Science and Technology Policy in the United States: Open Systems in Action

by Sylvia Kraemer

Overview

In this lucidly-written introduction to the topic, Sylvia Kraemer draws upon her extensive experience in government to develop a useful and powerful framework for thinking about the American approach to shaping and managing scientific innovation. Kraemer suggests that the history of science, technology, and politics is best understood as a negotiation of ongoing tensions between open and closed systems. Open systems depend on universal access to information that is complete, verifiable, and appropriately used. Closed systems, in contrast, are composed of exclusive and often proprietary features, which are designed to control usage. Kraemer shows the promise and limits of open systems in advancing scientific progress as well as the nation’s economic vitality

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813539478
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	06/20/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Sylvia Kraemer earned her Ph.D. in history from Johns Hopkins University and later served in various policy capacities for NASA, including chief historian and represented the agency during the Clinton Administration's development of national space policy. She has also taught science and technology policy at George Mason University and Colby College. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
Chapter 1.
Introduction: Open Systems
Chapter 2.
Technology and the Ideology of Free Markets
An Open System for the New Republic
A National and Open Commercial System.
Technological Innovation in "One Great American System"
Technology: A Critical Role in Economic Productivity
Chapter 3.
The Ideologies of Science
The Bush Report
The Ideology of Science
Creating the National Science Foundation: A Closed System at Bay
A Partial Victory for The Bush Paradigm: The National Academy of Sciences
Chapter 4.
The Science and Technology Policy Toolkit
General Observations
The Toolkit
Mission Agencies
Intra-mural Laboratories
Federally Funded Research and Development Centers
National Infrastructure and Regulatory Agencies
Targeted Programs.
Federal Procurement Policy
Priority and Profits: U.S. Patent Policy
The Broadened Scope of Patentability
Federally Funded Inventions
International Harmonization of Patent Laws
Chapter 5.
Science, Technology and Political Authority
Science and Engineering in Federal Courts
The Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA): Governing by Numbers
Scientific and Technical Data under the Freedom of Information Act
Reliable Information, Peer Review, and Federal Regulatory Policy
Federal Advisory Committees: An Alternate Route to Power Chapter 6.
Open Systems in a Digital World
Cyberspace As An Open System
The First and Fourth Amendments in Cyberspace
Freedom of Speech
The Fourth Amendment.
Federal Regulation of Internet Highways
Monopoly Power in the Software Industry Chapter 7.
Open Systems in Outer Space
Creatures of the Cold War: NASA and U.S. Space Policy
A Costly Aberration: Man on the Moon
Commercialization: Demobilization by Other Means
U.S. Space Policy in the Dawn of the 21st Century Chapter 8.
The Crisis in American Health Care
Expert Authority
Feeding the Leviathan
Health Care Reform
The Promise and Perils of Biomedicine
A $100 Billion Pharmacopoeia and Too Little Flu Vaccine
Commercializing Biomedical Research: Open Systems in Conflict Chapter 9.
Fossil Fuels and Clean Air
Nature as an Open System and the Foundations of U.S. Energy Policy
Energy Supply and Demand: Policy and Paradoxes
Environmental Policy and the True Costs of Fossil Fuels Chapter 10:
Epilogue
Appendix: Essay on Sources Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

This is an original and important study that will have a significant impact on the way the scholarly community and the informed reading public view the reality of science and technology policy in this country.

professor of history, Duke University - Alex Roland

Kraemer's book ably sets policy and policymaking for science and technology in the United States where it belongs, in the larger context of the nation's political economy, and she convincingly contends that they best serve society when they operate in the light of democratic openness.

Yale University - Daniel Kevles

This is an outstanding piece of work by a leader in the field who brings intellectual depth and real-life experience inside federal agencies to her study of science and technology policy in the United States.

Dean and Hazel Professor of Public Policy, School of Public Policy, George Mason - Kingsley E. Haynes

Dr. Sylvia Kraemer superbly highlights historical events in the context of global science and technology competitiveness. Well written, the best history of the national policy evolution on the science and technology, this book is recommended for historians, policy makers and general readers alike.

Distinguished Research Professor and Director, Office of International Medical P - Arnauld Nicogossian

Historias 98 interview with Natalie Kimball
https://secolas.org/media/historias-98-el-embarazo-no-deseado-y-el-aborto-en-bolivia-con-natalie-kimball/

Historias 98

This is an outstanding piece of work by a leader in the field who brings intellectual depth and real-life experience inside federal agencies to her study of science and technology policy in the United States.

From the Publisher