The new production of legitimacy: STI policy discourses beyond the contract metaphor

Science, technology and innovation (STI) policy is borne by a set of historically contingent concepts, models, and metaphors. From around 1950 to 1980, its language was dominated by the contract metaphor and the linear model of innovation, both of which have catered for beliefs in stability, orderliness, and distinct social roles for scientists and policymakers. While prominent new models of the 1990s (mode 2, post-normal science, triple helix) had challenged the old contract metaphor, they remained experts’ brainchildren. After 2000, in contrast, we observe the emergence and pluralization of several new and powerful concepts. Building on conceptual history and cognitive linguistics, we analyze three of these new concepts: “frontier research,” “grand challenges,” and “responsible research and innovation” (RRI). Whereas the “frontier” and “grand challenges” convey many layered historical meanings, a distinct metaphorical appeal, and have become popularized beyond expert’s communities, the RRI discourse, though the most ambitious one, has not yet shaken off its roots in the bureaucratic structures of the European Commission. Finally, we discuss which conceptual and metaphorical properties enable the career of STI policy discourses in the 21st century.     

Progress,innovation and regulatory science in drug development: the politics of international standard-setting

This paper examines international standard-setting in the toxicology of pharmaceuticals during the 1990s, which has involved both the pharmaceutical industry and regulatory agencies in an organization known as the International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH). The analysis shows that the relationships between innovation, regulatory science and 'progress' may be more complex and controversial than is often assumed. An assessment of the ICH's claims about the implications of 'technical' harmonization of drug-testing standards for the maintenance of drug safety, via toxicological testing, and the delivery of therapeutic progress, via innovation, is presented. By demonstrating that there is not a technoscientific validity for these claims, it is argued that, within the ICH, a discourse of technological innovation and scientific progress has been used by regulatory agencies and prominent parts of the transnational pharmaceutical industry to legitimize the lowering and loosening of toxicological standards for drug testing. The mobilization and acceptance of this discourse are shown to be pivotal to the ICH's transformation of reductions in safety standards, which are apparently against the interests of patients and public health, into supposed therapeutic benefits derived from promises of greater access to more innovative drug products. The evidence suggests that it is highly implausible that these reductions in the standards of regulatory toxicology are consistent with therapeutic progress for patients, and highlights a worrying aspect embedded in the 'technical trajectories' of regulatory science.     

Old Mr. Borden: An Unforgettable Teacher

BIOGRAPHY: Across The Busy Years by Nicholas Murray Butler. Volume 11. Charles Scribner's Sons. 452 pp. $3.75.

I Remember: The Autobiography of Abraham Flexner. Simon and Schuster. 414 PP. 3-75

Jimmy Hare, News Photographer by Cecil Carnes. The Macmillan Company. 293 pp. $3.00.

Jonathan Swift: Giant in Chains by Frank Stier Goodwin. Liveright Publishing Corp. 450 pp. $3.00.

Prince Metternich: Statesman and Lover by Roaul Auernheimer. Alliance Book Corporation. 365 pp. $3.50. Translated from the German by James A. Galston.

The Art of Biography in Eighteenth Century England by Donald A. Stauffer. Princeton University Press. 572 pp. $5-00.

Who Was This Nazarene? by Albert F. Gilmore. Prentice-Hall, Inc. 325 pp. $2.75.

EDUCATION: History and Philosophy of Education, Ancient and Medieval by Frederick Eby and Charles Flinn Arrow-wood. Prentice-Hall, Inc. 940 pp. $3.75.

Modern Philosophies of Education by John S. Brubacher. McGraw-Hill Book Company. 370 PP.

New Zealand Observer: A Schoolmaster Looks at America by J. E. Strochan. Columbia University Press, 128 pp. $1.50.

Student Teaching by Charles W. San-ford, William Habberton, and Liesette J. McHarry. College of Education, University of Illinois, 164 pp. $1.70.

FICTION: Delilah by Marcus Goodrich. Farrar and Rhinehart. 496 pp. $2.75.

English History in English Fiction by Sir John Marriott. E. P. Dutton and Co. 308 pp. $2.75.

Mighty Mountain by Archie Binns. Charles Scribner's Sons. 440 pp. $2.75.

GENERAL LITERATURE: A P: The Story of News by Oliver Gramling. Farrar and Rinehart, Inc. 493 PP. $3.50.

Bellevue by Lorraine Maynard in collaboration with Laurence Miscall. Julian Messner, Inc. 280 pp. $2.50.

The Rape of The Masses by Serge Chakotin. Translated by E. W. Dickes. Alliance Book Corporation. 310 pp. $3.00.

There Shall Be No Night by Robert E. Sherwood. Charles Scribner's Sons. 178 pp. $2.00.

Why Men Behave Like Apes and Vice Versa by Earnest Albert Hooton. Illustrated. Princeton University Press. 234 pages. $3.00.

HISTORY: Greek And The Greeks by Walter Miller. Illustrated. The Macmillan Co. 508 pp. $3.00.

Women And The West by William F. Sprague. The Christopher Publishing House. 294 pp. $3.50.

PHILOSOPHY: The Ways of Things by William Pepperell Montague. Prentice-Hall. 712 pp. $4.00.

Wars of Families of Minds by William Lowe Bryan. Yak University Press. 143 pp. $2.00.     

Carbohydrate intake and training efficacy – a randomized cross-over study

Carbohydrate (CHO) availability during endurance exercise seems to attenuate exercise-induced perturbations of cellular homeostasis and might consequently diminish the stimulus for training adaptation. Therefore, a negative effect of CHO intake on endurance training efficacy seems plausible. This study aimed to test the influence of carbohydrate intake on the efficacy of an endurance training program on previously untrained healthy adults. A randomized cross-over trial (8-week wash-out period) was conducted in 23 men and women with two 8-week training periods (with vs. without intake of 50g glucose before each training bout). Training intervention consisted of 4x45 min running/walking sessions/week at 70% of heart rate reserve. Exhaustive, ramp-shaped exercise tests with gas exchange measurements were conducted before and after each training period. Outcome measures were maximum oxygen uptake (VO_2max) and ventilatory anaerobic threshold (VT). VO_2max and VT increased after training regardless of CHO intake (VO_2max: Non-CHO 2.6 ± 3.0 ml*min^?1*kg^?1 p = 0.004; CHO 1.4 ± 2.5 ml*min^?1*kg^?1 p = 0.049; VT: Non-CHO 4.2 ± 4.2 ml*min^?1*kg^?1 p < 0.001; CHO 3.0 ± 4.2 ml*min^?1*kg^?1 p = 0.003). The 95% confidence interval (CI) for the difference between conditions was between +0.1 and +2.1 ml*min^?1*kg^?1 for VO_2max and between ?1.2 and +3.1 for VT. It is concluded that carbohydrate intake could potentially impair the efficacy of an endurance training program.     

Virtual Knowledge‐Sharing Communities of Practice at Caterpillar: Success Factors and Barriers

This article reports the results of a qualitative study of success factors and barriers to the development of virtual knowledge‐sharing communities of practice at Caterpillar Inc., a Fortune 100 multinational corporation. The study identified several prerequisites for successful knowledge management through virtual communities of practice: knowledge sharing as a key element of the corporate culture; employees regarding knowledge as a public good belonging to the whole organization, and not as their individual asset; communities self‐organizing around specific performance‐related problems or areas of professional interest of their members; and communities supported by volunteer managers and active core groups of experts. At the same time, the study has identified a number of important barriers to virtual community development. Specifically, even when employees give the highest priority to the interests of the organization, they tend to shy away from contributing knowledge for a variety of other reasons not related to information hoarding. In addition, corporate security considerations and concerns about the accuracy of the information and the potential information overload could clash with the need to promote spontaneous generation of information. Suggestions for overcoming the identified barriers, future research directions, and implications for HRD professionals are formulated.