Contributions of Scientists and Engineers to Defining Article 15. Margaret Weigers Vitullo, PhD American Sociological Association

Transcription

1 Contributions of Scientists and Engineers to Defining Article 15 Margaret Weigers Vitullo, PhD American Sociological Association

2 Overview of next 25 minutes Methods. Three core questions and concerns. What are the benefits of science? What is the role of disciplines? Whose right is this? Three additional issues moving forward. Discussion.

3 Methods How to create a bridge between the ways we talk about science and the ways we talk about human rights?

4 Data collection process Focus groups: Discipline-specific. 2 hours, including 20 minute presentation on history of Article question protocol. Comment sheets for each participant. Audio taped and verbatim transcribed.

5 Data 16 focus groups (145 participants). 32 documents (transcripts and comment sheets). 700 pages of textual data.

6 Data Analysis Systematic qualitative coding. 148 codes inductively produced, deductively applied. 3,770 excerpts. 11,800 code applications. Special thanks to AAAS Interns: Elizabeth Ingianni, Celestine Warren, Kate Saylor, Kristina Thorsell, and Michael Bueno.

7 Disciplines Represented Social and Behavioral Sciences Biological and Medical Sciences Physical and Chemical Sciences Engineering and Technology Geography Ecology Acoustics Mechanical engineering History and Philosophy of Science History Linguistics Forensics Astronomy Statistics Philosophy* Psychology Social psychology Sociology Tropical medicine and hygiene Chemistry Geology Physics *Data from the focus group with philosophers is not included in this analysis

8 Demographics of Participants Gender Age Race* Percent Female 39 Male years years years 32 White 86 Racial/ethnic minority 16 Employment sector* Education 56 Government 21 Non-profit 15 Private 7 Independent practice 8 *Percents total to more than 100% because respondents could choose more than one category

9 Limitations Only 16 disciplines represented. All participants were U.S.-based scientists. Goal - theory generation, not testing.

10 Core Question # 1 How do scientists define the benefits of science?

11 Ten Most Frequently Mentioned Benefits of Science Rank Code Excerpts in comment sheets Excerpts in comment sheets and transcripts 1 Health (including treatment/applications/diagnosis) 2 Advancing knowledge Ecological, environmental, wildlife Education and training Empirical basis for laws/policy/programs Technological/infrastructure applications Understanding of personal behaviors (not health) Advancing methods and technology for science Influence on/of culture Economic impact Total excerpts analyzed 1,679

12 Ten Most Frequently Mentioned Benefits of Science Rank Code Excerpts in comment sheets Excerpts in in comment sheets and transcripts 1 Health (including treatment/applications/diagnosis) 2 Advancing knowledge Ecological, environmental, wildlife Education Education and and training training Empirical Empirical basis basis for for laws/policy/programs laws/policy/programs Technological/infrastructure Technological/infrastructure applications applications Understanding Understanding of of personal personal behaviors behaviors (not (not health) health) Advancing Advancing methods methods and and technology technology for for science science Influence on/of culture Influence on/of culture Economic impact Economic impact Total excerpts analyzed 1,679 Total excerpts analyzed 1,679

13 Health Including treatment/application/diagnosis Tropical Health & Hygiene So obviously scientific progress is vaccines and drugs

14 Health Including treatment/application/diagnosis Social Psychology So for instance you can have someone who knows how to come up with a vaccine and it could work and be the best thing ever but if people don t adopt it then you lose [the benefit]

15 Health Including treatment/application/diagnosis Chemistry First thing that comes to mind is health understanding disease. I don t think we would have the genome project if there weren t chemists involved in trying to figure out how to do the rapid analysis.

16 Health Including treatment/application/diagnosis Geography Mapping disease outbreaks to understand sources and solutions

17 Health Including treatment/application/diagnosis Psychology Defining psychopathology as a disease not a personality issue or a moral issue.

18 Health Including treatment/application/diagnosis Acoustics An understanding of the mechanisms underlying hearing loss, both from aging and from noise.

19 Health Including treatment/application/diagnosis Mechanical Engineering mechanical engineers have created simple, inexpensive variations on medical technologies which have been implemented successfully in the developing world.

20 Ten Most Frequently Mentioned Benefits of Science Rank Code Excerpts in comment sheets Excerpts in comment sheets and transcripts 1 Health (including treatment/applications/diagnosis) 2 Advancing knowledge Ecological, environmental, wildlife Education and training Empirical basis for laws/policy/programs Technological/infrastructure applications Understanding of personal behaviors (not health) Advancing methods and technology for science Influence on/of culture Economic impact Total excerpts analyzed 1,679

21 Advancing Knowledge Astronomy Astronomy has at its core the explanation of those things which give rise to fear of the night. Ultimately, finding patterns and meaning in overwhelming universal feelings gives rise to societal well being by giving assurance that the unknown can be known

22 Advancing Knowledge Sociology The discipline of sociology helps us to think more clearly through understanding the power and complexity of social influences taking into account gender, generations, age, race, ethnicity/tribe and social class

23 Advancing Knowledge to support effective citizenship What I consider even more important is the process of science and the process of thinking so that you can produce citizens who know to question, and to ask questions, and to look for evidence rather than just political statements. (chemistry) Understanding facts and studies in order to be a more informed citizen. (statistics )

24 Ten Most Frequently Mentioned Benefits of Science Rank Code Excerpts in comment sheets Excerpts in comment sheets and transcripts 1 Health (including treatment/applications/diagnosis) 2 Advancing knowledge Ecological, environmental, wildlife Education and training Empirical basis for laws/policy/programs Technological/infrastructure applications Understanding of personal behaviors (not health) Advancing methods and technology for science Influence on/of culture Economic impact Total excerpts analyzed 1,679

25 Empirical Basis for Policy Including laws/programs/policies [The] production of trustworthy reliable and unbiased official statistics to inform government policy inform citizens of things like employment and poverty rates. (statistics) Promote rational, objective thinking on political, social and economic policies (physics) Putting in place regulations based on sound science that protect the environment (air, water, land) but recognize humans need for minerals and energy (geology)

26 What have we learned about the ways these scientists viewed benefits? Appears that a shared set of identifiable benefits of scientific progress and its application can be articulated. The scientists moved fluidly between discussing scientific progress and scientific applications the distinction seems to have had limited salience. The benefits of scientific progress were described as including material, methodological and cultural elements.

27 Core Question # 2 From which fields of science and engineering are the benefits derived? Subra Suresh, former Director of NSF. Speaking at the Annual Meeting of COSSA, 2012 The twenty-first century is the century of science and engineering for the average citizen of the world. Not for the scientist. Not for the engineer. But for the average human being on the planet. That means how a non-scientist, average citizen, engages with science and engineering is going to determine how we, as inhabitants of the planet, are going to achieve or fail at the end of the century. It is crucial that 21 st century scientists and engineers understand the life of the average citizen of the world. This invariably calls for a seamless integration of discoveries and approaches between the natural sciences and social sciences.

28 Core Question # 3 Whose right is this?

29 ACCESS to: 1. Scientific knowledge 2. Scientific information 3. Scientific advances Scientific knowledge, information and advances must be made accessible to all without discrimination of any kind as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Access must be to science as a whole, not only to specific scientific outcomes or applications. [Shaheed 2012, para 26]

30 Continuum of Access

31 Three additional issues moving forward Human rights, national security, and Article 15. Article 15 and scientific funding. Open access and Article 15.

32 Thank you! Margaret Weigers Vitullo, PhD American Sociological Association