Issues: Who controls science and technology?

Who controls science and technology?

SGR produces a range of resources on the issue of 'Who controls science and technology?' This includes the power of vested interests (especially the military and private corporations), openness and democracy in science, and public engagement and participation. Two of our main projects focus on military influence on science and technology, and corporate influence on science and technology.

Texts of presentations by Chris Langley, SGR, to Pugwash Ethical Science Group, Imperial College, London, October 2005, and Totton Sixth-Form College, Southampton, November, 2005
 

Response to a consultation, 1 November 2005
 

Comment article on The Guardian website by Stuart Parkinson, SGR, on the way Lancaster University dealt with protestors, and how this reflects on UK policy on universities and science, 19 October 2005
 

Presentation given by Dr Chris Langley, SGR, at the 9th Annual Conference on Economics and Security at the University of Bristol on 23-25 June, 2005
 

Presentation by Stuart Parkinson, SGR, on 'Engineering in Society' undergraduate course, Lancaster University, May 2005
 

Presentation by Dr Chris Langley, SGR, as part of a Debate at the Royal Institution on 11 May 2005
 

Military involvement in science and technology - and some alternatives

SGR report - written by Chris Langley; edited by Stuart Parkinson and Philip Webber; 19 January 2005

The UK’s involvement in the ‘War on terror’, especially the use of military force in Iraq, has been one of the most hotly contested issues in recent years. Meanwhile public confidence in science has been hit hard by controversies from GM crops to the MMR vaccine. This report investigates where military and scientific endeavours have intertwined—revealing the extent of the power and influence that the military has within UK science and engineering. The report describes how this influence has developed since the end of the Cold War, and examines whether the current level of military involvement in science and technology is the best way of contributing to the goals of peace, social justice and environmental sustainability.
 

SGR Response to consultation on UK Government paper, 2004
 

Article by Stuart Parkinson, SGR, published in Science and Public Affairs in September 2004