In general, I don't believe that they carry their roles and responsibilities in the society, bust some do. 

Talking about where I live, I would not say so. Majority of academicians do not even try to have a role in society. Most of them perceive they role purely professional, meaning they do whatever they are paid for: teaching and research. However, even in teaching and research, most of the academicians are limited in lecturing the chosen textbook and researching just to publish. 

It is my understanding that it is academia's role even in teaching and researching to deal with the society. According to my understanding, research should be oriented towards solving problems of the society and not for acquiring funds and publishing. It seems that academia has reverse engineered everything. Here, we research to get promoted or we apply for projects to acquire funding rather than applying for funds for funds to finance research which will address society's needs.  

I don't think that they have a full chance to do a contribution to their own society. Yet, it depends how much the environment surrounding them let them to do such responsiblity as it should be. 

Well, I do beleive that academcians' roles has changed now. it depend on three core things; the resources given to them, what the society expect from them and the mission objectives set by the decision makers. There are societies that cover the roles of an academic with policies that look only and only at the teaching based assignments and commitments of the academicain, while another societies look at their comunity services

Dear Dr. Mahmoud, i guess it is true in Jordan, we can see if more people add answers if other areas in the world differ (Like what Dr. Agron mentioned). Still, we can do much in social change.

As for Dr. Ali: we still can do something with same resources, and the question is around how society perceives their role.  

As for Dr. Ali Alalwan, I guess we all don't have full chance... can we do something?

As Agron is saying, some think of it as a job that needs to be done, so they teach for salary, research for promotion.., and this will lead to the natural result of neglecting social service....

Academic is a magnifying glass of society .Social structure & development rest with the involvement of academicians .To us this the need of present age .In the modern scientific & technological development academicians areas have his range in multiplication .

From science to medical surgery ,field of literature  to mathematics ,from fine arts to painting ,music ,& drama & such other related areas of activities in academic areas  our social range are wide receiving in the development of academic areas & also receiving well developed opportunity for their function & development & interest of their life .

Contribution of academic should be made wide & is to reach house hold to house hold in all the part of countries so that human beings live under happiness ,pleasure ,& prosperity .

This is what we understand the academic role in society .This is my personal opinion 

Thanks Dr  Emad,  

let us explaine in different way, 

if if we are looking for an effective social roles for us as academics, we should firstly realise how much our society (I meant all parts: government, private sector, and our local community) accept and support such role. Further, I do agree with you regarding the issues that hom much our researches could contribute to our society rather than our own personal benefits. Honestly, as researchers we would like to do such social contribution but without social environment supporting that, it gonna be difficult. 

Thank you Dr. Rohit, it is a wide approach and in depth in society. 

Yes Dr. Ali,,, it would be difficult to do anything without environment support... Can we do simple things at a time.. and see what would happen. Can we formulate societies of change and see what can happen!

Scientists are not living up to their social responsibilities. They are prevented by a society that increasingly wants something for nothing.

That is partly due to a failing education system at a time when fundamental knowledge about the world is growing prodigiously on the basis of previous knowledge.

Therefore understanding what is known about the world now requires more effort that was needed 40 years ago. Education costs increase, while accruing benefits develop slowly. Other matters like health and social assistance are more immediate. Then there is the widespread belief that “what is good for business is good for employment.” Therefore aid the business sector instead of education.

Failure to support science and education is in a feed forward stage. Society does not want the expense, so education resources get reduced. The less society understands science, the more it curtail the resources scientists need to fulfilling their goal of making a better society.

Voters that have little understanding of science do want to be bothered by studying which candidate has a better understanding of the world. It is much easier to vote based on intuitive judgements of character. Judgements that research has demonstrated are heavily influence by appearance and careful use of media.

Decline in public understanding of science means that those available for election may be lacking in this regard as well. One evidence of government lack of understanding and unwillingness to take responsibility is the increasing use of public funds for consultants. A boon for politicians: Hiring a consultant they select is likely to produce a report consistent with their preferences. Thus they can claim their wisdom has been supported. Furthermore, if the recommendations turn out poorly, they can always blame it on the consultants. Still how often do we hear about governments consulting with their university professors? Wonder why?

A few more examples:

With greatly reduced government funding, universities compete for public donations. One result is that the largest department at my university is the Information Department (or whatever its latest title, office facilities, letterheads, job descriptions, etc claim). With resounding support from the alumni organization, related investments in headline gleaning sports are bountiful with scholarships, employment opportunities and travel benefits. On the other hand, outstanding academic students must pay to attend a conference even once. Management and alumni believe that team sports reflect the excellence of the university. Academic achievement is just something personal. The truth is just the opposite.

Then there are some universities wh care so much more about their image and donation prospects that they prohibit professors from speaking to the media. (Yes, there have been veiled warnings about that here too.)

Another area where lack of education funding has broadened the gap between scientists and the public arises from the cutback laboratory instruction. Labs are expensive to build, equip, and staff; can handle few students at a time; are often not suitable outside their specialized function.

Further exacerbated by an “enlightened” approach to let students study whatever they wished, mean that rather than spending a whole afternoon in a lab, students could take less demanding course to meet their requirement. Together meant ever fewer students in general receive the “hands-on” experience that is critical to understanding science in particular.

Governments want our children better educated so they improve the nation, but do not want to pay for these improvements. Students graduating heavily in debt must first pursue what is profitable for themselves - not the nation.

To excuse cutbacks in funding research, grant competitions are made increasing competitive. In my early days a funded proposal could be written during a weekend. These days teams of researchers at several institutions do little else for months to produce doubtlessly excellent proposals. But proposals themselves accomplish nothing. A few years ago at a national meeting, a leader in Canada’s Health Research agency (CIHR) bragged about outstanding research because they rejected at least 2/3rds of the proposals they received. What a colossal waste! What colossal arrogance! With many more good ideas than there funds, award decisions then fall back on secondary criteria such as recommendations from peers (who you know) and previous number of publications about the idea (not originality). Success depends on focus and publishing in ones area without being distracted by broader social issues. Governments want safe research with results within 3 years. They are unwilling to pay for the risk of new ideas.

As the largest economic influence in our society, corporations play the same game of wanting something for nothing. Why should the business community reduce rewards to stockholders and management by investing profits in new infrastructure and research? With the right connections and “political investments” they can leverage government handouts and have their cake too.

I could go on all night, but I have a lecture to prepare. And that hinders further exercising my responsibility to polish it to the extent expected of an academic presentation. Still I am certain most readers can provide many more examples.

Dear Prof Nilson, I enjoyed reading your response.. it is a comprehensive one, where you addressed many issues.. I guess we suffer from all of these, and in developing countries it is a compound issue. Thanks for the enlightenment..

Dear Emad.  I apologize that it is poorly written.  It was that or nothing. Please note an error in the 1st line of the 3rd paragraph:

Voters that have little understanding of science do NOT want to be bothered--

I can only imagine how much more difficult it must be ib developing countries

Thomy

Thanks Dr. Nilson... 

In my personal point of view, the respond depends on wether the country is developed or not. let say that in almost all arab countries, academia does not play its role in the society, and preciselly in resource-rich arab countries. those countries egnore the role that academia may play in society due to their dependency vis-à-vis the whole society.

so academicians are margenilized even if they have the attention to be positive in the society. so they prefer to migrate.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_sort_of_beauty_would_one_find_at_the_bottom_of_a_well

What sort of beauty would one find at the bottom of a well?

Thales has a tale told about the Philosopher and the Well.

Perhaps Aesop’s Philosopher/Scientist, or perhaps himself, that goes something like:

“a Philosopher while gazing up at the stars found themselves at the bottom of a well, asking for help to come back to the surface from an unsympathetic passer-by.”

The stars turning, the planets passing by, without a point of reference this may seem simply to be another imaginary tale, a beautiful idea. But, at night, at the bottom of a well (Gadamer calls it the telescope of its time), the edges of the well enhances the contrast at play and the gaze can be held stationary enough, while searching upwards towards the stars, stationary enough to enable you to feel the whole world turning beneath your feet and around you.

This is the beauty at the bottom of the well: thus to be able to teach the passer-by about how Thales, or any other scientist or philosopher came to be at the bottom of a well requires not another scientist or philosopher, but an artist, or a poet, or even a politician…or just admit that you fell and beg for help…and when you are out tell the tale of the beauty at the bottom of the well, so that finding philosophers and scientists in wells, and in all sorts of other strife, is not such as strange occurrence for passers-by.

Dear Dr. Mukhtar.. I guess the rich arab countries has a better chance to improve.. still, they might not. I guess the latest developments in most oil countries indicated that they benefited from such resource (not as expected).. As for society roles, academicians with better salaries, resources and environments can do a better job in society..... 

Note in my university, for the sake of improving salary, we take overtime (extra courses), imagine that I been in YU for almost 11 years, with 15 and more credit hours teaching, and some times we teach outside YU... Such loads means ... NO extra work (social or research for the most)

Rightly said it depends on country to country. One cannot talk about all academicians since here also we follow the 80:20 pareto rule. I believe the role of academicians are crucial in overall development of the country and yes there are people who are working on it. Academic role seems to be weakest as there are so many other related work like administrative work which exists in the system at ground root level. Research and consultancy I believe, the knowledge gained through it ultimately is benefited by the students in form of research papers and case studies but there are so many other  variables and attributes which keep the academicians held back.

I guess the story Tommy mentioned is nice and fits with another question that I read once on RG... WE need as scientists take our role in society... Universities cannot be isolated from people. each of has his own role...

Dear Dr. Singh, I am not trying to play the devils advocate here... we take a differential role in our societies as we can do something... I guess I agree with you regarding to countries and the load we carry, still some has an influence while another does not... Some answers mixed political issues, and some put forward reform issues... I guess we work on human and our product is the people...