Anais do XXI Seminário Internacional Nanotecnologias, Sociedade e Meio Ambiente desafios jurídicos éticos e sociais para a “grande transição sustentável” (XXI SEMINANOSOMA) 334 placed on the transformative significance of SwafS approaches at the conjunction of the two fields of EU’s public policies and Science and Technology Studies (STS), aiming to highlight the constitutively “socio-technical” nature of research and innovation dynamics. According to the MASIS project expert group20, the semantic shift from science and society to science in society reflects a broader understanding of science-society relations and, at the same time, a deeper commitment to promote higher levels of robustness in this relationship. They thus argue that [t]he semantic turn from Science and Society to Science in Society as part of the progression from the sixth to the seventh EU Framework Programme emphasises a growing awareness that scientific knowledge production is a social activity within this changing context. It also recognizes the complexity and subtleness of the relation between science and society and the embeddedness of science in a broader cultural and political context. ‘Science in society’ is a broad notion, covering e.g. political and public debates and initiatives related to the place of science in society, changes in academic institutions and the role and responsibilities of the individual scientist, communication of science in multiple formats and among various societal actors, and procedures for public involvement in decision making related to science and technology. (Mejlgaard and Bloch 2012: 25) It is, they insist, an inclusive notion of scientific research that is so understood in a broader social and policy context because [t]he aim [of this perspective] is to contribute to the implementation of the ERA and to build a democratic knowledge‐based society by stimulating a harmonious integration of scientific and technological endeavour in Europe via the encouragement of broader public engagement. (EC 2009:6) With regard to quality, it is argued that strategic research is able to combine relevance and excellence, i.e. such opposition between basic research (excellence) and socially relevant research is not in the nature of scientific research because [s]trategic research combines relevance (to specific contexts, possibly local) and excellence (the advancement of science as such). The contrast between fundamental (and scientifically excellent) research on the one hand and relevant research on the other hand is not a contrast of principles. It has more to do with the institutional division of labour than with the nature of scientific research. (EC 2009: 12) 20 MASIS: “Monitoring Policy and Research Activities on Science in Society in Europe” (http:// www.masis.eu/english/home/) was a European project to map and monitor the main activ- ities in the Science in Society in Europe (FP7) programme involving 38 countries. It aimed to make the programme’s actions more visible and promote collaborations and interactions among scientists, policy makers and society at large.
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