230169 SE Contemporary research cultures and practices in transition (2010W)

Scientific cultures and practices have undergone substantial changes. These changes are effects of internal dynamics within science as well as of an increasing attention paid to science by policies and broader changes in contemporary "knowledge societies". The course will be dedicated to the study and critical discussion of developments and changes in contemporary academic research. It will introduce current trends in science policies and analyse their repercussions for research practices, and strategies of adaptation and resistance by academic institutions and researchers. The course will be divided into three thematic blocks: research evaluation; social impact and public accountability of science; and identities and trajectories of researchers.
The theme of research evaluation will concentrate on issues such as national evaluation systems, global rankings and institutional assessments; impact factor journals and the geopolitical dimension of their operation; and the proliferation of scientific publications and fraud. The theme of social impact and public accountability of science will focus on increasing demands on the applicability on the one hand and public accountability of science on the other. Issues of privatization of science and the relation between intellectual property and public domain will be discussed, as well as initiatives for democratising science arising from within the scientific community. The theme of identities and trajectories of researchers will follow the changing moral economy of the scientific profession (extending from vocation to entrepreneurship). The phenomenon of scientific mobility will also be discussed.
In discussion of the themes attention will be paid to differences between scientific disciplines (physical sciences, biosciences, social sciences and humanities) and to geopolitical dimensions of the issues at hand.