Science Policy history: data points, morality tale, or precedent?

1. Science Policy history:data points, morality tale, orprecedent? William Thomas Junior Research Fellow Centre for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Imperial College London g.thomas@imperial.ac.uk

2. A tiny bit of meta…. • A policy is a defined response to a set of defined circumstances • Policy logic is necessarily imperfect; difficult to judge policy by its intrinsic merits

3. A tiny bit of meta…. • A policy is a defined response to a set of defined circumstances • Policy logic is necessarily imperfect; difficult to judge policy by its intrinsic merits • Analysis of policy will determine whether it compares favorably to alternatives

4. A tiny bit of meta…. • A policy is a defined response to a set of defined circumstances • Policy logic is necessarily imperfect; difficult to judge policy by its intrinsic merits • Analysis of policy will determine whether it compares favorably to alternatives • Policies can be compared to competitors, but also to the past

5. Data points History as a basis of quantitative comparison

6. A tiny bit of meta…. • A policy embodies a logic governing why it is expected to work • Difficult to judges policies by their intrinsic merits • Analysis of policy will determine whether it compares favorably to alternatives • Policies can be compared to competitors, but also to the past • Easiest way to compare with the past is to find quantitative measures

7. Trends: Past vs. Present

8. Quantitative Measures • Funding • Revenues • Patents • Citations • Populations (employees, PhDs, students…) • Poll ratings

9. More details suggests more story

10. Data and its implicit narratives The Limits of the Quantitative • Obtaining, seeking out, and assembling data entails making presumptions about its provenance and meaning • To compare historical levels of funding dedicated to “basic” or “applied” research (or to “research” and “development”) is to trust we understand what is being agglomerated and measured • To ascribe significance to figures attached to this category, implies we understand their significance to each other • To compare past and present funding (or some other measure) is to dodge the issue of what constitutes an “appropriate” level • To compare research’s impact by simple metrics is to assume we know the mechanisms of “impact” The Limits of the Qualitative • Historians face equivalent, but opposite issue; often assume things like “significance” or “dominance” without meaningful measures

11. Data and Historical Analysis David Kaiser, “Cold War Requisitions, Physics Manpower, and the Production of American Physicists after World War II,” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 33 (2002): 131–159.

12. Morality tales History as a source of important “lessons”

13. More meta: the politics of comparison • If policies are preferable because they compare favourably to alternatives, there is an incentive for proponents to cast alternatives unfavourably

14. More meta: the politics of comparison • If policies are preferable because they compare favourably to alternatives, there is an incentive for proponents to cast alternatives unfavourably • Common method: claim that advocated policies embody a principle, to which competitors fail to adhere

15. More meta: the politics of comparison • If policies are preferable because they compare favourably to alternatives, there is an incentive for proponents to cast alternatives unfavourably • Common method: claim that advocated policies embody a principle, to which competitors fail to adhere • David Edgerton, “The ‘Haldane Principle’and other invented traditions in science policy” (www.historyandpolicy.org)

16. More meta: the politics of comparison • If policies are preferable because they compare favourably to alternatives, there is an incentive for proponents to cast alternatives unfavourably • Common method: claim that advocated policies embody a principle, to which competitors fail to adhere • David Edgerton, “The ‘Haldane Principle’and other invented traditions in science policy” (www.historyandpolicy.org) • The question of whether science funding is directed by sciences misses question of how funding has balanced self-determination with accountability

17. Common Lessons • The Haldane Principle • Snow’s criticism of “Two Cultures” • Criticism of the “War on Science” • Criticisms of the “linear model” of sci-tech • Criticisms of “technocracy” • The need for more “engagement”

18. Common Lessons Listen to Scientists More • The Haldane Principle • Snow’s criticism of “Two Cultures” • Criticism of the “War on Science” Don’t Listen to Scientists Quite So Much • Criticisms of the “linear model” of sci-tech • Criticisms of “technocracy” • The need for more “engagement”

19. Britain’s Great Morality Tale

20. Patrick Blackett on Sir Henry Tizard (1947) One of the main origins I think of the brilliance and soundness of his own judgment on matters of warfare […] was that he made it a policy to seek out the young men, in the establishments and in the squadrons, who were actually doing the real jobs. Few, for instance, who attended it, will forget a Conference in London, the day after a heavy blitz, where he assembled fighter pilots and Air Marshals, radar designers and administrators to thrash the problem of the defence of London. This is the spirit in which the tasks of peace should, but are not always, being tackled. Tizard had uniquely the quality of knowing what he could not know himself; and of going to the man on the job to find out.

21. The Tale of Tizard and Lindemann

22. Nature (2009)

23. Nature (2011)

25. Common Lessons Listen to Scientists More • The Haldane Principle • Snow’s criticism of “Two Cultures” • Criticism of the “War on Science” • Criticism of “Luddism” Don’t Listen to Scientists Quite So Much • Criticisms of the “linear model” of sci-tech • Criticisms of “technocracy” • The need for more “engagement” • “In praise of Luddism”

26. Tizard’s son on Science and Government Peter Tizard: “As regards the content of writings about my father they have all been heavily and unfortunately influenced by that deplorable (although exceptionally well written) book by Snow in which the author is the real hero!” Peter Tizard to A. V. Hill, 2 August 1972

27. R. V. Jones vs. C. P. Snow Snow: “We must never tolerate a scientific overlord again.” Jones: “…but, if we do not have some form of scientific leadership, a non-scientific administration may be able to act as it pleases, exploiting the differences between the scientists, or at best making up its mind on what it thinks of the individual scientists as persons, in which event we are nearly back to the overlord concept. It is obviously dangerous, as Sir Charles says, ‘to have a scientist in a position of isolated power, the only scientist among non-scientists,’ but the danger lies much more in the isolation than in the power; and this observation is not peculiar to scientists.” (Oxford Magazine, 9 May 1963)

28. Patrick Blackett vs. R. V. Jones Blackett: “You give no hint as to where in the Government machine these men should be placed, or what authority they should have, and over what departments or organisations. You mention no formal relation with other scientists but do make the surprising remark ‘Provided that the scientist concerned does not isolate himself from the experience and opinion of his fellow scientists…’. You mention no obligation to consult, to do or not to do seems to be left to the overlord’s initiative.” Blackett to Jones, 4 January 1963

29. Patrick Blackett vs. R. V. Jones Blackett: “Evidently I did not make it clear to you that the plan which is being seriously considered at present has been drawn up by a group of us […] and has been adopted by the Royal Society. In great confidence I enclose a document which is going to be the basis of evidence to be submitted next month to the Trend Committee. Many of us have given a lot of thought in recent years to remedying the obvious defects in the higher organisation of science in this country…” Blackett to Jones, 14 January 1963

30. precedent History as a way of clarifying what we “know” (or at least what we should know)

31. The Uses of Precedent • Precedent in tradition of common law • Knowledge of precedent crucial for success in legal proceedings • Power of precedent: lend specificity to ideas embodied in practices • Not reliant on policymakers’, politicians’, or polemicists’ articulations of policy rationales • Cut through essential principles; get to deeper ideas

32. Agricultural Research and Practice • A starting proposition: agricultural research has always been engaged and coordinated with problems of practice. The question is: how? • Pre-Second World War

33. Agricultural Research and Practice • A starting proposition: agricultural research has always been engaged and coordinated with problems of practice. The question is: how? • Pre-Second World War • County-level connections between farms, education, industry, research institutes, and civil service

34. Agricultural Research and Practice • A starting proposition: agricultural research has always been engaged and coordinated with problems of practice. The question is: how? • Pre-Second World War • County-level connections between farms, education, industry, research institutes, and civil service • Post-Second World War • Stronger emphasis on formal policy apparatus

35. Agricultural Improvement Council • Established in 1941, long-term rather than war-oriented • Objective: link agricultural research (ARC) with practical farming concerns • Main style of work: recruit a diverse council who can serve on and recommend members for committees and sub-committees • Initial postwar task: oversee the establishment of a series of Experimental Husbandry Farms and Experimental Horticulture Stations, which would undertake tests pertinent to regional agriculture

36. Experimental Stations

37. Agricultural Improvement Council (1955)

38. Agricultural Improvement Council (1955)

39. How did this system work? • The AIC set a precedent for balancing research with practice, scientific expertise with experienced knowledge • How was expertise balanced with local knowledge and representation of interests? • Who were the people who were selected? How were they selected? What experience did they bring to the table? • How were problems investigated? What role did investigation results play in broader policy processes? • How did this process change prewar system? • What material effects did changes to this system have?

40. Agricultural Advisory Council (1962)