Lecture: Influences of governance on research content: epistemic conditions, aggregate effects and time horizons

The question of how governance can influence research content is usually investigated empirically with a focus on immediate micro-effects of new governance instruments and without considering the specifics of the subject areas. The aim of this presentation is to extend the theoretical estimation of effects by considering macroscopic epistemic conditions influencing epistemic conditions, possible aggregate effects and possible long-term effects. It is shown that the identification of elementary mechanisms of influencing research content by Gläser (2019) is undercomplex in three respects. First, two important epistemic operating conditions of the mechanisms are not taken into account. The responsiveness of individual decisions to governance influences also depends on the degree of functional and strategic interdependence of researchers in their subject communities (but not on their methodological interdependence). Secondly, the consideration of elementary mechanisms ignores overlapping effects. Thirdly, it ignores two long-term macroscopic processes that can contribute to significant changes in research content. These long-term changes are mediated by recruitment and discipline-internal socialization processes and therefore require the active (if not always conscious) participation of researchers. The worrying conclusion from this assessment is that even weak influences can have significant unintended side effects in the long term.

Speaker: Professor Dr. Jochen Gläser (Center for Technology and Society, Technical University of Berlin)