Conference: “Basic and Applied Research”.
Historical Semantics of a Key Distinction in 20th Century Science Policy
> Date: 20-22 February 2014
> Location: Bonner Universitätsforum, Heussallee 18-24, 53113 Bonn, Germany
>
> The conference brings together researchers from the interdisciplinary
> field of science studies to discuss the origins, meanings and
> transformations of the distinction between “basic research” and “applied
> research” in the course of the 20th century. The aim is to compare how
> this key distinction of science and research policy has been handled by
> diverse ideological regimes of the 20th century, for example by the
> totalitarian regimes during World War II, by the liberal-democratic
> regimes of the West or by the socialist regimes of the East during the
> Cold War era, by decolonized states in the Commonwealth and by the
> recent innovation regimes of supranational entities such as the EU.
>
> In the last decades, several authors have noticed with surprise that the
> basic/applied distinction and the notorious linear model of innovation
> persist both within science stud-ies and in science and innovation
> policy, although they have been deconstructed as analytically flawed.
> Thus, on the one hand, it is common usage to distinguish between “basic
> research” and “applied research” while, on the other hand, the
> inadequacy of the-se categories is often debated. This paradox can be
> solved if one analyzes the respective concepts as historical semantics.
> Such a change of perspective raises some central questions that will be
> addressed in the contributions to the conference: Which specific terms
> have been used in different historical and national contexts? What is
> the pragmatic function underlying the different forms of usage? Do these
> opposing notions epitomize diverging ideas or ideologies concerning the
> goal of science in general? What kind of careers and trajectories did
> these concepts have, when observing them in retrospect? For example, why
> did the idea of “basic research” become so important after 1945?
>
> Program
>
> Thursday, 20 February 2014
>
> 2:00 – 2:45 pm Introduction:
> The Role of Semantics in Science Policy and in Science Studies (David
> Kaldewey/University of Bonn and Désirée Schauz/University of Technology,
> Munich)
>
> 2:45 – 5:30 pm Longue-durée Perspectives on the Basic/Applied
> Distinction
> Basic Research and Innovation: The ‘New’ Semantic Pair
> (Benoît Godin/Institut national de la recherche scientifique, University
> of Montreal)
> Talking, and Not Talking, about ‘Applied Science’: Promoting a Culture of the Twentieth Century Public Sphere (Robert Bud/The Science Museum, London)
> Coffee break
> From ‘Natural’ Authority to Tactics and the Conduct of Conducts. The Politics of Knowledge Between the 1950s and the 2000s (Dominique Pestre/L’École des Haute Études en
> Sciences Sociales, Paris)
>
> 5:30 – 7:30 pm Academic and Industrial Research
> Rewriting Applied Science: Purifying Histories of Knowledge-Making (Graeme
> Gooday/University of Leeds)
> The Entrepreneur, the Laboratory, the Investor and the State: Changing Concepts of Innovation in the Twentieth Century (Lea Haller/Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich)
> 7:30 pm Dinner
>
> Friday, 21 February 2014
>
> 9:00 – 11:45 am German Research Policy in Fascist, Liberal and Communist
> Contexts
> Science Policy in Search of New Semantics: Basic Research in the Era of the Second World War (Désirée Schauz/University of Technology, Munich)
> ‘Grundlagenforschung’ and ‘Anwendungsforschung’ in Science Policy Contexts in Western-Germany after World War II (Gregor Lax/University of Bielefeld)
> Coffee break
> Basic and Applied Research in GDR Science Policy (Manuel Schramm/Technical University of Chemnitz)
>
> 11:45 am – 3:30 pm Research policy in Communist Countries
> From ‘Planning Science’ to ‘Goal-oriented Research’: Soviet Science Policy in Cross-ideological Encounters (Alexei Kojevnikov/University of British Columbia)
> Lunch break
> Theory versus (Policy Oriented) Empirical Research: Economics in State-Socialist Hungary after Stalin (György Péteri/Norwegian University of Science &Technology, Trondheim)
> White Flags in a Red Tide: Debates Over Basic vs. Applied Research in the
> Politics of Science in Modern China (Zuoyue Wang/California State Polytechnic University, Pomona)
>
> 3:30 – 5:30 pm Research Strategies in Colonial and Postcolonial Contexts
> Why Was Fundamental Research Deemed Necessary for Colonial Development
> after 1940? (Sabine Clarke/University of York)
> Coffee break
> On the Necessity of a Disjunction: Science, Government and Industrialisation in
> Free India (Jahnavi Phalkey/King’s College London)
>
> 5:30 – 7:30 pm American Research Policy in National and Transnational
> Perspective Basic Research as a Political Symbol (Roger Pielke/University of Colorado Boulder)
> Regulating the Transnational Circulation of Knowledge: Dissolving the Basic/Applied Science Distinction (John Krige/Georgia Institute of Technology)
>
> Saturday, 22 February 2014
>
> 9:00 am – 12:30 pm Old and New Semantics in the 21th Century
> Basic and Applied Research: How Engineers and Industrial Scientists Use the Distinction (Rudolf Stichweh/University of Bonn)
> The Emergence of the European Research Council: Hijacking Basic Research by Geopolitical and Market Semantics (Tim Flink/Social Science Research Center Berlin)
> Coffee break
> ‘Tackling the Grand Challenges’: The New Rhetorics of Applied Research in EU Science Policy (David Kaldewey/University of Bonn)
> Concluding Discussion
>
> The conference fee is 50€ (reduced 25€) and includes coffee and
> beverages, dinner on Thursday and lunch on Friday.
> Please register by February 1, 2014. For further information, please
> visit our website: www.fiw.uni-bonn.de/fiw-veranstaltungen
>
> The conference is supported by the Rectorate of the University of Bonn,
> the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Forum Internationale
> Wissenschaft (FIW).
> Organizers:
> David Kaldewey
> Forum Internationale Wissenschaft, University of Bonn, Heussallee 18-24,
> D-53113 Bonn, [log in to unmask]
>
> Désirée Schauz
> Munich Centre for the History of Science and Technology, c/o Deutsches
> Museum, D-86306 Munich, [log in to unmask]
>
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>
> Dr. Désirée Schauz
> Münchner Zentrum für Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte
> c/o Deutsches Museum Museumsinsel 1
> 80538 München
> Tel.: 089-2179.407, Fax: 089-2179.408
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> Homepage: http://www.fggt.edu.tum.de/personen/desiree-schauz/
>
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