Kaldewey David
Forum Internationale Wissenschaft, University of Bonn, Heussallee 18-24, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
Minerva. 2018;56(2):161-182. doi: 10.1007/s11024-017-9332-2. Epub 2017 Sep 4.
This article analyzes the concept of "grand challenges" as part of a shift in how scientists and policymakers frame and communicate their respective agendas. The history of the grand challenges discourse helps to understand how identity work in science and science policy has been transformed in recent decades. Furthermore, the question is raised whether this discourse is only an indicator, or also a factor in this transformation. Building on conceptual history and historical semantics, the two parts of the article reconstruct two discursive shifts. First, the observation that in scientific communication references to "problems" are increasingly substituted by references to "challenges" indicates a broader cultural trend of how attitudes towards what is problematic have shifted in the last decades. Second, as the grand challenges discourse is rooted in the sphere of sports and competition, it introduces a specific new set of societal values and practices into the spheres of science and technology. The article concludes that this process can be characterized as the sportification of science, which contributes to self-mobilization and, ultimately, to self-optimization of the participating scientists, engineers, and policymakers.
本文分析了“重大挑战”这一概念，它是科学家和政策制定者构建并传达各自议程方式转变的一部分。重大挑战话语的历史有助于理解近几十年来科学和科学政策中的身份构建是如何转变的。此外，还提出了这样一个问题：这种话语究竟只是一个指标，还是这种转变的一个因素。基于概念史和历史语义学，本文的两个部分重构了两次话语转变。首先，观察到在科学传播中，对“问题”的提及越来越多地被对“挑战”的提及所取代，这表明在过去几十年里，人们对问题的态度发生了更广泛的文化转变。其次，由于重大挑战话语植根于体育和竞争领域，它将一套特定的新的社会价值观和实践引入了科学和技术领域。文章得出结论，这一过程可被描述为科学的体育化，它有助于参与其中的科学家、工程师和政策制定者实现自我动员，并最终实现自我优化。
