In 1999, at the World Conference on Science it was acknowledged that the social contract for science had been broken. That people do not consider that science breakthroughs or developments will always mean good things for them.
National Science and Technology Systems have taken notice because this "contract breach" means that people "want more for their money". In order to protect national science budgets, people must be able to link easily science achievements to their well being and the solution of societal problems. Transdisciplinary research, translational medicine and postnormal science are some of the most known efforts to bridge the gap. And new forms of collaboration (citizen science, crowfunding, participatory research) that provide increased access to resources and knowledge have emerged.
But the problem is that the new forms of collaboration mean developing new skills and capacities- on both sides. So scientists must devote increasing portions of their time just to get funding and resources, at a time when policy changes may imply the "death" or downturn of big and small lines of research. And it takes time to learn how to engage (and train) non scientists to collaborate with researchers (as in citizen science, crowfunding and participatory research), just when you may need it the most.
Society has developed ways to manage risk of losses, by distributing the risk among many. This form of risk management is called insurance and it helps people cover losses that they can´t afford on their own.
Is there a way that we scientists can collaborate with each other in order to prepare non scientists to collaborate with us to provide access to resources and funding in time of need (that, is to manage the risk of decreasing research budgets and positions)?
If there is a way, it probably involves social networks and sharing our resources (knowledge) with non scientists so that they decide to share theirs with us.
Do you think that a Social Insurance for Scientists is possible? Why? What would it take to make it happen? Do you think it would be worth to invest in it valuable researchers´ time? Please share your views on this proposal.
Science for social responsibility could be an answer. You may benefit from the literature on responsible research and innovation.
Article Options for Strenghtening Responsible Research and Innovatio...
Thank you, Laxmi for drawing my attention to this valuable work. I have been paying attention to responsible research and innovation for some time but the difference is that RRI focuses on research projects and results and the concept of social insurance focuses on people (that is, researchers/ scientists)- and on increasing their options to face the risk of management or policy changes that decrease or cut funding for their area of work. For sure, RRI increases heavily the possibility that researchers results (and the work that led to them) will be highly valued. But sometimes you do everything right and you have to face decreased funding anyway. And for basic research, RRI is not a foolproof guarantee that you will be able to stay and have a job doing research in your area of expertise. This is the problem that the Social Insurance should address.
Maria,
I can get what you are saying. The following literature may be of your interest.
L
Article Planetary Opportunities: A Social Contract for Global Change...
Article Geography and the new social contract for global change research
Thank you again, Laxmi, for sharing these articles.
I would like to go deeper into one of the related topics: citizen science, which is a research technique that enlists the public in gathering scientific information. Two outcomes are expected: (a) the creation of scientific insights mainly by gathering large scale or hidden data which the researchers could not access by themselves, (b) educational outcomes (in the public) which are produced by cooperation. Let me refer you to two great articles on the subject:
Bonney, Rick; Cooper, Caren B. el al (2009)- Citizen science, a developing tool for expanding science knowledge and scientific literacy- Bioscience 59 (11)- DOI: 10.1525/bio.2009.59.11.9
Heiss, Raffael; Matthes, Jörg (2017)- Citizen science in the social sciences- A call for more evidence- GAIA 26/1 (2017), 22-26
The first article includes a Model for Developing a Citizen Science Project (in the natural sciences) developed at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The other article reviews the challenges researchers must meet when engaging in social research citizen science projects. Both articles acknowledge that citizen science is quite expensive; that is, it can allow researchers to do what can not otherwise be done, but entrance barriers are really high. The answer lies in science communication, because we might work together to lower those barriers for all. That would be the Social Insurance I am talking about.
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