Searching for Science Policy

The findings of scientific research often provide an important baseline to the formation of public policy. However, effective communication to the larger public about what scientists do and know is a problem inherent to all democratic societies. It is the prerogative of democratic societies to determine what kind of scientific research will be funded. Searching for Science Policy offers innovative ways of thinking about how the rhetoric and practice of science operates in various institutional contexts.The book is divided into two parts. Part 1, "Policy Uses and Misuses of Science, " explores the various ways in which scientific claims are inevitably mediated by how they are used. Joel Best, draws on statistics involving missing children, violence against women, and attendance figures at political demonstrations to demonstrate how the motivations to use inaccurate and misleading numbers stems directly from the ideological and organizational interests of those using them. Judith Kleinfeld analyzes recruitment policies for women scientists at MIT, showing how hiring practices that may be justifiable on extra-scientific factors are carried out based on pseudo-scientific studies not subject to public scrutiny. Robert MacCoun addresses the journalistic misuse of drug and drug abuse statistics and shows how this profoundly distorts policy implications drawn from them. And Allan Mazur examines the role scientific evidence has come to play in the law, pointing out the pitfalls of its intrinsic quality and how such evidence may be interpreted or misinterpreted by judges and juries.Part 2, "Searching for Science Policy, " extends discussion of the role of science to specific ideas about howpublic policy-making might be improved in matters of law, family, environment, drug use, and health. Mark Kleiman weighs the sometimes conflicting claims of science and social order in formulating drug policy. Norval Glenn

Joel Best is professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. Norval Glenn is Ashbel Smith Professor of Sociology and Stiles Professor of American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches courses on the family and survey research methods. He is also research director of the Council on Families at the Institute for American Values. Jonathan B. Imber is editor-in-chief of Society, and Class of 1949 Professor in Ethics and Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College. Sheila Jasanoff is professor of science and public policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the School of Public Health. Mark A. R. Kleiman is professor of policy studies at the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research. Judith Kleinfeld is professor of psychology and director of the Northern Studies Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. S. Robert Lichter is director of the Center for Media and Public Affairs at Smith College. Robert J. MacCoun is professor of public policy and professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley Allan Mazur, a sociologist and an engineer, is professor of public affairs in the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, and Gilbert White Fellow at Resources for the Future in Washington, DC. Stanley Rothman is Mary Huggins Gamble Professor of Government Emeritus at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and the director of the college's Center for the Study of Social and Political Change.