different scales than our digital footprints.

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/omi.2019.0069

Die folgenden Thesen entstanden im Kontext der Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Ur- und Fruhgeschichte e. V. (DGUF): „Schafft sich die Offentlichkeit eine andere Archaologie? Analysen einer Machtverschiebung“ im Mai 2015 in Tubingen. Die Tagung war gepragt von einer sich durch die Vortrage und Diskussionen ziehenden gemeinsamen Stimmung und Uberzeugung: Die Archaologien sind gegenwartig erfasst von einem umfassenden gesellschaftlichen Wandlungsprozess, in dem die Akteure klug handeln sollten, wenn sie weiterhin oder wieder integraler Bestandteil der Gesellschaft sein wollen, ausgestattet mit einer angemessenen finanziellen, personellen und regulativen Basis. Die Tubinger Thesen zur Archaologie richten sich an alle Kolleginnen und Kollegen in archaologischer Forschung und Lehre, in Denkmalpflege und Museen. Die Thesen wollen wichtige Aspekte der von den Tagungsteilnehmern identifizierten Prozesse thematisieren und Denkanstose geben.

In the information society and in the complexity that is one of the distinctive features of modernity, the public role of experts has increased considerably. Engineers, doctors, jurists or politicians are increasingly called upon to talk about issues of public relevance. In this historical-cultural context, experts are inclined to undertake public communication activities. In this contribution we focus attention on a particular type of expert, that is scientists and researchers. In fact, the next few years will see universities and research centers involved in the challenge represented by the Third Mission. There are many reasons for engaging in public activities, from the pedagogical will to literate the population to science to the need to respond to new career criteria. The public exhibition of the experts is interpreted, in this contribution, in the light of two important sociological aspects: that of social “reputation” and the concept of “trust”. Starting from the results of a research carried out in the context of the European Researchers’ Night, elements are provided to include the role of the expertise in the public scene within a conceptual framework that can encourage future reflection on the public role of the experts.

Nicholas Maxwell is not afraid of big ideas. As the title suggests, this book covers several sweeping topics: aside from those in the title, Maxwell discusses the methodology of social science, interdisciplinarity, quantum mechanics, and more besides. Given the 325-page word-length, this scope inevitably means that the ideas and arguments are frequently underdeveloped. However, despite this proportion of pages to topics, Maxwell's book is clear, accessible, and (most importantly) thought-provoking. It is hard to place a book with such scope into context, but Maxwell's basic philosophical project is simple. Karl Popper's methodology of falsificationism, which was an attempt to analyse the scientific method as a combination of deductive logic and convention, was once a prominent force, but it is out-of-favour today among philosophers. Maxwell presents a modified version of Popper's methodology and applies it to a tremendous range of issues about science and human knowledge. Chapter 1 is a critical exposition of Popper's overall thought, which is notable for breadth, clarity, and accessibility. I have not encountered a definitely superior brief overview of this topic. Maxwell's own methodology of science is advocated in Chapters 2 and 5. In Chapters 4, 6, and 7, he analyses theoretical simplicity, theoretical beauty, and inductive reasoning. In Chapters 3 and 8, he focuses on some specific issues in the history and philosophy of physics. Chapters 9 and 10 shine most brightly. Firstly, Maxwell offers a fiery defence of what he calls 'universalism'-the view that there are questions of universal importance for all human beings, such as 'How do we fit into the world?' and 'How can we improve the world?' He argues that answering these questions is the basic task of intellectual inquiry (though not the sole task) and criticises 'specialism', which is the view that discipline-specific questions are the only intellectual questions worth pursuing. According to Maxwell, contemporary academia is dominated by specialism, and despite recent moves towards interdisciplinarity, almost all academics demur from the big questions. Maxwell does not comment on one of this position's most refreshing features: the notion that there are questions that transcend the political and social issues of the day; questions that were as relevant in the times and places of Socrates or Confucius as they are today; and questions that are fundamentally about what is true rather than what is expedient. Unfortunately, despite his passion and clarity, Maxwell fails to tackle most of the deeper reasons for specialism's popularity among academics (and, perhaps more significantly, administrators). Pragmatists, post-modernists, Marxists, and many others have persuasive arguments why these 'universal' questions have only ephemeral and local value. The politicisation of universities encourages the minds of academics towards the next election or educating the next generation of decision-makers, rather than the (superficially!) abstract basic questions, and there are arguments for this politicisation. I do not think that the

This article describes how a research institute went about reviewing the relationship between its members and external research partners in engaging in collaborative research. A systematization of experiences (SE) process was implemented to enable such review and draw implications for the institute’s strategy regarding research into the sustainability of Mediterranean agriculture. The SE exercise included four workshops attended by selected researchers, one questionnaire survey targeting the institute’s research community, and three focus group discussions with external research partners. The rate of participation by researchers decreased during the process; however, those that followed through to the end of the SE exercise found it to be useful in clarifying both individual and institutional perspectives. Further, SE was seen as a vehicle for increasing the level of understanding between researchers and their willingness to engage in collaborative actions. However, the rapid pace o...

Wissenschaftsreflexion: eine neue interdisziplinäre Perspektive auf die Geschichte, Theorie und Ethik der Wissenschaften sowie auf die praktischen Auswirkungen von wissenschaftlicher Forschung und Erkenntnis.
Die Wissenschaften sehen sich gegenwärtig mit Blick auf ihre Geltungs- und Wahrheitsansprüche, ihre Vertrauenswürdigkeit und ihre Rolle in der Gesellschaft vor grundlegende Herausforderungen gestellt. Die Diskussionen betreffen dabei so unterschiedliche Themen wie Unsicherheit, Scheitern oder „Fake News“ in den Wissenschaften, Klimawandel, Gentechnik, Impfungen und Alternativmedizin oder Evolutionstheorien. Nur eine interdisziplinär angelegte Reflexion über die Rolle der Wissenschaften, ihren Erkenntnisanspruch und ihre Methoden wird diesen neuen Herausforderungen gerecht.
Mit dem vorliegenden Band wird erstmals der Begriff der Wissenschaftsreflexion differenziert eingeführt und interdisziplinär diskutiert. Der Band umfasst vielfältige Beiträge zu Grundlagen- und Anwendungsfragen aus unterschiedlichen Disziplinen, die gemeinsam eine pluralistische Perspektive eröffnen und konkrete Lösungsmöglichkeiten aufzeigen.

Abstract

The term scientific literacy arises  due to the need of the scientific community to see that the population validated its scientific and technological production. The construct Scientific literacy has been  subject to diverse conceptual considerations over the years, arising from the scientific, technological, social and political chang-es that marked contemporary society characteristics. In this study, we sought to assess the evolution of the scientific literacy construct over the first decade of the twenty-first century, through qualitative research, using a bibliographic study. For the  operationalization  of  this  analysis,  different  dimensions  for  scientific  literacy were defined. The results suggest that scientific literacy embodies a construct that is deictic in nature, shaped by the social, political, cultural and scientific contexts prevailing in the society it belongs to. The conclusion is that all of this conceptual matrix suggests a change in the relatively passive form in which science is appre-ciated of and the way this operates in society towards a commitment to personal involvement with science and towards the valuation of the importance of scientific knowledge throughout life.

Resumen

El término alfabetización científica surge como consecuencia  de la necesidad de la comunidad científica de ver validada, por parte de la población, la producción científica y tecnológica. El constructo alfabetización científica fue objeto de varias actualizaciones conceptuales a lo largo de los años como resultado de los cam-bios científicos, tecnológicos y sociales de la sociedad contemporánea. En esta investigación se realiza una revisión sistemática en la cual se analiza la evolución de la alfabetización científica en la primera década de este siglo. Buscamos evaluar la evolución del constructo alfabetización científica durante la primera década del siglo XXI, a través de una  investigación  cualitativa, realizando un estudio bibliográ-fico. Para la operacionalización de este análisis, se definieron diferentes dimensio-nes de la alfabetización científica. Los resultados indican que es un constructo de naturaleza deíctica, que conforma su contenido a los entornos social, político, cultu-ral y científico en que se inserta. La conclusión es que toda esta matriz conceptual sugiere un cambio en la forma relativamente pasiva como se aprecia la ciencia y como esta funciona en la sociedad hacia un compromiso de implicación personal con la ciencia y hacia la valoración de la utilidad del conocimiento científico a lo largo de la vida.

Resumo

O termo literacia científica surge em consequência da necessidade da comunidade científica ver validada, por parte da população, a produção científica e tecnológica da época. Literacia científica representa um construto sujeito a diversas represen-tações conceituais ao longo dos anos decorrentes das modificações científicas, tecnológicas, sociais e políticas características da sociedade contemporânea. Neste estudo, procurou-se aferir a evolução do construto literacia científica ao longo da primeira década do século xxi, através da análise qualitativa, com recurso à revisão da literatura. Para a operacionalização desta análise foram definidas diferentes dimensões para a literacia científica. Os resultados obtidos mostram como a litera-cia científica incorpora um constructo de caráter dêitico que molda o conteúdo ao contexto social, político, cultural e científico que prevalece na respectiva sociedade. Conclui-se que toda essa matriz conceitual sugere uma mudança na forma relati-vamente passiva de valorização da ciência e no modo como esta opera na socie-dade em direção ao compromisso com o envolvimento pessoal com a ciência e à valorização da utilidade do conhecimento científico ao longo da vida.

Lectio praecursoria aate-ja oppihistorian väitöskirjaan Tieteen keinoin yhteiskunnallisen oikeudenmukaisuuden puolesta -Edvard Westermarck ja sukupuolta, seksuaalisuutta ja avioliittoa koskevat lainuudistusvaatimukset Oulun yliopistossa 28.5.2016. Tieteitä arvioidaan entistä enemmän niiden tuottaman hyödyn, vaikuttavuuden ja tehokkuuden kautta. Tutkijoiden toivotaan tuottavan innovaatioita, lisäävän kilpailukykyä ja tuottavuutta. Ihmistieteiden hyödyllisyyttä koetaan kuitenkin usein vaikeaksi arvioida näillä mittareilla.

ch, CH); Vittorino Andreoli (Psichiatra e scrittore); Massimo Cacciari (Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano); Elisabetta Belloni (Segretario Generale Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale); Stefano Canestrari (Università di Bologna); Carlo Casonato (Università degli Studi di Trento); Roberto Cingolani (Chief Technology e Innovation Officer, Leonardo); Gherardo Colombo (già Magistrato della Repubblica italiana, Presidente Casa Editrice Garzanti, Milano); Carla Collicelli (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-CNR); Giancarlo Comi (Direttore

Long-term ecological research (LTER), addressing problems that encompass decadal or longer time frames, began as a formal term and program in the United States in 1980. While longterm ecological studies and observation began as early as the 1400s and 1800s in Asia and Europe, respectively, the long-term approach was not formalized until the establishment of the U.S. long-term ecological research programs. These programs permitted ecosystem-level experiments and cross-site comparisons that led to insights into the biosphere's structure and function. The holistic ecosystem approach of this initiative also allowed the incorporation of the human-dimension of ecology and recently has given rise to a new concept of long-term socio-ecological research (LTSER). Today, long-term ecological research programs exist in at least thirty-two countries (i.e., members of the International Long-Term Ecological Research Network, ILTER). However, consolidation of the international network within the long-term socio-ecological research paradigm still requires: (1) inclusion of certain remote regions of the world, such as southwestern South America, that are still poorly represented; (2) modifications of the type of research conducted, such as integrating social and natural sciences with the humanities and ethics; and (3) the incorporation of findings and results into broader social and political processes. In this context, a nascent long-term socio-ecological research network in Chile, which extends over the longest latitudinal range of temperate forest in the Southern Hemisphere, adds a new remote region to international long-term ecological research previously overlooked. In addition, collaboration with the University of North Texas and other international partners helps to further develop an interdisciplinary approach for the integration of the ecological sciences and environmental philosophy together with traditional ecological knowledge, informal and formal education, policy, the humanities, socio-political processes, and biocultural conservation.

Die folgenden Thesen entstanden im Kontext der Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Ur- und Fruhgeschichte e. V. (DGUF): „Schafft sich die Offentlichkeit eine andere Archaologie? Analysen einer Machtverschiebung“ im Mai 2015 in Tubingen. Die Tagung war gepragt von einer sich durch die Vortrage und Diskussionen ziehenden gemeinsamen Stimmung und Uberzeugung: Die Archaologien sind gegenwartig erfasst von einem umfassenden gesellschaftlichen Wandlungsprozess, in dem die Akteure klug handeln sollten, wenn sie weiterhin oder wieder integraler Bestandteil der Gesellschaft sein wollen, ausgestattet mit einer angemessenen finanziellen, personellen und regulativen Basis. Die Tubinger Thesen zur Archaologie richten sich an alle Kolleginnen und Kollegen in archaologischer Forschung und Lehre, in Denkmalpflege und Museen. Die Thesen wollen wichtige Aspekte der von den Tagungsteilnehmern identifizierten Prozesse thematisieren und Denkanstose geben.