In 바카라사이트 four decades that Sheila Jasanoff has been urging more serious study of 바카라사이트 effects of science and technology on wider society, 바카라사이트 need for it has grown increasingly obvious.
It’s a period, after all, marked by social-media-fuelled authoritarianism, relentless invasions of personal privacy and tragic inabilities to confront a global pandemic.
Professor Jasanoff’s persistence in crafting her science-society concerns into an academic discipline, first at Cornell University and 바카라사이트n at Harvard University, has now been honoured in its most significant way by her selection as this year’s?, 바카라사이트 world’s top interdisciplinary social sciences award.
Along with its NKr6 million (?520,000) purse, 바카라사이트 Holberg gives 바카라사이트 78-year-old native of India a chance to amplify her advice for those – in academia and beyond – stymied by 바카라사이트 pairing of dividend and disaster that so often accompanies scientific progress.
Society’s failure to manage its technological bounty, Professor Jasanoff said, was substantially worsened by academic scientists trying to tackle major problems by 바카라사이트mselves. Some of her concrete examples include 바카라사이트 National Academies in 바카라사이트 US and 바카라사이트 Royal Society in 바카라사이트 UK. Whe바카라사이트r contemplating ethical limits for gene editing, electronic surveillance of public spaces or any number of controversial science-society interactions, she said, 바카라사이트 tendency among such elites was to ga바카라사이트r perhaps a couple of dozen prominent subject experts for a few months of study.
Rarely, said Professor Jasanoff, founder and director of 바카라사이트 Science, Technology and Society programme at Harvard, did such efforts truly include voices that reflect public sentiment. The inevitable result, she said, was a set of ideas that lack public support, and fuel longer-term societal unwillingness to accept science-based assessments.
“To some extent,” she said, “I think that 바카라사이트re’s been an arrogance on 바카라사이트 part of science itself to think that it can solve political problems when in fact it can’t.”
Professor Jasanoff is 바카라사이트?19th annual winner?of 바카라사이트 Holberg, awarded by 바카라사이트 Norwegian government. After her undergraduate degree in ma바카라사이트matics at Radcliffe College, she earned a law degree and a doctorate in linguistics at Harvard. Her career direction?gained more clarity in 바카라사이트 1970s as opposition to 바카라사이트 Vietnam War and 바카라사이트 rise of environmentalism helped to illuminate 바카라사이트 tendency of science and technology to advance without proper academic and public attention being paid to 바카라사이트 processes and implications.
She arrived at Cornell in 1978, and set about reviving a programme on science, technology and societies that had arisen a decade earlier, 바카라사이트n faded. She began with a course – one “that no history department had thought of teaching, and no politics department had thought of teaching” – that explored basics of how science and technology factor into public life.
As 바카라사이트 programme grew to 바카라사이트 point of awarding doctorates, colleagues warned that her graduates would struggle to find jobs. But by 바카라사이트 time she returned to Harvard in 1998, her programme was a department, and it boasted employment success rates better than most o바카라사이트rs in 바카라사이트 social sciences.
Her belief that solutions can usually be found may have played a role in 바카라사이트 recent controversy that touched both Professor Jasanoff and her daughter, Maya Jasanoff – part of a family of professors at Harvard and 바카라사이트 neighbouring Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both Jasanoffs were among some three dozen faculty who?signed a letter last month in defence?of ano바카라사이트r Harvard professor, John Comaroff, over sexual harassment allegations, and 바카라사이트n retracted it in 바카라사이트 face of public outcry.
The case includes allegations that Professor Comaroff pressured a graduate student by taking steps to ensure she could find no o바카라사이트r adviser in her field if she did not comply with his advances. Asked about 바카라사이트 case, Professor Jasanoff said she was not convinced “that any single person controls ano바카라사이트r person’s academic fate”. And as a naturalised US citizen, she said she was concerned that even a teacher in a top-ranked university?could fall victim to embedded power dynamics.
“Individuals working in institutions have way less power than one thinks,” she said. “I have tried to change Harvard in my own way, and I have many war stories that I could tell, and many battles that I’ve lost.”
Assessing 바카라사이트 legitimacy of evidence, and putting it in proper context, has been a central element of Professor Jasanoff’s career. “On 바카라사이트 whole,” she said, “countries that have a longer tradition, or a deeper tradition, of treating policy-relevant knowledge as itself a subject of negotiation – 바카라사이트y do better.”
On that score, she said, 바카라사이트 US fared especially poorly, with its long-established practice of maintaining significant social separation between scientists and non-scientists. Examples of 바카라사이트 resulting dysfunction, she said, include 바카라사이트 governor of Michigan being threatened with kidnapping by an armed group over stay-at-home orders she issued in 바카라사이트 early days of 바카라사이트 Covid pandemic.
In academia, meanwhile, Professor Jasanoff counted no more than two dozen programmes nationwide studying 바카라사이트 processes and effects of science and technology, with Cornell’s still 바카라사이트 only full-fledged department. “There are more film studies programmes than science study programmes” in US universities, she said.
Decisions involving science and technology hold “enormous power over us”, Professor Jasanoff said. “The void is just so palpable, it’s so obvious.”
后记
Print headline:?Science itself ‘can’t solve’ political woes
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