Collaborative Research: Workshop on Science, Technology, and Inequalities, Washington, DC, 2004

美国科学促进会（AAAS）和佐治亚理工学院（Georgia Institute of Technology）之间的这项合作提议是组织一次研讨会，重点讨论目前利用科学技术减少重要不平等现象的几项尝试。许多当代观察人士担心，在知识社会中，不平等正在加剧，但实际情况比这些说法要复杂得多。研讨会将围绕三个案例研究组织讨论：卫生差距、非洲农业和药物专利。每个项目都侧重于一项旨在减少不平等现象的科学或技术政策或项目。这些方案的拥趸会与持怀疑态度的人互动。该会议的目的是综合各具体倡议的经验，并开始制定逻辑，使各机构能够设计和评估标准与税收政策和项目，以有效减少不平等现象。该项目解决了一个在科学政策研究和科学政策实践中既重要又被忽视的问题。在对科学如何为社会带来利益的一般理解中，很少考虑到科学和技术政策的分配后果。然而，这些后果从根本上塑造了日常生活和社会。研讨会的成果将以编辑后的卷形式发表，这将有助于提高旨在减少不平等现象的性别平等政策和项目的有效性。

This collaborative proposal between AAAS and Georgia Institute of Technology is to organize a workshop focused on several current attempts to use Science and Technology to reduce important inequalities. Many contemporary observers are expressing concern that inequality is growing in the Knowledge Society, but the situation is more complicated than these assertions. The workshop discussion will be organized around three case studies: health disparities, African agriculture, and drug patents. Each focuses on a science or technology policy or program that is being pursued with the goal of reducing inequalities. Enthusiasts for these options would interact with skeptics about them. The objective of that encounter is to synthesize experience across the specific initiatives and begin to develop the logic that will allow agencies to design and evaluate S&T policies and programs to reduce inequalities effectively. The project addresses a question that is both important and neglected in science policy studies and in science policy practice. Distributional consequences of science and technology policies are seldom taken into account in the general understanding of how science produces benefits for society. Yet those consequences shape everyday lives and societies in fundamental ways. The results of the workshop will be published in an edited volume that could contribute to the effectiveness of S&T policies and programs designed to reduce inequalities.