HPSC1004 Introduction to Science Policy

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HPSC1004Introduction to Science Policy

• Week 7 Slot 1
• Sociology of Science

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Visit to Parliament on Wednesday 20th February
2008

• House of Commons Innovation, Universities and
  Skills (IUS) Committee take evidence on the
  Science Budget.
• It takes place at 9.30am in Committee Room 8
• Go to the St Stephens Gate for 8.30 where
  there's a bag check security system.
• OR www.parliamentlive.tv

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The Sociology of Science

• Introduction the character of the scientific
  community
• Merton and functionalism
• Norms and values
• The reward system in science
• The role of norms as functional for science
• Criticisms of Mertons accounts

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Functionalist Approach

• Assumes an organic model of society
• Sees society as one large organism which has
  parts (institutions)
• All the parts co-exist and support each other
• Explanations couched in terms of how an
  institution functions to maintain society

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Context of Mertons writing

• Merton was writing in the late 1930s
  Government and industrial intervention in science
  was minimal
• After the depression things began to change
• a) Nazi Germany claimed the political right to
  decide scientific questions
• b) USSR Stalin and Lysenko (vs.genetics)
• c) Bernal during the depression, capitalism
  could not mobilize science and technology to
  solve social problems

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Robert Merton

• Science has a functional role in society
  scientists have intellectual authority which can
  only be preserved if science is autonomous in
  society
• Socialization during training
• Learn facts and the scientific method
• Learn social rules of conduct (norms and values)
  structures of control/discipline peculiar to
  science which maintain conformity and punish
  deviance
• This accounts for the intellectual superiority
  of science AND justifies its social autonomy
• i.e. it is normative as well as descriptive

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Mertons normsThe Ethos of Science

• Communality/communism no secrets
• Universalism truth claims judged independently
  of background of scientist
• Disinterestedness detached interest in subject
• Organised scepticism nothing to be taken for
  granted

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Scientific institutional structure

• (See Barnes, About Science, 1985, chapter 2)
• Impersonal language
• Citations
• Peer review for grants
• Peer review for publications
• Reward system (symbolic vs. economic)

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Mertonian functionalism

• Scientists are socialized
• Learn scientific method and internalize a set of
  norms/values
• Norms ensure that science produces objective
  knowledge ensure conformity and punish deviance
• Scientific institutions (peer review) are the
  mechanisms by which the norms are put into
  practice
• Normative structure guarantees scientific
  validity but also professional autonomy

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Sociology of ScienceCriticisms of Mertonian
accounts of science

• Proliferation of norms and values
• Counter-norms
• Norms and ideology (Mulkay)

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Counter-norms

• (Mitroff, The Subjective Side of Science, 1974)
• Mitroff interviewed moon scientists and came up
  with a counter-norm for every norm
• Emotional commitment, particularism,
  solitariness, interestedness, organised dogmatism

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Quotations from Mitroff (1974)

• X is so committed to the idea that the moon is
  Q rgar you could literally take the moon apart
  piece by piece and ship it to Earth, reassemble
  it in Xs backyard and X would still continue to
  believe that the moon is Q He refuses to listen
  to reason or evidence. I no longer regard him as
  a scientist

• Commitment, even extreme commitment such as
  bias, has a role to play in science, and it can
  serve science well I wouldnt like scientists to
  be without bias since a lot of the sides of the
  argument would never be presented

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Do Norms (and Counter-norms) Govern Science?

• (Mulkay, Norms and ideology in science, 1976)
• Norms and values are not empirical descriptions
  of scientific practice
• Norms and values are used by scientists to
  describe and justify their actions (or the
  actions of peers)
• BUT
• In order to be part of the institutional
  structure of science they must be linked to the
  distribution of reward in science

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Do Norms (and Counter-norms) Govern Science?

• (Mulkay, Norms and ideology in science, 1976)
• Mulkay argues that papers are not judged on the
  basis of adherence to norms. They are judged on
  instrumental grounds information which their
  colleagues deem useful in the pursuit of their
  own studies
• Laws, theories, schools of thought (paradigms)
  act as norms which influence reception of
  knowledge-claims distribution of reward

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What role to norms play?

• (Mulkay, Norms and ideology in science, 1976)
• Norms act as a resource to be drawn upon a
  vocabulary or moral rhetoric
• The vocabulary can be used to justify scientists
  own behaviour (because it adheres to the norms)
• And to characterize other behaviour as improper
  (because it violates the norms)

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Discovery of Pulsars
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Norms as an Evaluative Repertoire Discovery of
Pulsars

• (Edge and Mulkay, Astronomy Transformed, 1976)
• The Cambridge group were accused by their
  competitors of being unduly secretive
• Delaying publication of results
• Publishing insufficient data
• Cambridge group should have passed on their
  results
• They denied themselves the opportunity to obtain
  advice from others
• Cambridge groups actions had impeded the advance
  of science

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Norms as an Evaluative Repertoire Discovery of
Pulsars

• (Edge and Mulkay, Astronomy Transformed, 1976)
• The Cambridge group justified their actions
• Passing on information could lead to other groups
  anticipating their results
• Time needed to check results
• Legitimate to ensure that important results gave
  benefit (and prestige) to the discoverers
• Right to protect the results of one of their own
  young researchers and for the group to have first
  attempt at interpreting the results
• Prevent any misrepresentation of findings by the
  media
• Claimed that, in any case, there had not really
  been any undue delay in publication

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Professional ideology

• Norms and values form part of the professional
  ideology of science the broadcast image
• Promote the interests of science amongst
  outsiders
• Promote a sense of cohesion amongst its
  practitioners

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Professional ideology and non-scientists

• Mulkay claims that
• Scientists use the vocabulary of norms when
  portraying and justifying their actions to lay
  audiences
• Vocabulary provides and incomplete and therefore
  misleading account of science
• Vocabulary is used to support scientists
  interests (gaining financial support, retaining
  autonomy etc)

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Second Essay 12th March 2008

• Choose a UK body that funds science. Describe
  and discuss three science policy decisions taken
  by your chosen organisation that reflect changing
  concerns.