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Long description: Interdisciplinarity is an inflationary concept in the discourses of higher education and science policy. Yet, some recent structural reforms in European and US universities reflect fundamental changes in the organization of knowledge production and teaching. This publication takes a fresh look at the meaning given to the concept of interdisciplinarity with these reforms. It presents examples of different forms of interdisciplinary research and teaching. These case studies are put in the broader context of reflections on developments in the organization of universities and their implications for knowledge production.

This book opens up a new route to the study of knowledge dynamics and the sociology of knowledge. The focus is on the role of metaphors as powerful catalysts, and the book dissects their role in the construction of theories of knowledge. It is of vital interest to social and cognitive scientists alike

What is a popular image of science and where does it come from? Little is known about the formation of science images and their transformation into popular images of science. In this anthology, contributions from two areas of expertise: image theory and history and the sociology of the sciences, explore techniques of constructing science images and transforming them into highly ambivalent images that represent the sciences. The essays, most of them with illustrations, present evidence that popular images of the sciences are based upon abstract theories rather than facts, and, equally, images o

"Controversies over issues such as genetically engineered food, foot-and-mouth disease and the failure of risk models in the global financial crisis have raised concerns about the quality of expert scientific advice. The legitimacy of experts, and of the political decision-makers and policy-makers whom they advise, essentially depends on the quality of the advice. But what does quality mean in this context, and how can it be achieved? This volume argues that the quality of scientific advice can be ensured by an appropriate institutional design of advisory organisations. Using examples from a wide range of international case studies, including think tanks, governmental research institutes, agencies and academies, the authors provide a systematic guide to the major problems and pitfalls encountered in scientific advice and the means by which organisations around the world have solved these problems"--

Are there connections between the structures of political systems and types of scientific advice to policymak - ing? This volume unites case studies from the Netherlands, France, the European Union and the USA that provide an overview of different institutional arrangements, focusing on issues such as the independence and balance of advice. Common to all is the question which forms of advice can increase the rationality of policymaking without loss of political legitimacy. From the Contents: Mark B. Brown: Federal Advisory Committees in the United States Paul den Hoed and Anne-Greet Keizer: The Scientific Council for Government Policy David Demortain: Designing Regulatory Tools for Pharmaceutical and Food Safety in the European Union Laurent Geffroy, Odile Piriou and Bénédicte Zimmermann: Scientific Expertise in Policy-Making: The Case of Work Policy in France Willem Halffman: The Dutch ´´Planning Bureaus´´

Populäre Bilder von Wissenschaft werden von Druck- und elektronischen Medien verbreitet. Sie gehören zum Alltagswissen. Wo kommen sie her und wie werden sie gemacht? Gibt es Beziehungen zwischen den Bildern, die in den Wissenschaften produziert werden, und dem Bild, das sich die Öffentlichkeit von Wissenschaft macht? Wenn ja, wie lassen sich diese Beziehungen beschreiben? Der Band untersucht den Zusammenhang zwischen Bildern in der Wissenschaft und von der Wissenschaft vom 19. Jahrhundert bis in die Gegenwart: Bilder vom Frosch im Laborexperiment bis zu den Phantasiewelten der Nanotechnologie, denen im Spielfilm und anderen populären Medien die Bilder des 'mad scientist' wie Frankenstein und Dr. Caligari, aber auch des Fortschritts im Hochtechnologielabor gegenüberstehen. Die Beiträge bieten vielfältige Perspektiven auf das Problem, wie Bilder als Medium die 'Innenwelt' der Wissenschaft mit der 'Außenwelt' eines Laienpublikums verbinden.

"'Scientific advice to politics', the 'nature of expertise', and the 'relation between experts, policy makers, and the public' are variations of a topic that currently attracts the attention of social scientists, philosophers of science as well as practitioners in the public sphere and the media. This renewed interest in a persistent theme is initiated by the call for a democratization of expertise that has become the order of the day in the legitimation of research funding. The new significance of 'participation' and 'accountability' has motivated scholars to take a new look at the science - politics interface and to probe questions such as ""What is new in the arrangement of scientific expertise and political decision-making?"", ""How can reliable knowledge be made useful for politics and society at large, and how can epistemically and ethically sound decisions be achieved without losing democratic legitimacy?"", ""How can the objective of democratization of expertise be achieved without compromising the quality and reliability of knowledge?"" Scientific knowledge and the 'experts' that represent it no longer command the unquestioned authority and public trust that was once bestowed upon them, and yet, policy makers are more dependent on them than ever before. This collection of essays explores the relations between science and politics with the instruments of the social studies of science, thereby providing new insights into their re-alignment under a new régime of governance."

In den letzten Jahren wurde vieles unternommen, um den Dialog zwischen Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft voranzutreiben. Dieses Buch versteht sich als Orientierungshilfe durch die umfangreiche Initiativenlandschaft. Es gibt einen Überblick über die wichtigsten Konzepte und Programme zur Wissenschaftsvermittlung und fragt nach den Initiatoren, ihren Zielen und nicht zuletzt nach der öffentlichen Resonanz

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. ; Published by African Minds. www.africanminds.org.za