Olof Hallonsten: Stop evaluating science – a historical-sociological argument

Episode von RMZ Science Works von Robert K. Merton Zentrum für Wissenschaftsforschung · 22. Januar 2025 · 45 min

Although science has been a formidably successful force of social and technological development in the modern era, and a main reason for the wealth and well-being of current societies compared to previous times, a fundamental distrust characterizes its current status in society. According to prevalent discourse, science is insufficiently productive and in need of stricter governance and bureaucratic management, with performance evaluation by the means of quantitative metrics as a key tool to increase efficiency. The basis of this notion appears to be a belief that the key or only purpose of science is to drive economic growth, or sustainable development in combination with economic growth. I analyze and deconstruct these beliefs with the help of theory from the classic sociology of science, as well as more recent conceptualizations of economization, democratization, and commodification of scientific knowledge and the institution of science. I thereby add a historical-sociological analysis to the current debate over evaluation in science, to conclude that the current ubiquity of performance evaluation in science for the most part is pointless and counterproductive, and that this state of science policy is in dire need of reevaluation in order to secure science’s continued productivity and contribution to social and technological innovation.

Weitere Episoden von „RMZ Science Works“

• Cornelia Schendzielorz /Justo Serrano-Zamora /Staffan Edling: Science under pressure: Engaging with science and democracy in hybrid sites 22. Juli 2026
• Claudia Göbel: A fresh look at science-public relations, their problems, and digital transformations 24. Juni 2026
• Susanne Wollin-Giering & Markus Hoffmann: Epistemic factors affecting the (dis)continuation of research with missing resources 10. Juni 2026
• Yoanna Yankova/Jens Ambrasat: Promotion into the worse? Gendered culture in academia 27. Mai 2026
• Ayat Mirzaie/Masoumeh Qarakhani: Scientific professionalism under constraint: Associations, expertise boundaries, and external pressure 13. Mai 2026
• Dieter Plehwe: Science and think tanks: A complicated relationship 29. April 2026
• Catherine Herfeld: Model Transfer and its Role in Awakening Sleeping Beauties in Science 15. April 2026
• Veit Braun: Memories Are Made of This: Materielle Erinnerung in Biobanken 4. März 2026
• Paula Muhr: Limits to the Circulation of Epistemic Critique in the Recent Reanalyses of the EHT Images of the M87* Black Hole 18. Februar 2026
• Willem Halffman/Serge Horbach: The library and the database: two imaginaries for the research literature 4. Februar 2026
• Sebastian Büttner: In der Wissenskrise? Politisierung von Wissen und Expertise als Herausforderung für die Soziologie 21. Januar 2026
• Sheena F. Bartscherer/Sven Ulpts/Bart Penders/Sarahanne Field: The (anti)social replication of replication: exploring how replication moves across epistemic communities 7. Januar 2026
• Marco Seeber: The evolution of the scientific publishing market, its drivers and implications 10. Dezember 2025
• Chérifa Boukacem-Zeghmouri & Jie Xu: The big transformation? Early Career Researchers as they race in the open scholarly world. Perspectives from France and China 26. November 2025
• Jesper W. Schneider: Questionable Research Practices, what are they and so should we worry? 12. November 2025

Alle Episoden von RMZ Science Works · Mehr Wissenschaft-Podcasts