13 Diversity in Scientific Communities: The Case of European-Japanese Cooperation at Fusion for Energy
Year: 2021
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Cismondi 13 Diversity in Scientific Communities: The Case of European-Japanese Cooperation at Fusion for EnergyDiversity enhances productivity.Since studies have shown this positive effect of diversity, plenty of manuals have been published which point to the allegedly "best" ways of managing cultural diversity in companies and public institutions (e.g.Konrad et al., 2006; Klarsfeld, 2010; Plummer, 2002).Despite the high number of publications on this topic, less attention has been devoted to the diversity which characterizes scientific and academic environments in particular.Although the development of science relies on mobility and exchange, the belief in the objectivity and impartiality of scientific results, the use of English as a professional lingua franca, and the convergence of resources (know-how, money, scientists) into big projects, might all distract from the specific differentiation which characterizes the scientific environment.In fact, scientists from different cultural and professional backgrounds develop their work by cooperating in a variety of laboratories and research centres spread throughout different countries.They share knowledge and techniques by negotiating concepts, norms and approaches developed in various contexts.The shared lingua franca consists more appropriately of a shared technical jargon, whereas the "global language", just like any other global resource, is appropriated and used very differently by the speakers (Blommaert, 2010).Science is affected by political, economic, social and environmental change, as well as by power (e.g. that of different interests competing in the development of specific scientific subjects), all fields of which are characterized by negotiations from the local to the national up to the transnational and global scale.In addition, science relies not only on scientific standards, but also on administrative and legal frameworks.As a result, scientific knowledge and what is generically addressed as "scientific culture" in the singular, reveal, after thoroughgoing analysis, a wide spectrum of diversities, all of which contribute, albeit in variable degrees, to the success of the whole scientific enterprise.Nevertheless, this has not been in the focus of the attention while looking at diversity in science, which is more commonly associated with the lack of representation of specific social groups (e.g.women, ethnic minorities, differently able people, etc.) and with the need of developing targeted strategies in order to increase their participation in the community.This is, of course, an important task in promoting access to educational and scientific institutions, which is a necessary prerequisite to address white male privilege in structures of power and in the production of knowledge.This chapter, however, does not stake a claim to offer an exhaustive picture of this complex issue, which would deserve a far more extensive undertaking, but rather proposes to examine the phenomenon of (trans)cultural exchange in a particular scientific environment, which is that of the European-Japanese cooperation within Broader Fusion Development.With this purpose in mind, here are some initial
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W3205048620