Book•
Science of Science and Reflexivity
01 Jan 2004-
TL;DR: Bourdieu's "Science of Science and Reflexivity" as mentioned in this paper argues that science is in danger of becoming a handmaiden to biotechnology, medicine, genetic engineering, and military research that it risks falling under the control of industrial corporations that seek to exploit it for monopolies and profit.
Abstract: Over the last four decades, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu produced one of the most imaginative and subtle bodies of social theory of the postwar era. When he died in 2002, he was considered to be a thinker on a par with Foucault, Barthes, and Lacan a public intellectual as influential to his generation as Sartre was to his. "Science of Science and Reflexivity" will be welcomed as a companion volume to Bourdieu's now seminal "An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology." In this posthumous work, Bourdieu declares that science is in danger of becoming a handmaiden to biotechnology, medicine, genetic engineering, and military research that it risks falling under the control of industrial corporations that seek to exploit it for monopolies and profit. Science thus endangered can become detrimental to mankind. The line between pure and applied science, therefore, must be subjected to intense theoretical scrutiny. Bourdieu's goals in "Science of Science and Reflexivity" are to identify the social conditions in which science develops in order to reclaim its objectivity and to rescue it from relativism and the forces that might exploit it. In the grand tradition of scientific reflections on science, Bourdieu provides a sociological analysis of the discipline as something capable of producing transhistorical truths; he presents an incisive critique of the main currents in the study of science throughout the past half century; and he offers a spirited defense of science against encroaching political and economic forces. A masterful summation of the principles underlying Bourdieu's oeuvre and a memoir of his own scientific journey, "Science of Science and Reflexivity" is a capstone to one of the most important and prodigious careers in the field of sociology."
Citations
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TL;DR: This paper examined class as a potential source of stigma for faculty members from low-socioeconomic status (low-SES) backgrounds, based on 47 interviews with demographically diverse respondents at a university.
Abstract: This article examines class as a potential source of stigma faculty members from low-socioeconomic-status (low-SES) backgrounds. Based on 47 interviews with demographically diverse respondents at a...
33 citations
01 Jan 2009
33 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the evaluation of talented early career researchers, as done in grant allocation processes, is studied, and compared with more general notions of talent existing in the academic work environment.
Abstract: In this article, we study the evaluation of talented early career researchers, as done in grant allocation processes. To better understand funding decisions, we studied the grant allocation process in more detail, and compared the notion of talent in grant allocation with more general notions of talent existing in the academic work environment. The comparison is based on interviews with 29 scholars who have experience with identifying talent both in their daily academic work and in the process of grant allocation. Overall, there is large agreement on the notion of talent. However, the characteristics ascribed to top talent vary depending on the evaluation context. In grant allocation, a narrower talent definition prevails compared with more general evaluation. Furthermore, difficulties arise in the process of panel decision-making, when selection criteria need to be concrete and explicit to enable comparison. Having to choose between many applicants of similar quality makes the selection process liable to subjectivity, arbitrariness, and randomness. Despite these uncertainties, grants are ascribed a very high symbolic value. Small quality differences are enlarged into considerable differences in recognition, consequently affecting career opportunities, as they provide academics with both financial and symbolic resources.
33 citations
Cites background from "Science of Science and Reflexivity"
...These criteria cannot always be fully articulated, as they are often more subjective and related to the tacit dimension of evaluation (Bourdieu 2004; Van den Brink 2009)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply Bourdieu's theory of the scientific field to examine the sources of authority, reasons for conflict, and group dynamics in an isotope lab at a Chinese university.
Abstract: This paper applies Bourdieu's theory of the scientific field to examine the sources of authority, reasons for conflict, and group dynamics in an isotope lab at a Chinese university. After 7 months of participant observation and non-structured interviews, I found that theoretical capital and technological capital are both used in the isotope lab. While both are associated with scientific authority, it was theoretical capital that determined lab members' social authority. Dominant and subordinate members of the lab applied different strategies to advance their interests. Conflicts of interest induced competition between the holders of theoretical and technological capital, which in turn caused interpersonal conflict. The specificity of the field of geoscience determines the relative power of technological and theoretical capital, and the low autonomy of the scientific field in China strengthens that hierarchy. I find that this hierarchy of scientific capital in the broader field can have a considerable impa...
32 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2007TL;DR: The case of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates is discussed in this paper, where the authors propose a typology of engagements for public intellectuals in the context of public intellectuals. But their focus is on the via contemplativa and the via active.
Abstract: Introduction Part I. Theoretical Framework: 1. The authority of public intellectuals 2. The problem of the new 3. Courage: acting on conviction 4. Typology of engagements Part II. Public Intellectuals: The Case of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates: 5. Intellectuals for peace 6. Heroes: legends in their own time 7. Dissidents: peaceful rebels 8. Champions: promoting the cause 9. Pioneers: bringing science to politics Conclusion: the via contemplativa and the via active.
32 citations