STS REPORT.pptx for social work in science

a report in social work.

1. CHAPTER 4 SCIENCE AS A SOCIAL PRODUCT

2. THE POLITICAL ECONOMY FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY As a product, science and technology are involved in political economy, or a set of actors and institutions that are involved in the production, consumption and reproduction of scientific knowledge and technological innovations.

3. REPRODUCTION A process that is unique to knowledge and innovation is that their “consumption” can also become inputs to the further “production”.

4. AGENTS OR ACTOR INVOLVED IN THIS POLITICAL ECONOMY The scientist and the inventors-or the producers and reproducers of scientific knowledge and technological innovations. The society at large, the industrial sector, the ordinary household, and all of us who use technologies from the basic to the complex. The institutions which include those places where scientific knowledge and technological innovations are produced and reproduced-mainly the universities, research laboratories and science-industry complexes.

5. THE “PRODUCTION” OF THE SCIENTIST “ A scientist is made, and not born” A person who wishes to be called a scientist undergoes a specific set of process and meets a specific set of standards. This process entails entrance into formal system of education. At the undergraduate level, student needs to enroll in a particular field of science: biology, chemistry, physics, botany, zoology, or any of the applied sciences such as engineering, agriculture, forestry, medicine. This level focused in the familiarization with the basic concepts and the general and well-established knowledge of the field.

6. The purpose of undergraduate science education is to develop skills and to inculcate discipline in the aspiring scientist. When the aspiring scientist graduates and enters the post-baccalaureate programs that is a wider a latitude, they are now treated as an “apprentice” acting as an “understudy” of a master, in the person of academic adviser. As the process proceeds, they will imbibes the system of values, ethics, rituals and myths that are inherent in particular discipline. They now learns how to “act, speak and move” like a chemist, or a botanist, or an entomologist, or a nuclear physicist. Students-apprentice is formally accepted of the community of scientist in the particular discipline only when the work- usually in the form of a thesis or dissertation meets the strict standard of the field which conclude that the process of becoming a scientist entails the involvement in a formal system of education that is exclusive and selective.

7. POSADAS (1982)further distinguishes a scientist from a scholar or professor of science, and from a technologist. For him, a scholar or professor of science merely studies or teaches science, whereas a scientist is someone who actively engages in generating new knowledge. A technologist is someone who, unlike a scientist who is knowledge-oriented, is oriented towards products and processes.

8. THE “PRODUCTION” OF KNOWLEDGE AND TECHNOLOGY Scientific Knowledge is a product of the work of a scientist whose aim is to discover answers to questions. The result of that work is new knowledge that is usually reported as a scientific paper which is submitted to science journals and is examined and reviewed. If the paper meets the standards, it is published and is made available to other scientist for their “consumption”.

9. Technology is the product of the work of a technologist or inventor whose aim is to invent tools and techniques that will be practically useful to human rights. According to POSADAS (1982), the result of technological activity is a new product or process that is made commercially available, with rights therein protected by patents. is produced in a domain that is not as exclusive. The process of invention is not limited to those with the formal education but can even include other persons who may not have the formal training but who have the skills to invent gadgets.

10. CHAPTER 5 THE SCIENTIFIC WORK ETHIC

11. FOUR STANDARDS THAT DEFINE THEIR WORK ETHIC They adhere universalism- that is, the belief that there is inly one truth and there is only one way to establish this truth, the scientific method. They identify themselves as a member of a community of scientist with a common goal and consciousness. This is usually operationalized through their membership in professional scientific organizations .

12. 3. They generally possess a strong sense of skepticism, in that they suspend opinion and will only express one when all data are collected and analyzed through a neutral and objective process in accordance with the standards of logic and rationality. 4. They are generally disinterested and detached, in that they uphold the virtue of neutrality and objectiveness in their research.

13. MITROFF (1974) points out that scientist, far from being detached, are emotionally attached to their hypothesis and theories. Furthermore, while they adhere to a community where sharing of knowledge is a norm, it is common behavior for scientist to secret their own researches and findings. It is also normal for scientist to judge the work of their peers not solely based on objective standards, but also as influenced by their personal beliefs and biases. KUHN (1970) also points out that scientist , far from having an open mind, are usually active in their advocacy of a particular point of view.

14. MULKAV (1972, 1979) believes that science is not a neutral and objective activity but is an interpretive activity that not only rest on objective discovery but is also influenced by the politics that exist within the community of scientist. Furthermore, scientific knowledge, being a social product, is conditioned by the socio-political and economic context within which it emerges . Finally, the credibility of the scientist is not determined solely by the work she does, but also influenced by who she is, what school she graduated from, the reputation of the university or organization in which she is working.

15. THE CASE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES The challenge facing the social challenges is how to project the various fields in the social sciences be at par with the rigor assumed to be present in the natural sciences. The study of the natural world has progressed through the deployment of well-established principles, theories, concepts and methods that capitalize on the tractability and predictability of natural phenomena.

16. EMPIRICAL-POSITIVISM Is an epistemology, or a set of rules that define the production of knowledge and truth about human societies. Is the dominant epistemology in producing truth and knowledge in that it relies on the scientific method OBSERVABILTY – knowledge is valid when it based on actual observable phenomenon. OBJECTIVITY – knowledge is valid when it is based on characteristics of the object being observed, and not as perceived by the observer or the subject.

17. 3. NEUTRALITY – the observer or the subject should generate knowledge about the object independent of her biases, in order for such knowledge to be valid. 4. MEASURABILITY – knowledge about human societies must easily expressed as a quantitative measurement or relationships or represented through a numerical place. 5. EXTERNALITY – the observer or subject must be a detached agent with the necessary scientific credentials or experience to make a valid claim to truth on a certain subject or phenomena.

18. CERTAIN REALITY THAT LIMIT THE APPLICABILITY AND CHALLENGE THE VALIDITY OF EMPERICAL POSITIVISM There are hidden structures in society that escape observation. People might project one behavior but this may not necessarily reflects their real feelings. Further, observations made by human beings about other human beings may be influenced by the biases of the observer. Empirical positivism is not necessarily neutral. 3. The externality of the expertise may not necessarily lead to a better analysis of a human condition. People directly involved in problems, who may not be social scientist, are equally capable of producing their own knowledge about their own conditions.

19. Critical social scientist have raised philosophical, linguistic, ethical and political questions about social research (FRAENKEL AND WALLEN, 1993) and these are: Question of reality Question of communication Question of values Question of societal consequences

20. RADICAL EPISTEMOLOGY Recognizes the political nature of the production of knowledge, and consider knowledge and truth as produced in the context of domination that exist in society. The role of the radical analyst is to produce knowledge and truth not only for their own sake, but also in the context of challenging established truth and knowledge. Radical analysis is conducted as an emancipatory, transformative and liberating process, in which the knowledge that is produced becomes a weapon to empower people and to change the structural conditions within which they are marginalized or oppressed.

21. ELEMENTS THAT THE RADICAL SOCIAL SCIENCES POSSESSES It is an analysis actively located in the context of political struggle. Analysis is used not only to generate knowledge but also as an input to collective action. A holistic and integrative approach is adopted, instead of the discipline-bound and reductionist approach seen in traditional analysis. Participatory processes are employed. Processes is as important as outcome Qualitative indicators are given equal merit as quantitative indicators.