Rebecca Boden

Science: A Controversial Commodity

This paper argues that science as an activity in developed countries has in recent years undergone a radical shift from its traditional Mertonian form to a new. commodified variant. The impetus for this change has been the funding decisions of governments. As a result, science has been captured by the private sector and, consequently, public trust in and understanding of science has diminished. These argumenis are explored by setting out the two models and then explaining the process of change by reference to universities as examples. The paper then presents two case studies, one of genetically modified organisms and the other on mobile phone safety, to illustrate the breakdown in public understanding and acceptance of science.

Prometheus Bound: Accounting and the Creation of the New Science Paradigm

The argument presented in this paper is that accounting has been significantly implicated in the changing location of science as a social practice in the United Kingdom during the past two decades. Accounting has facilitated the commodification of scientific knowledge products, making science a closed and private activity rather than an open and codifiable one. This shift has adversely disrupted the preexisting trust in science exhibited by the public. In an ironic twist, it appears that accounting may now offer the prospect of creating a new public governance of science via economic and financial market mechanisms.

Commodified science and social wellbeing

This paper explores the increasing trend towards the commodification of public research and development (R&D) and the impact of this on social wellbeing. In many developed countries, the changes introduced by governments to funding mechanisms for universities and public research institutions has led to a fundamental shift in the focus of public R&D. The focus has shifted from creating useful public, codifiable knowledge to creating a knowledge commodity driven by commercial imperatives. Although there may be an economic argument to be made for the virtues of such change, we argue here that the potential costs to social wellbeing have been largely, and dangerously, ignored.

Democratising the research imagination: globalising knowledge about HIV/AIDS

This paper problematises globalisation and the democratisation of the research imagination, highlighting the potentials for harm and good. We do so, first, by exploring two philosophical/epistemological issues: the definition of ‘knowledge’ and the role of ‘research’ in knowledge creation. The paper then considers some of possible consequences of the democratisation of knowledge by examining the case of HIV/AIDS in sub‐Saharan Africa and using it to test a heuristic device we have developed as a way of distinguishing between ‘really useful’ and ‘potentially harmful’ knowledges.