Smallman, M;
(2019)
“Nothing to do with the science”: How an elite sociotechnical imaginary cements policy resistance to public perspectives on science and technology through the machinery of government.
Social Studies of Science
10.1177/0306312719879768.
(In press).
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Abstract
The lack of reflexivity and the dominance of technoscientific viewpoints amongst policymakers has been a common criticism of scientific decision-making, particularly in response to moves to democratise science. This paper uses the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries to understand the mechanism by which these technoscientific viewpoints exert power and gain agency, strength and durability, such that they persist over time and issue, despite deliberate efforts to disrupt this power relationship. Drawing on interviews with UK based National policymakers, I argue that an elite sociotechnical imaginary of “science to the rescue” shapes how public perspectives are heard and distinguishes what is expertise. Rather than constraining the agency of the policy actors however, it is the way in which the machinery of policymaking has become shaped around this imaginary - particularly its focus on science as a problem solver and on social and ethical issues as epiphenomena and “nothing to do with the science”- that gives this viewpoint its power, persistence and endurance. With this imaginary at the heart of policymaking machinery, regardless of the perspectives of the policymakers, alternative views of science are either forced to take the form of the elite imaginary in order to be processed, or they simply cannot be accounted for within the policymaking processes. In this way, the elite sociotechnical imaginary (and technoscientific viewpoint) is enacted, but also elicited and perpetuated without the need for 2 policymakers to engage with or even be aware of the imaginary underpinning their actions.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | “Nothing to do with the science”: How an elite sociotechnical imaginary cements policy resistance to public perspectives on science and technology through the machinery of government |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/0306312719879768 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-8603-8-29 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Science and Technology Studies |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10070539 |
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