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Social Equity and Distributional Impacts
of
Science and Technology
A joint project with the
Consortium for Science
Policy and Outcomes and
The Decision Theater
of Arizona State University.
Case studies
Access to scientific knowledge and
technological tools enhances social capital, but such access is highly unequal.
While there is widespread awareness of the inequities in the distribution of S&T
benefits, there is no theory about why this occurs and no research documenting
the skewness of distributions.
The purpose of the research is to develop
useful knowledge about the factors affecting the distributional impacts of S&T.
The focus is on factors internal to science and technology knowledge production
processes rather than the social factors that mitigate distributional impacts
(e.g., income inequities; lack of universal health care).
There is a great deal of sensitivity in the
scientific and technical community regarding blatant abuses of human research
subjects, from the Tuskegee Trials to inappropriate testing on vulnerable
populations such as children or prisoners. There is also a great deal of
research and awareness of the economic inequities in our world that lead to
science and technology policy issues such as the “digital divide” or limited
access to advanced medical technologies. This study aims to investigate the more
subtle ways in which low-income populations may be marginalized from the
processes associated with and implementation of science and technology policy.
How do the structural aspects of science and
the scientific enterprise marginalize some groups of people? What role, if any,
do marginalized individuals (in particular, those who are marginalized due to
their economic status) have in defining scientific problems and reaping the
benefits of scientific research? Do scientific research agendas and outcomes
differentially affect people along the economic spectrum?
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