SLIDE 1
Contributions
- f Scientists and Engineers
to Defining Article 15
Margaret Weigers Vitullo, PhD American Sociological Association
Contributions of Scientists and Engineers to Defining Article 15 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Contributions of Scientists and Engineers to Defining Article 15 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Contributions of Scientists and Engineers to Defining Article 15 Margaret Weigers Vitullo, PhD American Sociological Association Overview of next 25 minutes Methods. Three core questions and concerns. What are the benefits of science? What
SLIDE 2
SLIDE 3
Methods
How to create a bridge between the ways we talk about science and the ways we talk about human rights?
SLIDE 4
Data collection process
Focus groups:
Discipline-specific. 2 hours, including 20 minute presentation on history of Article 15. 10 question protocol. Comment sheets for each participant. Audio taped and verbatim transcribed.
SLIDE 5
Data
16 focus groups (145 participants). 32 documents (transcripts and comment sheets). 700 pages of textual data.
SLIDE 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.
SLIDE 7
Disciplines Represented
Social and Behavioral Sciences Biological and Medical Sciences Physical and Chemical Sciences Engineering and Technology History and Philosophy
- f Science
Geography Ecology Acoustics Mechanical engineering History Linguistics Forensics Astronomy Statistics Philosophy* Psychology Tropical medicine and hygiene Chemistry Social psychology Geology Sociology Physics
*Data from the focus group with philosophers is not included in this analysis
SLIDE 8
Demographics of Participants
Percent Gender Female 39 Male 61 Age 20-39 years 24 40-59 years 44 60-79 years 32 Race* 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
SLIDE 9
Limitations
Only 16 disciplines represented. All participants were U.S.-based scientists. Goal - theory generation, not testing.
SLIDE 10
How do scientists define the benefits of science?
Core Question # 1
SLIDE 11
Rank Code Excerpts in comment sheets Excerpts in comment sheets and transcripts 1 Health (including treatment/applications/diagnosis) 110 257 2 Advancing knowledge 58 138 3 Ecological, environmental, wildlife 37 151 4 Education and training 31 476 5 Empirical basis for laws/policy/programs 29 149 6 Technological/infrastructure applications 27 163 7 Understanding of personal behaviors (not health) 26 73 8 Advancing methods and technology for science 25 84 9 Influence on/of culture 24 95 10 Economic impact 18 93 Total excerpts analyzed 1,679
Ten Most Frequently Mentioned Benefits of Science
SLIDE 12
Rank Code Excerpts in comment sheets Excerpts in comment sheets and transcripts 1 Health (including treatment/applications/diagnosis) 110 257 2 Advancing knowledge 58 138 3 Ecological, environmental, wildlife 37 151 4 Education and training 31 476 5 Empirical basis for laws/policy/programs 29 149 6 Technological/infrastructure applications 27 163 7 Understanding of personal behaviors (not health) 26 73 8 Advancing methods and technology for science 25 84 9 Influence on/of culture 24 95 10 Economic impact 18 93 Total excerpts analyzed 1,679
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) 110 257 2 Advancing knowledge 58 138 3 Ecological, environmental, wildlife 37 151 4 Education and training 31 476 5 Empirical basis for laws/policy/programs 29 149 6 Technological/infrastructure applications 27 163 7 Understanding of personal behaviors (not health) 26 73 8 Advancing methods and technology for science 25 84 9 Influence on/of culture 24 95 10 Economic impact 18 93 Total excerpts analyzed 1,679
SLIDE 13
Health
Including treatment/application/diagnosis
Tropical Health & Hygiene So obviously scientific progress is… vaccines and drugs…
SLIDE 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]
SLIDE 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
- ut how to do the rapid
analysis.
SLIDE 16
Health
Including treatment/application/diagnosis
Geography Mapping disease outbreaks to understand sources and solutions
SLIDE 17
Health
Including treatment/application/diagnosis
Psychology Defining psychopathology as a disease… not a personality issue or a moral issue.
SLIDE 18
Health
Including treatment/application/diagnosis
Acoustics An understanding of the mechanisms underlying hearing loss, both from aging and from noise.
SLIDE 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.
SLIDE 20
Rank Code Excerpts in comment sheets Excerpts in comment sheets and transcripts 1 Health (including treatment/applications/diagnosis) 110 257 2 Advancing knowledge 58 138 3 Ecological, environmental, wildlife 37 151 4 Education and training 31 476 5 Empirical basis for laws/policy/programs 29 149 6 Technological/infrastructure applications 27 163 7 Understanding of personal behaviors (not health) 26 73 8 Advancing methods and technology for science 25 84 9 Influence on/of culture 24 95 10 Economic impact 18 93 Total excerpts analyzed 1,679
Ten Most Frequently Mentioned Benefits of Science
SLIDE 21
Advancing Knowledge
Astronomy Astronomy has at its core the explanation of those things which give rise to fear
- f 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…
SLIDE 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…
SLIDE 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
- rder to be a more informed
- citizen. (statistics )
SLIDE 24
Rank Code Excerpts in comment sheets Excerpts in comment sheets and transcripts 1 Health (including treatment/applications/diagnosis) 110 257 2 Advancing knowledge 58 138 3 Ecological, environmental, wildlife 37 151 4 Education and training 31 476 5 Empirical basis for laws/policy/programs 29 149 6 Technological/infrastructure applications 27 163 7 Understanding of personal behaviors (not health) 26 73 8 Advancing methods and technology for science 25 84 9 Influence on/of culture 24 95 10 Economic impact 18 93 Total excerpts analyzed 1,679
Ten Most Frequently Mentioned Benefits of Science
SLIDE 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)
SLIDE 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.
SLIDE 27
From which fields of science and engineering are the benefits derived?
Core Question # 2
“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
- f the planet, are going to achieve or fail at
the end of the century. It is crucial that 21st 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. “
Subra Suresh, former Director of NSF. Speaking at the Annual Meeting of COSSA, 2012
SLIDE 28
Whose right is this?
Core Question # 3
SLIDE 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
- utcomes or applications.” [Shaheed 2012, para 26]
SLIDE 30
Continuum of Access
SLIDE 31
Three additional issues moving forward…
Human rights, national security, and Article 15. Article 15 and scientific funding. Open access and Article 15.
SLIDE 32