Science, Part III: Further Developments in the Concept of Science

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

In this third part of the trilogy about “science”, Section 6 presents further developments in the conceptualization of science. It has been claimed that science has recently changed in profound ways and the concept of “epochal breaks” has been used about these developments. The article presents and discuss many of these new concepts, including “triple helix”, “postacademic science”, “mode 2 research”, “technoscience”, “postmodern science”, “citizen science” and the little older “big science”. It is hard to form a clear conclusion about these developments, but most of these conceptions seems based on the increasing commercialization of science. In a way this is connected to the pragmatic philosophy of science but seems to have failed to address the question of how science can continue to penetrate ever deeper to understand the world, and not just reflect the more immediate social and commercial interests. Section 7 is the general conclusion of the trilogy. It states that the many pieces of fragmented knowledge about science from many different fields and perspectives which have been presented need to work together in a much more integrated way. Concerning information science, knowledge organization and related fields that means these fields need to understand themselves as a member of the science studies in its broad meaning. All activities concerning science, from producing over mediating (retrieving, publishing, digitalizing, curating, translating, organizing, teaching etc.) to use must realize the socio-cultural and paradigmatic conflicts, which are necessarily involved in such activities.
Original languageEnglish
JournalKnowledge Organization
Volume50
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)290-300
Number of pages11
ISSN0943-7444
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Links

ID: 259622110