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Science, Technology and Innovation as Social Goods for Development: Rethinking Research Capacity Building from Sen's Capabilities Approach
- Source :
- Science and Engineering Ethics
- Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- Science and technology are key to economic and social development, yet the capacity for scientific innovation remains globally unequally distributed. Although a priority for development cooperation, building or developing research capacity is often reduced in practice to promoting knowledge transfers, for example through North-South partnerships. Research capacity building/development tends to focus on developing scientists' technical competencies through training, without parallel investments to develop and sustain the socioeconomic and political structures that facilitate knowledge creation. This, the paper argues, significantly contributes to the scientific divide between developed and developing countries more than any skills shortage. Using Charles Taylor's concept of irreducibly social goods, the paper extends Sen's Capabilities Approach beyond its traditional focus on individual entitlements to present a view of scientific knowledge as a social good and the capability to produce it as a social capability. Expanding this capability requires going beyond current fragmented approaches to research capacity building to holistically strengthen the different social, political and economic structures that make up a nation's innovation system. This has implications for the interpretation of human rights instruments beyond their current focus on access to knowledge and for focusing science policy and global research partnerships to design approaches to capacity building/development beyond individual training/skills building.
- Subjects :
- Sociology of scientific knowledge
Health (social science)
Knowledge management
Capacity Building
Collective or social capabilities
media_common.quotation_subject
International Cooperation
Low and middle income countries
Development
050905 science studies
Politics
Technology Transfer
Inventions
Management of Technology and Innovation
Science technology and innovation
Capabilities approach
0502 economics and business
Humans
Developing Countries
media_common
Philosophy of science
Original Paper
North–South partnerships
Human rights
business.industry
Health Policy
Research
05 social sciences
Social change
Capacity building
Innovation system
Research systems
Issues, ethics and legal aspects
Knowledge
Science policy
Business
0509 other social sciences
Ethical Theory
050203 business & management
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14715546
- Volume :
- 25
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Science and engineering ethics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....368c813e8801b9ba826cef5885a5b29d