Denationalizing Science: The Contexts of International Scientific Practice PDF
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DENATIONALIZING SCIENCE Sociology of the Sciences A YEARBOOK - VOLUME XVI - 1992 Managing Editor: R.D. Whitley, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester EdilOrial Board: Y. Ezrahi, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem B. Joerges, WZB, Berlin E. Mendelsohn, Harvard University Y. F. Murakami, University of Tokyo H. Nowotny, Illstitut fur Wissenschaftstheorie und Wissenschaftsforschung, Vienna T. Shinn, Groupe d' Etude des Methodes de l'Analyse Sociologique, Paris P. Wagner, WZB, Berlin P. Weingart, University of Bielefeld B. Wittrock, SCASSS, Uppsala The titles published ill lhis series are listed at the end of this volume. DENATIONALIZING SCIENCE The Contexts of International Scientific Practice Edited by ELISABETH eRA WFORD Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Strashourf?, France TERRY SHINN Centre National de la Recherche Scientifiquc' Paris, France and SVERKER SORLIN Universitv of UmeG, Sweden .. SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Denationalizing sCience the contexts of International scientific practice I edited by Elisabeth Crawford, Terry Shinn, and Sverker Sor 1 in. p. cm. -- (Sociology of the sciences; v. 16) Papers presented at the Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook Conference "What is international in SCience?" held in Abisko, Sweden, May 26-June 1, 1991. Includes bibl iographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-481-4174-6 ISBN 978-94-017-1221-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-1221-7 1. Science and state--Congresses. 2. SCience--International cooperation--Congresses. 1. Crawford, El isabeth T. II. Shinn, Terry. III. Sorlin. Sverker. IV. Series. Q125.D336 1992 338.9'26--dc20 92-19396 ISBN 978-90-481-4174-6 Printed on acid)i"ee paper All Rights Reserved © 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1993 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any fonn or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any infonnation storage and retrieval system, without written pennission from the copyright owner. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE Vll ELISABETH CRAWFORD, TERRY SHINN and SVERKER S ORLIN I The Nationalization and Denationalization of the Sciences: An Introductory Essay SVERKER SORLIN I National and International Aspects of Cross boundary Science: Scientific Travel in the 18th Century 43 AANT ELZINGA I Antarctica: The Construction of a Continent by and for Science 73 KAAT SCHULTE-FISCHEDICK and TERRY SHINN I International Phytogeographical Excursions, 1911-1923: Intellectual Convergence in Vegetation Science 107 PAUL HOCH and JENNIFER PLA TT I Migration and the Denationalization of Science 133 PNINA ABIR-AM I From Multidisciplinary Collaboration to Trans- national Objectivity: International Space as Constitutive of Molecular Biology, 1930-1970 153 ANDREW JAMISON I National Political Cultures and the Exchange of Knowledge: The Case of Systems Ecology 187 GABOR PALLO I Internationalism in Soviet World-Science: The Hungarian Case 209 JOHN KRIGE I Some Socio-historical Aspects of Multinational Collaborations in High-Energy Physics at Cern Between 1975 and 1985 233 HENRY ETZKOWITZ I Redesigning 'Solomon's House': The University and the Internationalization of Science and Business 263 NOTE ON CONTRIBUTORS 289 INDEX 293 v PREFACE The articles published in this volume were presented at the Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook Conference "What is International in Science?" held in Abisko, Sweden, May 26 to June 1, 1991. The Abisko Scientific Research Station was made available for the Conference courtesy of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Generous financial support was provided by the Committee for Future Oriented Research (SALFO); the Institute for Futures Studies; the Council for Studies of Higher Education at the Swedish Board of Universities; and the University of Umea. Logistic support was provided by the Center for History of Science at the Swedish Academy of Sciences. All these institutions are thanked warmly for their contribution. The two individuals who deserve special thanks are Birgitta Lundeberg of the Center for History of Science whose tact and kindness in handling practi cal matters ensured the success of the Conference, and Stephen Fruitman of Umea University's Department of History of Science and Ideas whose editing skills made this an infinitely better volume than it otherwise would have been. Finally, all participants are to be thanked for the enthusiasm with which they brought their knowledge and experience to bear on the theme of the Conference. ELISABETH eRA WFORD TERRY SHINN SVERKER SORLIN vii THE NATIONALIZATION AND DENATIONALIZATION OF THE SCIENCES: AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ELISABETH eRA WFORD Centre National de la Recherche Scientijzque, Strasbourg TERRY SHINN Centre National de la Recherche Scientijzque, Paris and SVERKER SORLIN University of Umea The title of this volume is Denationalizing Science: The Contexts of International Scientific Practice. We have chosen it to indicate that we stand at the crossroads of two major currents that have affected the sciences in the past four hundred years: their nationalization and their denationalization. Both are on-going processes-with more new nation-states being born in the early 1990s than at any other time during the 20th century, the sciences are certainly still being nationalized - but as the title says, Denationalizing Science is to us now the prevailing trend. This means, first and foremost, that in the present growth of both national and transnational science, transna tional science (1) (defined as activities involving persons, equipment or funds from more than one country) seems to be gaining the upper hand. The main purpose of this volume is to try to understand the reasons for the denational ization of science, its historical contexts and its social forms. But the title, Denationalizing Science, has broader meanings than merely the growth of transnational science. There are other ways in which the nation, or rather the state, is divesting its scientific capital, ways that the title may also denote. One way is the de-emphasis on government funding of research which has become important as publicly-funded universities perform more Elisabeth Crawford et al. (eds.), Denationalizing Science, 1-42. © 1993 Kluwer Academic Publishers. 2 Elisabeth Crawford, Terry Shinn, and Sverker S6riin and more work for industry which can be national, or belong to another country, or, indeed, be transnational. Another revolves around the transfer of functions from national governments to local and especially regional bodies. Again, the latter may be within the nation's boundaries or it may cut across national borders, as in the case of the interregional cooperation networks within the European Community (EC) research and educational programs. In 1991 the first proper interregional treaty for research, education and industrial development was signed between the region of Catalonia (Spain) and a number of French regions. We shall have occasion to return to both these modes of denationalizing science in the course of this essay. Statistics are largely inadequate to grasp the fine structure of the present flux and reflux of scientific activities across boundaries, be they those of nations, regions, or public and private enterprise. How can we account statis tically, for instance, for the way science at national, publicly-funded universi ties increasingly blends with research and development in multinational industrial corporations? Because statistics are most often aggregated at the national level, however, they serve one useful purpose. This is to demonstrate that science is still primarily an enterprise that is politically and financially contained within the boundaries of the nation-state. At the same time it is obvious that many parts of the knowledge produced in the scientific commu nity is universal in the sense that it is relevant everywhere. The status and problems of this epistemic universalism properly belongs to the philosophy of science and will not be dealt with here. We acknowledge its strong influence, however, on the ideology and rhetoric of internationalism that has permeated the scientific enterprise for the past 150 years (2). Although science is universal, and although there reigns an internationalist ethos among scientists, scientific work and careers are most often bound up with the nation. This is not surprising since the sources of funding for science are overwhelmingly national. At least 90 percent of today's research and development (R&D) is carried out within nationally based coordinate systems, either private or public. In 1989 (the latest year for which statistics are available) only Canada and Greece among the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had (slightly) more than ten percent of the Gross Domestic Exp.enditure on R&D coming from abroad (3). Within the private sector, foreign spending on R&D is more marked in certain countries, notably so in Canada, Greece, An Introductory Essay 3 France, and the UK (4). Nonetheless the foreign portion in no instance exceeds 20 percent. These statistics do not present the full picture since the largest industrial corporations are transnational and can locate R&D activities worldwide without that being visible in company reports. That phenomenon does not, however, change the overall picture. Neither do the figures showing expendi ture on distinctly multi- or transnational programs or institutions (that is those where the pooling of national resources for a common purpose creates supranational facilities or staff). Even in those, national elements are still strong. For instance, as John Krige's article in this volume shows, although CERN (Center for European Nuclear Research) has its own personnel, that of national research institutions predominates in CERN-collaborations. A general conclusion has to be then that science, through a complicated series of events involved with the growth of modem nation-states over a period of several hundred years, has become almost exclusively tied into the institu tional and financial systems of these states. This is what available data on research financing reveals about the current time. The question is: Will the present situation continue? What we should note is that the transnational flow of payments in this field-as indeed in others in an ever more globalized economy-do indeed grow rapidly. Between 1985 and 1989 alone the percentage of expenditure derived from foreign sources on R&D rose from 7.9 to 10.6 in Canada; from 4.8 to 7.3 in France; and from 3.6 to 4.8 (1990) in Italy (5). The R&D expenditure of Sweden going abroad increased from a tiny 250 million SEK in 1975 to 1 500 million in 1987, admittedly making up only some 5 percent of the total expenditure, but growing about twice as fast as total R&D spending in the 1980s (6). In the same period, American-owned corporations increased over seas R&D spending. In 1986 and 1987 alone, the increase was 33 percent, compared to a mere 6 percent in R&D spending in the United States (7). As far as funding is concerned then there are certainly indications of the dena tionalization of science, although it starts from a very low point. Less easy to capture statistically are the scientific communication and exchange networks that cut across national boundaries and that indeed shape the everyday perception-both the expert's, the layman's, and the suspicious politician's who cautiously signs the bill-of what scientific work is all about. There does indeed exist a worldwide system of journals, organizations,
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