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Contributions
of Scientists and Engineers
to Defining Article 15
Margaret Weigers Vitullo, PhD
American Sociological Association
Overview of next 25
minutes
Methods.
Three core questions and concerns.
What are the benefits of science?
What is the role of disciplines?
Whose right is this?
Three additional issues moving forward.
Discussion.
Methods
How to create a
bridge between
the ways we talk
about science and
the ways we talk
about human
rights?
Data collection process
Focus groups:
Discipline-specific.
2 hours, including 20 minute
presentation on history of Article 15.
10 question protocol.
Comment sheets for each participant.
Audio taped and verbatim transcribed.
Data
16 focus groups (145 participants).
32 documents (transcripts and
comment sheets).
700 pages of textual data.
Data Analysis
Systematic qualitative coding.
148 codes – inductively produced,
deductively applied.
3,770 excerpts.
11,800 code applications.
Special thanks to AAAS Interns:
Elizabeth Ingianni, Celestine Warren,
Kate Saylor, Kristina Thorsell, and
Michael Bueno.
Disciplines Represented
Social and
Behavioral
Sciences
Biological
and
Medical
Sciences
Physical
and
Chemical
Sciences
Engineering
and
Technology
History and
Philosophy
of Science
Geography
Ecology
Acoustics
Mechanical
engineering
History
Linguistics
Forensics
Astronomy
Statistics
Philosophy*
Psychology
Tropical
medicine and
hygiene
Chemistry
Social
psychology
Sociology
Geology
Physics
*Data from the focus group with philosophers is not included in this analysis
Demographics of Participants
Percent
Gender
Female
Male
39
61
20-39 years
40-59 years
60-79 years
24
44
32
White
Racial/ethnic minority
86
16
Education
Government
Non-profit
Private
Independent practice
56
21
15
7
8
Age
Race*
Employment sector*
*Percents total to more than 100% because respondents could choose
more than one category
Limitations
Only 16 disciplines represented.
All participants were U.S.-based
scientists.
Goal - theory generation, not testing.
Core Question # 1
How do scientists
define the
benefits of
science?
Ten Most Frequently Mentioned
Benefits of Science
Excerpts in
Excerpts in
comment sheets comment sheets
and transcripts
Rank
Code
1
110
257
2
3
4
5
6
7
Health (including
treatment/applications/diagnosis)
Advancing knowledge
Ecological, environmental, wildlife
Education and training
Empirical basis for laws/policy/programs
Technological/infrastructure applications
Understanding of personal behaviors (not health)
58
37
31
29
27
26
138
151
476
149
163
73
8
Advancing methods and technology for science
25
84
9
10
Influence on/of culture
Economic impact
Total excerpts analyzed
24
18
95
93
1,679
Ten Most Frequently Mentioned
Benefits of Science
Excerptsin
in
Excerptsinin
Excerpts
Excerpts
commentsheets
sheets comment
commentsheets
sheets
comment
andtranscripts
transcripts
and
Rank
Code
1
1
110
110
257
257
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
6
7
7
Health
Health (including
(including
treatment/applications/diagnosis)
treatment/applications/diagnosis)
Advancing
Advancing knowledge
knowledge
Ecological,
Ecological, environmental,
environmental, wildlife
wildlife
Education
and
training
Education and training
Empirical
Empirical basis
basis for
for laws/policy/programs
laws/policy/programs
Technological/infrastructure
Technological/infrastructure applications
applications
Understanding
Understanding of
of personal
personal behaviors
behaviors (not
(not health)
health)
58
58
37
37
31
31
29
29
27
27
26
26
138
138
151
151
476
476
149
149
163
163
73
73
8
8
Advancing
Advancing methods
methods and
and technology
technology for
for science
science
25
25
84
84
9
9
10
10
Influence on/of culture
Influence on/of culture
Economic impact
Economic impact
Total excerpts analyzed
Total excerpts analyzed
24
24
18
18
95
95
93
93
1,679
1,679
Health
Including treatment/application/diagnosis
Tropical Health &
Hygiene
So obviously scientific
progress is… vaccines
and drugs…
Health
Including treatment/application/diagnosis
Social Psychology
So for instance… you can
have someone who knows
how to come up with a
vaccine and it could work
and be the best thing ever
but if people don’t adopt
it… then you lose [the
benefit]
Health
Including treatment/application/diagnosis
Chemistry
First thing that comes to
mind is health…
understanding disease. I
don’t think we would have
the genome project if
there weren’t chemists
involved in trying to figure
out how to do the rapid
analysis.
Health
Including treatment/application/diagnosis
Geography
Mapping disease outbreaks
to understand sources and
solutions
Health
Including treatment/application/diagnosis
Psychology
Defining psychopathology
as a disease… not a
personality issue or a
moral issue.
Health
Including treatment/application/diagnosis
Acoustics
An understanding of the
mechanisms underlying
hearing loss, both from
aging and from noise.
Health
Including treatment/application/diagnosis
Mechanical Engineering
…mechanical engineers
have created simple,
inexpensive variations on
medical technologies
which have been
implemented successfully
in the developing world.
Ten Most Frequently Mentioned
Benefits of Science
Excerpts in
Excerpts in
comment sheets comment sheets
and transcripts
Rank
Code
1
110
257
2
3
4
5
6
7
Health (including
treatment/applications/diagnosis)
Advancing knowledge
Ecological, environmental, wildlife
Education and training
Empirical basis for laws/policy/programs
Technological/infrastructure applications
Understanding of personal behaviors (not health)
58
37
31
29
27
26
138
151
476
149
163
73
8
Advancing methods and technology for science
25
84
9
10
Influence on/of culture
Economic impact
Total excerpts analyzed
24
18
95
93
1,679
Advancing Knowledge
Astronomy
Astronomy has at its core
the explanation of those
things which give rise to fear
of the night. Ultimately,
finding patterns and
meaning in overwhelming
universal feelings gives rise
to societal well being by
giving assurance that the
unknown can be known…
Advancing Knowledge
Sociology
The discipline of sociology
helps us to think more
clearly through
understanding the power
and complexity of social
influences… taking into
account gender,
generations, age, race,
ethnicity/tribe and social
class…
Advancing Knowledge
to support effective citizenship
What I consider even more
important… is the process of
science and the process of
thinking so that you can
produce citizens who know to
question, and to ask questions,
and to look for evidence rather
than just political statements.
(chemistry)
Understanding facts and studies in
order to be a more informed
citizen. (statistics )
Ten Most Frequently Mentioned
Benefits of Science
Excerpts in
Excerpts in
comment sheets comment sheets
and transcripts
Rank
Code
1
110
257
2
3
4
5
6
7
Health (including
treatment/applications/diagnosis)
Advancing knowledge
Ecological, environmental, wildlife
Education and training
Empirical basis for laws/policy/programs
Technological/infrastructure applications
Understanding of personal behaviors (not health)
58
37
31
29
27
26
138
151
476
149
163
73
8
Advancing methods and technology for science
25
84
9
10
Influence on/of culture
Economic impact
Total excerpts analyzed
24
18
95
93
1,679
Empirical Basis for Policy
Including laws/programs/policies
[The] production of trustworthy
reliable and unbiased official
statistics to inform government
policy… inform citizens of things
like employment and poverty
rates. (statistics)
Promote rational, objective
thinking on political, social and
economic policies (physics)
Putting in place regulations based on
sound science that protect the
environment (air, water, land) but
recognize humans need for minerals
and energy” (geology)
What have we learned about the ways these scientists viewed benefits?
• Appears that a shared set of identifiable benefits of scientific progress and
its application can be articulated.
• The scientists moved fluidly between discussing scientific progress and
scientific applications – the distinction seems to have had limited salience.
• The benefits of scientific progress were described as including material,
methodological and cultural elements.
Core Question # 2
From which
fields of science
and engineering
are the benefits
derived?
Subra Suresh, former
Director of NSF. Speaking
at the Annual Meeting of
COSSA, 2012
“The twenty-first century is the century of
science and engineering for the average
citizen of the world. Not for the scientist.
Not for the engineer. But for the average
human being on the planet. That means
how a non-scientist, average citizen,
engages with science and engineering is
going to determine how we, as inhabitants
of the planet, are going to achieve or fail at
the end of the century. It is crucial that 21st
century scientists and engineers understand
the life of the average citizen of the world.
This invariably calls for a seamless
integration of discoveries and approaches
between the natural sciences and social
sciences. “
Core Question # 3
Whose
right is this?
ACCESS to:
1. Scientific knowledge
2. Scientific information
3. Scientific advances
“Scientific knowledge, information and advances must be
made accessible to all without discrimination of any kind as to
race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Access
must be to science as a whole, not only to specific scientific
outcomes or applications.” [Shaheed 2012, para 26]
Continuum of Access
Three additional issues
moving forward…
Human rights, national security, and
Article 15.
Article 15 and scientific funding.
Open access and Article 15.
Thank you!
Margaret Weigers Vitullo, PhD
American Sociological Association
[email protected]
202-383-9005