Reflections on Towards lnterdisciplinarity:
"A Panel Discussion on Science and Globalisation"
held in JNU on 25 November 2011
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In a recently published book "Civilization: The West and the Rest", Historian Niall Ferguson tries to touch upon the root causes behind why western societies flourished and others did not. Few days before when Justice Katju was speaking on the eve of Nehru Memorial Lecture in JNU he appreciated to the great length the ancient heritage of Sanskrit and Urdu language embodying vast resources of rational scientific knowledge and also great literary potential. He appealed to the students present there to investigate the famous Joseph Needham question further asking why India and China did not have scientific-industrial revolution in 17th-18th century even though historically these countries were ahead in many areas of science-technology in medieval times.
So, let us come back to the six reasons cited by Ferguson. Those are: 1.Competition, 2.Scientific Revolution, 3.Property Rights, 4.Modern Medicine, 5.Consumer Society and 6.The Work Ethic. According to Ferguson these "killer applications" were responsible for the emergence of western world in its current shape where they enjoy basic facilities of health, education and livelihood supported by formal/informal institutions of knowledge creation, diffusion and application of it. Further he says, these reasons were also responsible for the economic prosperity and thus the ability of western world to influence the modern institutions which regulate trade, research and development and international development agenda thus to leverage the benefits for the western world. Ferguson then says that in recent times developing world is downloading these applications much faster so as to catch up with the developed world. Recent talk by Prof. Avijit Pathak who spoke about multiple modernities in India, concluded by saying that universities will be playing great role in the next wave of modenrity in the future of India by hinting that universities are one of the few places where secular, liberal and argumentative debate helps to unravel the complexities of not only multidisciplinary knowledges but also of the life.
In this context the panel discussion on the topic "Science and Globalization" touched the right nerve. When we are observing the huge influx and out flux of skilled communities across the borders, the changing nature of investments in R&D by multinationals in developing countries and the globalisation of higher education witnessing new transformation, one can sense the deep connection this panel discussion has to the unravelling of whole dynamics of the "Science and Globalization".
In this context the panel discussion on the topic "Science and Globalization" touched the right nerve. When we are observing the huge influx and out flux of skilled communities across the borders, the changing nature of investments in R&D by multinationals in developing countries and the globalisation of higher education witnessing new transformation, one can sense the deep connection this panel discussion has to the unravelling of whole dynamics of the "Science and Globalization".
The discussion recognised that much of the scientific research is already globalised because it would not be a matter of conflict of opinion as far as consensus about basic principles of sciences is concerned. We are witnessing the globalization of economics compared to globalization of politics and science and technology. The much of the post-doctoral research is already globalized. Now it seems to be the case of globalization for doctoral, undergraduate and further for secondary education. Due to the invention of internet it is possible now to realize greater degree of collaboration between different institutions, countries and disciplines. The competition in the research and development in academic set up also enabled visualization of the possibilities for the new path breaking research.
Other point of view about globalisation focussed its enquiry about the social/cultural situations in which the development of science and technology takes place. The colonial/imperial history was largely responsible for the creation of institutions and practices, which were responsible for the development of S&T system in the developing countries. Historically Wilhelm von Humboldt inspired from Friedrich Schleiermacher’s liberal ideas about the importance of freedom, seminars, and laboratories founded Berlin University. This
model focussed on the goal to demonstrate the process of the discovery of knowledge and to teach students to “take account of fundamental laws of science in all their thinking.” Thus, seminars and laboratories started to evolve. Humboldt envisioned the university education as a student-centred activity of research.
Then the big thrust for the fundamental science in the western world was emphasised by the Vennever Bush`s 'Science: The Endless Frontier', a report which laid the foundation of massive investment in public funded research and thus paving the way for spillovers necessary for application of knowledge. The critical enquiries by Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn and Robert Merton largely contributed to the understanding about how science progresses. The basic principles elucidated by Merton were Communism, Universalism, Disinterestedness, Organised skepticism. The Haldane principle which believes government should keep its nose out of decisions about research projects or programmes largely promoting the autonomy of the research and development and the 'Republic of Science' theorised by Michel Polyani was largely responsible for viewing research and development as an autonomous enterprise.
In particular reference with India, Humboldt model remains largely unrealized. In India fundamental research largely remained with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and other autonomous bodies outside the university system. This vacuum of fundamental research was also complemented by the fact that 94 % of the research and development funding was concentrated in the few establishments of government namely defense, atomic energy and agriculture institutions. While the synergy between teaching and research still remains to be strengthened in Indian universities it is also true that till recently there is very lopsided compared to the needs of culture where excellence is nurtured and resources are needed to promote that culture.
One of the significant issue out of this discussion was about commodification of the knowledge, freedom of enquiry and the societal relevance of the science-technology initiatives. Lot of issues of globalization are directly related to the economic aspects namely the product driven research, intellectual property protection of the knowledge and monopolization of the profits leading to the domination of access-benefit sharing mechanisms. The historic context of development of recombinant DNA technology and the cases which lead to the approval of human intervention in life systems so as to allow patenting anything under the sun (Diamond Vs Chakravarthy, Harvard Onco-mouse case) were largely responsible for the establishment of the international regimes like TRIPS, WIPO. The success of intellectual property rights has been overestimated especially to realise invention, innovation, technology transfer, foreign direct investment, disclosure of knowledge.
The changing role of universities is also necessary to understand the 'globalisation' angle being discussed here. The role of universities is changing from Mode 1 to mode 2 as argues by Gibbons and as conveyed by John Ziman the scientific knowledge being produced in the university system is transforming from that of 'reliable' towards that of 'robust' forms. The historic peer review method where experts or scholars from particular knowledge discipline is actually under dynamic transformation. The people outside the peer review group are increasingly influencing the ‘construction of knowledges”.
Let me refer to an interview published in Nature. This interview report asks the question: "Is the model of research-intensive universities still valid at the beginning of the twenty-first century?” It says: "Outside the academic realm, the world has also changed markedly since von Humboldt's time. The ‘advanced’ nations have been moving away from the manufacturing-based economies that sustained them throughout the twentieth century, towards so-called knowledge-based economies that rely heavily on scientific research and a trained workforce. As such, these nations no longer compete for industrial capacity or access to natural resources, but rather for skilled workers, intellectual property and knowledge." Another respondent in this report says, "Research universities should fight the trend of becoming more and more specialized, and instead try to integrate undergraduate teaching and research to create a true community of scholars."(The future of research universities, EMBO reports (2007) 8, 804 - 810 * doi:10.1038/sj.embor.7401052 * http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v8/n9/full/7401052.html)
Another respondent says, “In many disciplines, the boundaries between basic and applied research are blurred. It is more of a continuum and one should think more in terms of short-term and long-term research. Hence, universities are moving toward supporting this continuum. With regard to intellectual property, universities and their faculty should have incentives to commercialize their discoveries and in doing so support economic development and job creation. However, universities should not become ‘greedy’ and they must realize that the intellectual property they generate is often only a small contribution to a product. They must learn to work more cooperatively with corporations on intellectual property creation, ownership and commercialization.”
The processes and goal of democratising science, issues of citizen science, hegemony and violence created by techno-scientific establishments were mentioned when the social aspects of this globalization of science were discussed. In this kind of interdisciplinary interaction, some of the representatives expressed their dismay about their perception that science is largely being viewed from very negative perspective, which does not appreciate their efforts aimed at development. Also, lack of the meaningful institutions having capable people who can communicate the process of scientific discovery and people who can comment, write and mobilize debate about the science-technology policy in the country, the creation of environment where the challenges ahead of basic research can be deliberated upon by appreciating the ethos of science were also expressed by some members of the audience.
The processes and goal of democratising science, issues of citizen science, hegemony and violence created by techno-scientific establishments were mentioned when the social aspects of this globalization of science were discussed. In this kind of interdisciplinary interaction, some of the representatives expressed their dismay about their perception that science is largely being viewed from very negative perspective, which does not appreciate their efforts aimed at development. Also, lack of the meaningful institutions having capable people who can communicate the process of scientific discovery and people who can comment, write and mobilize debate about the science-technology policy in the country, the creation of environment where the challenges ahead of basic research can be deliberated upon by appreciating the ethos of science were also expressed by some members of the audience.
Eventually before leaving this particular report sharing the analysis of founding definition of globalisation in contemporary times given at (http://www.infed.org/biblio/globalization.htm)
“Globalization involves the diffusion of ideas, practices and technologies. It is something more than internationalization and universalization. It isn't simply modernization or westernization. It is certainly isn't just the liberalization of markets. Anthony Giddens has described globalization as 'the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa'. This involves a change in the way we understand geography and experience localness. As well as offering opportunity it brings with considerable risks linked, for example, to technological change.”
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