Academic Citizenship: What is a rightful place for society in science?
Talk by Ulrike Felt at the Joint Research Centre (9th March 2017)
Over the past two decades we have been witnessing in the European context a growing concern about how societal actors might perceive research and innovation and the degree to which they support both. This has come hand in hand with a rising call for researchers themselves to become more responsive (and thus responsible) towards society and engage in a more direct manner with citizens, their concerns, values and knowledges — i.e. we could describe this as a call for researchers to develop a stronger sense of “academic citizenship.” At the same time, we also observe major restructuring in the research system itself which is often captured through labels such as new public management or academic capitalism. This talk wants to address the uneasy relation between these two expectations towards contemporary research(ers) and explore the potential tensions that emerge. Playing with former US president Obama’s call to “restore science to its rightful place” (2008), I will ask how in recent policy debates on science-technology-society issues, the rightful place of society in science is conceptualized and how engaging with society in science can be practiced under contemporary conditions of research.
About the Speaker:
Ulrike Felt is Professor of Science and Technology Studies (STS), Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Head of the interfaculty research platform “Responsible research and innovation in academic practice” and founding director of the international STS Master at the University of Vienna. Her research focuses on governance, democracy and public participation, on shifting research cultures as well as on the role of time and future at the interface of research and society. Her areas of study cover life science and (bio)medicine, nanotechnology and material sciences, new technologies and sustainability research. From 2002–2007 she was editor-in-chief of Science, Technology, & Human Values (SAGE). She was leading the editorial team of the most recent Handbook of Science and Technology Studies (MIT Press 2017). Since 2017 she is president of European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST).
Contro Corrente is a series of seminars with renowned scholars and practitioners of science and technology studies, aiming at raising awareness of science and technology studies and how these types of reflexive activities can help with scientific practice at the Joint Research Centre.
