Aant Elzinga

Science and Decisionmaking

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses science as an activity independent of society. There is certainly one pathway in science that is a pure investigation of natural processes. But, in this age when the very sustainability of the Earth and its critical ecosystems are in question, it is important to communicate the key findings of environmental science and be used by those who make decisions about the future of the Earth. The challenge is how the scientists can effectively impart appropriate and useful information to decision-makers. Science is an integral part of decision making, as scientific results and model predictions are rarely expressed in terms of end points that have direct meaning or inherent value to decision makers. A number of questions arise to facilitate this interchange between science and decision-making. Three examples of how science is used in making decisions about land management, and their use are explained. Based on the common elements of these examples, a set of questions about appropriate ways to transmit science to decision-makers are also included.

The science-society contract in historical transformation : with special reference to epistemic drift

This paper locates the discussion around the finalization thesis in a broader science policy context, linking it to the recent discourse on a changing science-society contract. It is argued that the broadening of the Kuhnian concept of the paradigm, making it amenable to science policy studies, was an important move. Further development of this notion, however, standed on the prongs of critique coming from both the worlds of politics and science. At the same time, advances in the cognitive sociology of science undermined the internalist/externalist distinction. Today, with certain changes in the conditions of research due to the introduction of the concept of “strategic research”, politicians are more apt to accept certain points of the thesis; scientific communities, on the other hand, perceive new threats to their autonomy. This paper tries to make sense of this new situation by translating the question of interplay between internal and external dynamics of research into one involving boundary management and epistemic criteria. The notion of “epistemic drift” is introduced and the internalist/externalist distinction refurbished in neo-institutionalist terms, making use of the concept of interfoliating credibility cycles.

Antarctica: The Construction of a Continent by and for Science

Antarctica has become a topical news item in many countries. TV programs, radio reportage and popular journals portray its harsh beauty, unique wildlife and the growing impact of tourism. The number of scientific specialties in which this cold continent has become an important aspect has increased steadily, especially during the last twenty years. Since 1961 a treaty drafted by 12 nations has been in force, regulating relationships between countries involved in Antarctic affairs. Today there are twenty-six so-called Consultative Parties to the Antarctic Treaty (Table I). These make up the “club” of nations that hold decision-making powers over the continent’s future. An additional 13 countries are acceding members, or affiliates with observer status. Full membership comes only after a country has passed the test of science. According to the treaty the prior requirement for admission to the Antarctic club is the display of substantial research in the region. This has usually meant that a country has to place a research station there. The responsibility for overseeing science belongs to a non-governmental organization, the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR), under the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). SCAR also responds to requests for advice from the treaty members, a function that has taken on increasing proportions during the past decade.

The Politics of Science in Polar Regions

This chapter is meant to provide a backdrop for some of the issues taken up in the chapters that follow. Also, it presents some analytical terms that are useful in science policy analysis, particularly dealing with motivations and the practice of polar research, with special reference to the Antarctic. It introduces a concept of institutional motives, reviews some or the driving factors in modem polar research and considers some similarities and differences between Arctic and Antarctic science, in order to highlight the latter. External political conditions that form the framework within which polar research is done today, differ considerably in the two regions. In the Arctic the exertion of national sovereignty, as well as military and economic interests in a number of countries have hindered the far-reaching international cooperation in science found in the Antarctic.

Through the lens of the polar years: changing characteristics of polar research in historical perspective

The four polar years are used as windows for highlighting changes in the character of polar research over the past 125 years. The approach taken may be seen as one of an archaeology of knowledge. As such it fixes on four separate strata in the history of science and seeks to lay bare distinctive features in each of these. To simplify, the focus is selective, mainly presenting three types of aspect for each year. The first is the character of the instruments and research technologies employed in each, and the second is the kinds of problems tackled, while the third is the associated view or ideal of science that stands out. The latter aspect has to do with epistemology. The paper suggests that whereas work during the first International Polar Year (IPY) reflected an empirical inductivist philosophy of science, during the second IPY a mix of problem oriented, and hypothesis driven, approaches existed alongside inductivism. By the time of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) the theoretical foundations of polar research had grown stronger and much of the focus had shifted to larger scale geophysical processes. Finally, todays ambition to develop an integrated Earth system science reflects an ideal that is systemic, constructivist and predictive. Such epistemological features are evident in some of the most advanced forms of computer aided analysis of Arctic and Antarctic processes, as well as in visualisation methodologies used to interpret and present data, concepts, models and theories. This latest approach is evident in some of the planning and agenda setting documents generated under the auspices of the current IPY.

Changing trends in Antarctic research

Preface. Glossary. Introduction. Part I: Historical and Contemporary Issues. 1. The Politics of Science in Polar Regions A. Elzinga, I. Bohlin. Part II: The Functional Role of Science in the Antarctic Treaty System. 2. The Role of Science in the Negotiations of the Antarctic Treaty - an Historical Review in the Light of Recent Events F. Solie. 3. Development of the Science/Politics Interface in the Antarctic Treaty and the Role of Scientific Advice N. Bonner. 4. Relevance Pressures and the Strategic Orientation of Research A. Karlqvist. Part III: Is Science in Antarctica Facing the Prospects of Increasing Bureaucratization? 5. The Place of Regulation in Relationship to Science O. Orheim. 6. The Place of Science in an Environmentally Regulated Continent J. Barnes. Part IV: Orientational Shifts in Antarctic Research Agendas. 7. Focusing an Antarctic Research Program - the Australian Experience B. Davis. 8. Environmentally Driven Research - is it Different? B. Heywood. 9. Geoscience - Basic Research or Commercial Prospecting? K. Larsson. Part V: Panel Discussion and Plenary 10. Multi-Disciplinary and Multi-Country Perspectives R. Mansukosi, P.-C. Rieber, J.H. Stel, J.-O. Stromberg. Part VI: Four Symposium Papers and a Review of SCAR. 11. The Science/Politics Interface in Development N. Bonner. 12. Science in an Environmentally Regulated Continent J.N. Barnes. 13. The Australian Antarctic Research Program in Focus B. Davis. 14. Environmentally Driven orEnvironmentally Benign Antarctic Research R.B. Heywood. 15. Some Views on Antarctic Research R.R. Colwell. Appendices. Index.

Punta Arenas and Ushuaia: early explorers and the politics of memory in constructing Antarctic gateway cities

The paper draws on narratives by and about some early Antarctic explorers. Three themes are broached. The first concerns early explorers and their expeditions that passed through Punta Arenas and Ushuaia as gateways to Antarctica. The second considers discovery, naming, mapping, navigational charting and other activities reflected in narratives and how these were retrospectively and selectively used by the two host states Chile and Argentina in rival geopolitical imaginaries to be projected into Antarctica. Related is the discursive maintenance of a cultural heritage that in the two cities is nowadays exploited in boosting science and tourism to help refurbish rival gateways into Antarctica. A subsidiary theme touches the past emergence of Punta Arenas and Ushuaia as seats of territorial power and gateway towns shaped by specific historical preconditions in a double-edged process. The expansion and consolidation of power with concomitant local networks of transport, trade and communications in Tierra del Fuego that linked into global networks was one side of a process the other side of which included annihilation of an aboriginal people. This latter is an aspect that worried some of the early explorers but remains rather invisible in today’s celebratory commemorations of past events in our own age of globalization when modern entrepreneurs promote the contemporary gateway function. One, thus, finds a selective gaze at work when memories of past events, narratives of polar exploration and traces in material cultures are mobilized both in the production of geopolitical imaginaries and in promotion of eco- and polar heritage tourism.

The Achievements of the IGY

The IGY was a vast undertaking that took place from 1 July to the end of December 1958. It was orchestrated by the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), an independent federation of international scientific unions. Co-sponsor was the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) established in 1951 as an intergovernmental organization within the United Nations framework.1 A Special Committee (Comite de l’Annee Geophysique, CSAGI) was formed to act as the governing body for all IGY activities. Care was taken to ensure that CSAGI would remain non-nationalistic, apolitical, and geared towards a scientific agenda. The emphasis was on synchronic global measurements. Nevertheless, planning was in its fourth year before the USSR joined, reflecting the east–west disparity originating in the United States’ policy of containment according to which the original intention in the West had been to keep the Soviets out of Antarctica. As it turned out the Cold War became a veritable incubator for science, causing an upswing for several branches of geoscience on both sides of the iron curtain between east and west.

The Interplay of Research and Politics: The Case of Antarctica

Antarctica as a natural resource and object of research within the context of global sustainable development is dealt within this chapter. Owing to the unique nature of the Antarctic Treaty System comprising more than twenty countries, it has been possible to translate the pressure of environmental concerns into measures to protect an entire continent for future generations. The background and various political forces that have made this possible are taken up here, indicating the alternative options that existed at various points in time. The special role of science, both as a vehicle for international politics and as an instrument for environmental monitoring, is analysed, and some problems are pointed to within this context, one being the need to maintain the integrity of research in the face of varying external pressures and demands.

The Other Side of the Coin: The Cultural Critique of Technology in India and Japan

At each phase in its historical development, technology has been both the product as well as the antagonist of human culture. On one level, technology is culture; it is created by people living within a culture who are, consciously or not, subject to a particular set of cultural patterns even while they produce material artifacts. We have seen, in the preceding chapters, some of the ways in which technology is led into different paths and comes to take on different forms depending on the cultural environment in which it develops. For all their similarities, machine-tools, electronic components and computer programmes, even technical information systems are, in certain non-trivial ways, clearly distinguishable from one cultural region to another. They bear the imprint of their culture, and, in that sense, they are cultural products.