The Grand Challenges Discourse: Transforming Identity Work in Science and Science Policy

This article analyzes the concept of “grand challenges” as part of a shift in how scientists and policymakers frame and communicate their respective agendas. The history of the grand challenges discourse helps to understand how identity work in science and science policy has been transformed in recent decades. Furthermore, the question is raised whether this discourse is only an indicator, or also a factor in this transformation. Building on conceptual history and historical semantics, the two parts of the article reconstruct two discursive shifts. First, the observation that in scientific communication references to “problems” are increasingly substituted by references to “challenges” indicates a broader cultural trend of how attitudes towards what is problematic have shifted in the last decades. Second, as the grand challenges discourse is rooted in the sphere of sports and competition, it introduces a specific new set of societal values and practices into the spheres of science and technology. The article concludes that this process can be characterized as the sportification of science, which contributes to self-mobilization and, ultimately, to self-optimization of the participating scientists, engineers, and policymakers.     

学校体育现代化的思考与展望

中华人民共和国第七届大学生运动会科学论文报告会于2004年8月25日在上海交通大学举行,受大运会科学论文报告会组织委员会的邀请,江苏省副省长王湛先生和中国科学院资深院士、中国科学院上海生命科学研究院、上海药物研究所有机化学、药物学家嵇汝运先生分别作了题为“学校体育现代化的思考与展望”和“生命、运动与健康”的主题演讲,经二位作者同意,本刊将这两篇主题报告在新开辟的栏目———“特邀论坛”中正式发表,以飨读者。王湛先生演讲的是一篇从大教育的角度思考学校体育现代化问题的论文,文章不但首次提出了学校体育领域中的一个新的命题———“学校体育现代化”,而且还对这一命题进行了深刻的揭示与讨论,给人以启迪,值得一读。嵇汝运院士长期致力于健康科学教育的科学普及工作。他的报告以通俗简明的生命科学知识,从生命的能量代谢基本过程、心血管在生命过程中的作用以及现代文明疾病对身心健康的影响等几个方面阐述了运动与健康的关系。嵇汝运院士积极倡导:生命在于运动,运动为了健康;生命在于运动,运动注意平衡。这一倡导寓意深刻。