Mapping the Dynamics of Science and Technology


Book Description

This book is a collection of works regarding the interactions of science, technology, and society.




Dynamics of Science-Based Innovation


Book Description

This volume intends to give an insight into progress in the field of studies on modern science and technology. Researchers from Sweden, Japan and Germany began a "three country comparative study" in 1984. One of the primary aims of this study group was to better take account of the increasing importance of Japan in both analytical work and technology policy. To this end, researchers from the Research Policy Institute (RPI) at the University of Lund, the Graduate School of Policy Science at Saitama University in Urawa, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research in Karlsruhe met almost every year with policy makers from the three countries, in order to see how well the scientific debate is reflected in the interests of practitioneers in the related policies. The cooperation with the Swedish Board for Technical Development (STU)!, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (Monbusho), and the German Federal Ministry for Research and Technology (BMFT) brought about numerous "grey" papers, publications and two volumes of seminar proceedings. The first book2 deals with the problems of measuring technological change and summarizes tentative research plans from our first meetings. I concluded then, in November 1986, that "quantitative results are to be checked in a qualitative discursive process with the involved people. ( . . . ) The interaction of various indicators raises the pressure of argument and credibility. Case studies in dynamic fields of technology ideally supplement quantitative approaches.




Mapping Scientific Frontiers


Book Description

This is an examination of the history and the state of the art of the quest for visualizing scientific knowledge and the dynamics of its development. Through an interdisciplinary perspective this book presents profound visions, pivotal advances, and insightful contributions made by generations of researchers and professionals, which portrays a holistic view of the underlying principles and mechanisms of the development of science. This updated and extended second edition: highlights the latest advances in mapping scientific frontiers examines the foundations of strategies, principles, and design patterns provides an integrated and holistic account of major developments across disciplinary boundaries “Anyone who tries to follow the exponential growth of the literature on citation analysis and scientometrics knows how difficult it is to keep pace. Chaomei Chen has identified the significant methods and applications in visual graphics and made them clear to the uninitiated. Derek Price would have loved this book which not only pays homage to him but also to the key players in information science and a wide variety of others in the sociology and history of science.” – Eugene Garfield “This is a wide ranging book on information visualization, with a specific focus on science mapping. Science mapping is still in its infancy and many intellectual challenges remain to be investigated and many of which are outlined in the final chapter. In this new edition Chaomei Chen has provided an essential text, useful both as a primer for new entrants and as a comprehensive overview of recent developments for the seasoned practitioner.” – Henry Small Chaomei Chen is a Professor in the College of Information Science and Technology at Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA, and a ChangJiang Scholar at Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Information Visualization and the author of Turning Points: The Nature of Creativity (Springer, 2012) and Information Visualization: Beyond the Horizon (Springer, 2004, 2006).




Mapping Global Dynamics


Book Description

This book asks: What are the most suitable “mapping strategies” for detecting patterns of global dynamics? It adopts a spatial perspective when trying to understand “Global Dynamics” – and sets out to revolutionise the concept of space as such. Spatial views – on levels of increasing abstraction, reflection and self-organisation – are developed along eight case studies including air emissions, environmental radioactivity, deforestation, energy from biomass, land use change, food supply, water quality and cooperative interdisciplinary learning for global change. This book’s conceptual innovation consists in performing a transformation from “space & time” into “functional state space & evolutionary time” in order to better recognise the structural patterns of long-term global dynamics. A transdisciplinary readership in academia – including geography, philosophy, economics, global change and future research – that is interested in enlarging scientific concepts beyond classical borders – would be most welcome!




Models of Science Dynamics


Book Description

Models of Science Dynamics aims to capture the structure and evolution of science, the emerging arena in which scholars, science and the communication of science become themselves the basic objects of research. In order to capture the essence of phenomena as diverse as the structure of co-authorship networks or the evolution of citation diffusion patterns, such models can be represented by conceptual models based on historical and ethnographic observations, mathematical descriptions of measurable phenomena, or computational algorithms. Despite its evident importance, the mathematical modeling of science still lacks a unifying framework and a comprehensive study of the topic. This volume fills this gap, reviewing and describing major threads in the mathematical modeling of science dynamics for a wider academic and professional audience. The model classes presented cover stochastic and statistical models, system-dynamics approaches, agent-based simulations, population-dynamics models, and complex-network models. The book comprises an introduction and a foundational chapter that defines and operationalizes terminology used in the study of science, as well as a review chapter that discusses the history of mathematical approaches to modeling science from an algorithmic-historiography perspective. It concludes with a survey of remaining challenges for future science models and their relevance for science and science policy.




Handbook of Science and Technology Studies


Book Description

"This volume represents the social constructivist turn of the field. It is evident that social constructivism made a major impact on the field during the 1970s and 1980s. The diverse papers included here highlight the role of ethnography in STS. In addition, we are exposed to new perspectives of the multicultural and gendered nature of knowledge production." —Science, Technology, and Society For the most current, comprehensive resource in this rapidly evolving field, look no further than the Revised Edition of the Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. This masterful volume is the first resource in more than 15 years to define, summarize, and synthesize this complex multidisciplinary, international field. Tightly edited with contributions by an internationally recognized team of leading scholars, this volume addresses the crucial contemporary issues—both traditional and nonconventional—social studies, political studies, and humanistic studies in this changing field. Containing theoretical essays, extensive literature reviews, and detailed case studies, this remarkable volume clearly sets the standard for the field. It does nothing less than establish itself as the benchmark, one that will carry the field well into the next century. "The long-awaited Handbook of Science and Technology Studies sponsored by the Society for Social Studies of Science is a truly substantial work, both in size and in the breadth of its many contributions. It is a rich and valuable guide to much that is transpiring in the field of Science and Technology Studies. In the editors′ words, it is ′an unconventional but arresting atlas of the field at a particular moment in its history.′" —Science, Technology & Society "This book is not only an important resource for practitioners, but it also may help to spark the curiosity of those who are outside the field—including scientists and engineers themselves—and so pull the ′half-seen world′ of science and technology studies even more fully into the light of day." —American Scientist "The book as a whole is an impressive testimony to the vitality of a burgeoning field." —New Scientist "It reflects the international and interdisciplinary nature of the society. An excellent resource" —Choice




Evaluative Informetrics: The Art of Metrics-Based Research Assessment


Book Description

We intend to edit a Festschrift for Henk Moed combining a “best of” collection of his papers and new contributions (original research papers) by authors having worked and collaborated with him. The outcome of this original combination aims to provide an overview of the advancement of the field in the intersection of bibliometrics, informetrics, science studies and research assessment.




Library Trends


Book Description




The Social Dynamics of Information and Communication Technology


Book Description

What shapes the role of Information and Communication Technologies in our everyday life? Despite the speed with which information and communication technologies such as the PC, mobile telephone and internet have found their way into society, there remains a good deal of debate surrounding their adoption and use. Through empirical studies covering a broad range of everyday life and work settings, this volume provides grounded insights into the social dynamics influencing how ICTs are both shaped and experienced. Specifically, the book examines the contributions of diverse disciplines to our understanding of these processes, the symbolic nature of technologies, the influence of design on the experience of ICTs, the role of users in influencing that design, the social constraints affecting the use of those technologies, and strategies for evaluating the social consequences of ICT innovations.




Handbook of Quantitative Studies of Science and Technology


Book Description

Quantitative studies of science and technology represent the research field of utilization of mathematical, statistical, and data-analytical methods and techniques for gathering, handling, interpreting, and predicting a variety of features of the science and technology enterprise, such as performance, development, and dynamics. The field has both strongly developed applied research as well as basic research characteristics.The principal purpose of this handbook is to present this wide range of topics in sufficient depth to give readers a reasonably systematic understanding of the domain of contemporary quantitative studies of science and technology, a domain which incorporates theory, methods and techniques, and applications. In addressing this domain, the handbook aims at different groups of readers: those conducting research in the field of science and technology, including (graduate) students, and those who are to use results of the work presented in this book.