Ence Pol Icy in Its so Cial Con Text

Pub lic sup port of sci ence is jus ti fied by three pri mary in stru men tal ra tio nales: sci en tific ad vance is nec es sary to cre ate new wealth; sci en tific ad vance is nec es sary to solve par tic u lar so ci etal prob lems; and sci en tific ad vance pro vides the in for ma tion nec es sary for mak ing ef fec tive de ci sions. Sig nif i cant and per sis tent dis par i ties be tween prom ise and performance accompany each of these rationales. Our ar gu ment is that these dis par i ties in part re flect sci ence pol icy de ci sions made with out ad e quate con sid er ation of broader so cial con texts. To ex plain this point, we pres ent an il lus tra tive ex am ple for each ra tio nale. We then dis cuss some ap proaches to more ef fec tive contextualization of sci ence pol icy de ci sions. Such ap proaches could im prove the ca pac ity of sci ence pol icy to achieve de sired so cial out comes, and re duce the po ten tial for and mag ni tude of neg a tive out comes. Fail ing this, they could at least cre ate more re al is tic ex pec ta tions and un der stand ings of the roles, and limits, of science in society.