The R & D System
The R & D System
The R & D System
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5.2 Apparatus 69
expert and as a citizen, through the formal institutions that shape the
scientific community and sustain it within the body politic, and through
the influence of scientific knowledge on human affairs and culture.
These relationships are not, of course, independent of one another.
As in the elementary model of academic science, it is the interaction
between the various components, across the dimensions in which they
are defined, that drives the system along. But if we are to make any
sense of such complex phenomena as technological innovation, or offer
any opinion on such subtle issues as the social responsibility of the
scientist, we must first disentangle these various threads of influence.
STS teachers have widely different views on the exact interpretation of
such phenomena and the proper response to such issues, but they are all
in tacit agreement that 'Science', Technology', and 'Society' are related
in many different ways, all of which may turn out to be significant.
In this chapter, therefore, the elementary model of basic science is
enlarged and extended by linking its various elements to the society in
which it is embedded. This reconstruction is still very schematic, and not
to be taken literally. A number of highly controversial questions within
the field of STS studies must be disregarded in the effort to arrive at a
coherent description. Some of these questions will be discussed in
chapter 6, but they will not be answered: it is not the purpose of this
book to lay down a curriculum, complete with model answers, for STS
education. But working our way round the extended model, drawing
attention to the major connections and interactions, referring to the
issues over which there is wide concern, we shall see that there is a
framework within which almost all such issues find a place. This
framework is no more than a very rough scheme. Different teachers and
scholars would put very different weights of emphasis upon its various
elements. But it is a representation of the place of science in society that
should be acceptable in outline both to conventional science teachers
and to the STS education movement.
5.2 Apparatus
The model of academic science outlined in chapter 4 obviously lacks one
very important element: it entirely ignores the immense amount of
apparatus that is needed to do research. In the past, the material
facilities for experimental work were usually within the means of the
individual scientist, or of the academic institution where he or she held a
post. It was reasonable to regard them merely as personal instruments
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70 The R & D system
for the practice of this vocation. Nowadays, these facilities are always
so expensive, and often so vast in scale that they constitute a separate
factor in the research system. In addition to the psychological, socio-
logical and philosophical dimensions of our model, we must appreciate
that it has a significant magnitude in a purely material dimension.
This is as true of fundamental, academic research as of its techno-
logical applications. Particle accelerators, research reactors, space
probes, radio telescopes, oceanographic research vessels, and such like
instruments of Big Science cost millions of pounds at a time. They
must be served by large numbers of technical staff, and are often used
by many scientists simultaneously Expensive instrumentation is not
confined to particular fields of research: for example, in almost all
branches of modern biology, equipment costing tens of thousands of
pounds is in routine use. The contemporary image of the scientist is
projected against the background of a large laboratory building,
crowded with apparatus and well supplied with computers, workshops,
libraries and secretarial services.
The simple and obvious fact that modern science is no longer
entirely labour intensive, but requires a substantial technical infra-
structure and heavy capital investment, is of the highest significance for
our theme. On the one hand, it has a profound effect on the internal
functioning of the science system. Thus, for example, the research
programme of the individual scientist (§4.6) may be determined less by
the urgency of a problem requiring solution than by existence of a
piece of apparatus to which he or she has access. The competition for
recognition within a particular field of research may be significantly
perturbed by the availability of the necessary facilities. Because of the
size and complexity of these facilities a number of independent
research workers may be forced to co-operate in a research team,
which thus, so to speak, takes the place of the individual scientist' of
the schematic model (§4.3). In such a case, however, it is difficult to
ensure that the recognition and other rewards for successful research
are not unfairly allotted to the leader of the team, thus further
enhancing the stratification of status and authority within the scientific
community (§4.4). These are all quite real consequences of the in-
creasing importance of the apparatus and other material factors in
scientific research.
On the other hand, academic scientists can no longer find the means
of financing the apparatus they need from their ordinary personal and
institutional budgets. Support for research facilities must come on a
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5.3 Technology 71
large scale from outside the basic science system. Here is one of the
major links between 'science' and 'society'.
As we have seen, academic science has the capability of being
intellectually, socially, and psychologically self-sustaining. It can pro-
vide the members of the scientific community with programmes for
research, and incentives to carry them out, without apparent reference
to external demands or needs. But it cannot simply wind itself along in
this way unless it is well provided with material resources. This is the
logic of the situation.
In principle, therefore, research can no longer be an autonomous
social activity, carried out by a community of scientists of their own free
will. It must always be heavily subsidized by the major organs of society
at large, to the extent that it could scarcely exist without such subsidy.
This support is usually justified by reference to the benefits that may be
expected as an outcome of the research, whether of practical or abstract
knowledge (§6.2). In the long run, the apparatus and other facilities for
research are supplied, not to gratify the intellectual aspirations of the
professional scientists, but to further the ends of the state, or of
industry, or (ideally) of the whole community. This again is a point on
which STS education must necessarily insist, against what is implied in
conventional science teaching, where valid science is often regarded as
an end in itself, worthy of support in its own right.
5.3 Technology
The distinction between 'Science' and 'Technology' is very vague. There
are no sharp discontinuities as we go from the most academic pure
research, through applied science, to industrial development and tech-
nical innovation. Knowledge is drawn from the same archives, exper-
iments are done with the same sort of apparatus, by people with the
same education (§5.8) and the same expert skills (§6.3). Since our whole
civilization is permeated with advanced technology, this is the great
open frontier between science and society. Science connects with
society, and flows into ordinary life, through technology.
But technology is not merely the material product of science.
Whether we regard it narrowly as knowledge about practical techni-
ques, or more broadly as all that is actually created by such techniques,
technology is as old as human culture, and has both roots and branches
right outside the realms of experimental and theoretical research.
Indeed, because of the immensity of technology in the economic,
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72 The R & D system
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5.4 Technology as knowledge 73
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74 The R & D system
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5.4 Technology as knowledge 75
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76 The R & D system
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5.5 'R & D' 77
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78 The R & D system
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5.6 Research management 79
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80 The R & D system
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5.7 Science policy 81
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82 The R & D system
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5.8 The educational interface 83
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84 The R & D system
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5.9 Common knowledge of science 85
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5.9 Common knowledge of science 87
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88 The R & D system
Science
Policy
Economics
A . . Big Science
Apparatus Management
InviovatiOH
Development
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