Transcript Microsoft PowerPoint - NCRM EPrints Repository

Philip Lowe
Why social scientists should
engage with natural scientists
How do policymakers see social science?
• Social scientists seen as lower
status than natural scientists
• 800 government social
researchers
• But none in FCO, DfID
• Social science enjoyed higher
esteem in Victorian Britain
• Early social scientists were
government advisers
How do policymakers see social science?
• Social scientists seen as lower
status than natural scientists
• 800 government social
researchers
• But none in FCO, DfID
• Social science enjoyed higher
esteem in Victorian Britain
• Early social scientists were
government advisers
Social
science will
give us the
answers
we need to
secure
order and
prosperity
What can social science contribute today?
Sex all in the mind for
women
by JAMES TOZER, Daily Mail
Kathy Lette: 'Women have
known of emotional libido
for decades'
For half of us at least, it may seem blindingly obvious.
But after years of research scientists have concluded once and for all
that, for women, sex is all in the mind.
What can social science contribute today?
• Social science research
technologies enact the social
(Law and Urry 2004)
• To critically engage, social
scientists need to enact the
socio-technical
• Economists provide a model
• Talk of “globalisation” is
performative
Is the climate changing for social science?
• Social scientists are currently end
of pipe to the natural sciences
• Science  technology 
(mediated by social science) 
application
• Technological pessimism and
disengagement
• We need to re-embrace
technology and technological
optimism
• Climate change offers new
opportunities
Managerialism or profligacy?
• Dominant discourse is one of
managerialism
• Institutional failure and
population growth
• Neo-Malthusian approach
Creating a new end of pipe role for
social science?
“We climate change
scientists define the
parameters of
sustainable
existence, you
social scientists now
go out and
persuade people to
mend their ways”
Or a new hierarchy of the sciences?
• Original ‘hierarchy of the sciences’:
pure at the top, applied at the
bottom
• Now environmental scientists are
gaining importance
• Geoengineers are no longer wacky
• Government funding new avenues
of research
Social shaping of technology
• New climate change legislation pushing technological
development
• Social sciences must overcome technophobia and be
technologically optimistic
• Social shaping of technology assumes that there are
‘choices’ in the development of technology
New opportunities for social sciences?
• Government funding for climate change research
• Interdisciplinary programmes like Relu
• 40 disciplines working together across natural and social sciences
Why do social scientists need to be involved in shaping technology?