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"Scientists Political activity."
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Science in Environmental Policy
An analysis of the role and influence of scientists at the agenda-setting, legislative, and implementation stages of environmental policy making.
Scientists often bring issues to the policy agenda, translating scientific questions into everyday language and political terms. When Roger Revelle characterized Earth as a spaceship in testimony to Congress in 1957, his evocative language framed the issue of our planet's climate vulnerability in a way that technical discourse could not. In this book, Ann Campbell Keller examines the influence of scientists on environmental policymaking and makes the novel argument that scientists' adherence to the role of neutral advisor varies over the course of the policymaking process. Keller divides the policy process into three stages—agenda setting, legislation, and implementation—and compares scientists' influence on acid rain and climate change policy at these different stages over the course of several decades. She finds that scientists face more pressure to uphold the ideal of objectivity as policy-making processes advance and become more formalized, and thus are more likely to engage in advocacy and persuasion in the earlier, less formal, agenda-setting stage of the process. In the later, more structured legislative and implementation phases, scientists—working hard to give the appearance of neutral expertise—cede the role of persuader to others.
Keller draws on theoretical work in political science and science studies and on empirical evidence from scientific reports, news coverage, congressional hearings, and interviews. Focusing on comparable cases and considering scientists' participation in them over time, she offers unique insights into how the context of decision making affects scientists' policy influence and emphasizes the multiple pathways by which scientific meaning is constructed in public settings.
eBook
Arguments that Count
In a rapidly changing world, we rely upon experts to assess the promise and risks of new technology. But how do these experts make sense of a highly uncertain future? In Arguments that Count , Rebecca Slayton offers an important new perspective. Drawing on new historical documents and interviews as well as perspectives in science and technology studies, she provides an original account of how scientists came to terms with the unprecedented threat of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). She compares how two different professional communities -- physicists and computer scientists -- constructed arguments about the risks of missile defense, and how these arguments changed over time. Slayton shows that our understanding of technological risks is shaped by disciplinary repertoires -- the codified knowledge and mathematical rules that experts use to frame new challenges. And, significantly, a new repertoire can bring long-neglected risks into clear view. In the 1950s, scientists recognized that high-speed computers would be needed to cope with the unprecedented speed of ICBMs. But the nation's elite science advisors had no way to analyze the risks of computers so used physics to assess what they could: radar and missile performance. Only decades later, after establishing computing as a science, were advisors able to analyze authoritatively the risks associated with complex software -- most notably, the risk of a catastrophic failure. As we continue to confront new threats, including that of cyber attack, Slayton offers valuable insight into how different kinds of expertise can limit or expand our capacity to address novel technological risks.
eBook
Scientists rise up against statistical significance
Valentin Amrhein, Sander Greenland, Blake McShane and more than 800 signatories call for an end to hyped claims and the dismissal of possibly crucial effects.
Valentin Amrhein, Sander Greenland, Blake McShane and more than 800 signatories call for an end to hyped claims and the dismissal of possibly crucial effects.
Journal Article
Social scientists’ testimony before Congress in the United States between 1946-2016, trends from a new dataset
Congressional hearings are a venue in which social scientists present their views and analyses before lawmakers in the United States, however quantitative data on their representation has been lacking. We present new, publicly available, data on the rates at which anthropologists, economists, political scientists, psychologists, and sociologists appeared before United States congressional hearings from 1946 through 2016. We show that social scientists were present at some 10,347 hearings and testified 15,506 times. Economists testify before the US Congress far more often than other social scientists, and constitute a larger proportion of the social scientists testifying in industry and government positions. We find that social scientists' testimony is increasingly on behalf of think tanks; political scientists, in particular, have gained much more representation through think tanks. Sociology, and psychology's representation before Congress has declined considerably beginning in the 1980s. Anthropologists were the least represented. These findings show that academics are representing a more diverse set of organizations, but economists continue to be far more represented than other disciplines before the US Congress.
Journal Article
Current challenges in physical activity policy evaluation: a qualitative case study
Abstract
Political scientists have advocated for a sceptical turn in policy evaluation to reflect on key problems such as the limited attention of decision makers and the insufficient use of evaluation results in the policy process (Dahler-Larsen, 2018). These reflections are relevant to public health, as scientists and international organisations have developed numerous policy evaluation tools. This study examines the use of physical activity policy evaluation tools and their potential impact on the policy process. A desk-based mapping of established international physical activity policy evaluation tools was conducted, followed by semi-structured expert interviews with international experts and government officials. While some of the interviews had a global perspective on international tools, others focused on Ireland and Germany as case studies. Preliminary results indicate a highly fragmented policy evaluation landscape: Various international tools have been developed by the World Health Organisation, the European Union and scientific networks. While some of these tools are associated with success stories of potential real-world impact, government officials in Ireland and Germany generally reported limited use. In both countries, national policy evaluation tools have been developed based on the needs of relevant political sectors. This study highlights current challenges in physical activity policy evaluation, including a potential mismatch between what established international tools offer and what policymakers use in a national context. Further research could develop strategies to better align international and national policy evaluation efforts and explore the transferability of these findings to other areas of public health. Interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial to improving the impact of policy evaluation, as ‘evidence-based policymaking is not like evidence-based medicine’ (Cairney & Oliver, 2017).
Journal Article
Diverse economies: performative practices for `other worlds
How might academic practices contribute to the exciting proliferation of economic experiments occurring worldwide in the current moment? In this paper we describe the work of a nascent research community of economic geographers and other scholars who are making the choice to bring marginalized, hidden and alternative economic activities to light in order to make them more real and more credible as objects of policy and activism. The diverse economies research program is, we argue, a performative ontological project that builds upon and draws forth a different kind of academic practice and subjectivity. Using contemporary examples, we illustrate the thinking practices of ontological reframing, re-reading for difference and cultivating creativity and we sketch out some of the productive lines of inquiry that emerge from an experimental, performative and ethical orientation to the world. The paper is accompanied by an electronic bibliography of diverse economies research with over 200 entries.
Journal Article