Documenting Post-War Activist Science

这项探索性研究小额赠款将资助一个学者和档案管理员的小型会议，探讨在活动家和公共利益科学领域创建在线档案的可行性。从20世纪40年代末到70年代，美国科学界的一个重要组成部分发现自己与主要的国家机构有着复杂的关系。一方面，在对冷战的“国家安全状态”担忧的刺激下，联邦资金自由流动。这项慷慨的资助扩大了政府的研究实验室系统，极大地影响了大学和工业环境中科学研究的规模、范围和性质。另一方面，许多科学家个人反对国家政策的某些要素，既有道德上的理由，也有技术科学上的理由。这些科学家中的一些人通过公共利益和激进组织来组织他们的异议，这些组织为科学和政治替代方案辩护。探索科学中这些不同机构关系之间的复杂性和紧张关系对于更好地理解二战后美国科学知识和社会背景的相互作用至关重要。冷战政策对科学界和更传统机构内的科学知识的影响已成为一个强有力的研究领域。然而，关于活动家和公共利益科学与更主流的科学界和机构之间关系的研究相对较少。一些学者已经开始探索激进科学和科学家的历史和社会学，以及他们对公众和政治对科学知识理解的影响（最明确的，Moore 1995; Kuznick 1991; Lewenstein 1999; Nye 1999; Wang 1999）。一些学者之间的非正式讨论已经确定了一项紧迫的历史需要：找到并在必要时保存战后时期与活动家和公共利益科学有关的现有档案资源。这项工作还可能包括收集战后时期积极参与政治问题的著名科学家的口述历史。虽然有一些材料存在，也进行了许多采访，但它们往往是分散的、不为人知的，或者是无法公开获得的。此外，随着战后一代科学家步入生命的尽头，他们的论文正被分散，有时甚至丢失。必须开展一个紧急项目来查明这些资源并加以保护。这个项目的资金将允许在华盛顿特区与2000年2月的美国科学促进会会议一起召开一个小型计划会议。会议的目的是系统地探讨一个更彻底的项目是否值得发展。

This Small Grants for Exploratory Research funding will fund a small conference of scholars and archivists to explore the feasability of creating an in-line archives in the area of activist and public interest science. From the late 1940s through the l970s, a significant element of the American scientific community found itself in a complex relationship with major national institutions. On the one hand, Federal funds were flowing freely, spurred by "national security state" concerns about the cold war. This largesse expanded the government's research laboratory system and greatly affected the size, scope, and character of science carried out in university and industry settings. On the other hand, many scientists personally objected to certain elements of national policy, both on moral grounds and on technical scientific grounds. Some of these scientists organized their dissent through public interest and activist groups that argued for scientific and political alternatives. Exploring complexities and tensions among these diverse institutional relationshipsin science is crucial to better understand the interactions of scientific knowledge and social context in post-World War II America. The impact of Cold War policies upon the scientific community and scientific knowledge within more traditional institutions has become a robust area of research. However, relatively few studies exist on the relationships between activist and public interest science and the more mainstream scientific community and institutions. A number of scholars have begun exploring the history and sociology of activist science and scientists and their effect on public and political understandings of scientific knowledge (most explicitly, Moore 1995; but also Kuznick 1991; Lewenstein 1999; Nye 1999; Wang 1999). Informal discussions among some scholars have identified a pressing historical need: to locate and, if necessary, preserve existing archival resources of the post-war period related to activist and public interest science. This effort might also include collecting oral histories of prominent scientists active in political issues during the post-war period. While some materials exist, and many interviews have been conducted, they are often scattered, unknown, or not publicly available. Moreover, as the scientists of the postwar generation reach the ends of their lives, their papers are being dispersed and sometimes lost. An urgent project must be undertaken to identify these resources and preserve them. Funding for this project will allow for a small planning meeting in Washington D.C. in conjunction with the February 2000 AAAAS Meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to explore systematically whether a more thorough project is worth developing.