Suchergebnisse

In der Gesellschaftstheorie nach Marx kommt der Technik nur noch eine triviale Funktion zu (Technik ist entweder eine an sich unproblematische Resultante oder umgekehrt, eine selbst nicht weiter problematisierte Determinante sozialer Prozesse). In den großen soziologischen Theorien etwa von Pareto, Durkheim oder M. Weber spielt die Technik keine (oder nur sehr indirekt eine) Rolle. Einzelne Stränge aus der Marx'schen Analyse werden einerseits von den ideologiekritischen Untersuchungen der Technologie und andererseits in arbeits- und industriesoziologischen Arbeiten aufgenommen. Die Technokratietheorien (etwa bei Schelsky) sind zirkulär konstruiert: die Technik als eine sich selbst erzeugende Rationalität ist gleichbedeutend mit ihrer Setzung als autonomer Prozeß. Die Ursachen für den Verlust der Perspektive, die ursprünglich die Technik als 'Bewegungsmoment' der gesellschaftlichen Entwicklung sah, erkennt der Verf. in der Entwicklung der Soziologie zur Handlungswissenschaft; einen weiteren Grund sieht er in der Tatsache, daß man das technisch- naturwissenschaftliche Wissenssystem nicht mehr aus der Sicht der Wissenssoziologie betrachtet, sondern dieses für rational und autonom hält. Ein adäquates Verständnis der Technik ist jedoch - und das ist die zentrale These - nur möglich, wenn man die Technik als soziales Phänomen begreift. Eine allgemeine Theorie der Technikentwicklung muß eine sozialwissenschaftliche Theorie sein, welche die Technik als spezifisches System der Wissensproduktion untersucht. Nur so ist eine sinnvolle Technikforschung möglich; analog zur Wissenschaftsforschung und in enger Verbindung mit dieser müssen Wissenschaft und Technik als Wissenssysteme in einem sozialen Kontext erfaßt werden. (JL)

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254201.].

'Public engagement with science' has become a 'buzzword' reflecting a concern about the widening gap between science and society and efforts to bridge this gap. This study is a comprehensive analysis of the development of the 'engagement' rhetoric in the pertinent academic literature on science communication and in science policy documents. By way of a content analysis of articles published in three leading science communication journals and a selection of science policy documents from the United Kingdom (UK), the United States of America (USA), the European Union (EU), and South Africa (SA), the variety of motives underlying this rhetoric, as well as the impact it has on science policies, are analyzed. The analysis of the science communication journals reveals an increasingly vague and inclusive definition of 'engagement' as well as of the 'public' being addressed, and a diverse range of motives driving the rhetoric. Similar observations can be made about the science policy documents. This study corroborates an earlier diagnosis that rhetoric is running ahead of practice and suggests that communication and engagement with clearly defined stakeholder groups about specific problems and the pertinent scientific knowledge will be a more successful manner of 'engagement'.

Cover -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Contents -- List of Tables -- List of Figures -- List of Abbreviations -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction. PERPETUATING DEPENDENCE: EXPERT ADVICE AS TOOL OF FOREIGN AID -- Aim and structure of the book -- Normative assumptions and issues of terminology -- Chapter 1 - KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER TO YOUNG DEMOCRACIES: ISSUES OF LEGITIMACY, SOVEREIGNTY AND EFFICACY -- The role of knowledge in democracy -- The role of knowledge in development aid -- Differentiating 'knowledges' -- Risks of aid-related expert advice for young democracies -- Legitimacy -- Financial strength -- Administrative capacity -- Local knowledge base -- 'Capacity-building' and foreign experts -- The political intricacies of 'knowledge transfer' -- Chapter 2 - ACCESSING THE WORLD OF DEVELOPMENT AID: STUDY DESIGN AND FIELDWORK -- Tools of data generation: Expert interviews, questionnaires and document analysis -- The sample: Development experts, government officials, academics and activists -- A note on interview locations -- Steps of analysis: Coding, interpretation and data consolidation -- Chapter 3 - SOUTH AFRICA AND TANZANIA: TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF 'DONOR DARLINGS' -- The significance of aid for South Africa and Tanzania -- Evolving aid relations in Tanzania -- Evolving aid relations in South Africa -- Concluding remarks -- Chapter 4 - MULTIPLE ACTORS, COLLIDING INTERESTS: THE MAIN PLAYERS OF THE AID GAME -- Recipient governments and bureaucracies -- The epistemic community of development experts -- Chapter 5 - INTRICACIES OF EXPERT ADVICE IN THE AID CONTEXT -- The linkage between aid and politics -- Structural flaws pertaining to expert employment -- Unequal relationships -- Chapter 6 - RETAINING AUTONOMY OF AGENDA-SETTING IN DEALING WITH ADVICE: STRUCTURAL CONDITIONS -- Financial strength -- Administrative capacity -- Local knowledge base.

With the rise of the 'knowledge for development' paradigm, expert advice has become a prime instrument of foreign aid. At the same time, it has been object of repeated criticism: the chronic failure of 'technical assistance' – a notion under which advice is commonly subsumed – has been documented in a host of studies. Nonetheless, international organisations continue to send advisors, promising to increase the 'effectiveness' of expert support if their technocratic recommendations are taken up.

This book reveals fundamental problems of expert advice in the context of aid that concern issues of power and legitimacy rather than merely flaws of implementation. Based on empirical evidence from South Africa and Tanzania, the authors show that aid-related advisory processes are inevitably obstructed by colliding interests, political pressures and hierarchical relations that impede knowledge transfer and mutual learning. As a result, recipient governments find themselves caught in a perpetual cycle of dependency, continuously advised by experts who convey the shifting paradigms and agendas of their respective donor governments.

For young democracies, the persistent presence of external actors is hazardous: ultimately, it poses a threat to the legitimacy of their governments if their policy-making becomes more responsive to foreign demands than to the preferences and needs of their citizens.