Kerry Holden
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Biography
Before arriving at King’s to undertake a Masters in Environmental Politics, Kerry worked for five years in policy and research at a national charity. She completed her degree in Anthropology and Communication Studies at Goldsmiths College in 1999. At the other end of the spectrum to science studies she chose the anthropology of art as the main focus of her first degree, and she maintains a strong interest in art and literature (though finds little time these days to indulge a good book). In particular she enjoys photography.
Research
Kerry is interested in social studies of science and technology. She has a particular interest in biomedical science and through her thesis has explored the institutional context of scientific careers and research trajectories. She is also interested in the governance of science institutionally and at the level of national science and innovation policymaking. In addition to her thesis she works as a research assistant on a project at LSE BIOS centre that looks at scientists involved in various forms of public engagement.
Kerry’s other research interests include philosophy of the social sciences and social theory, and she has a fondness for popular histories of science (and a fascination with scientific biography).
Kerry’s other research interests include philosophy of the social sciences and social theory, and she has a fondness for popular histories of science (and a fascination with scientific biography).
PhD Thesis
On being a Scientist: Narrating the Institutional Formation of Scientific Careers and Biomedical Research
Based on a series of interviews with biomedical scientists at different career levels working within a large London university, this thesis explores how they narrate biomedicine and their careers. Their narratives reveal tensions reconciling the pursuit of science as a vocation with performing it as a job within the current drive to achieve research excellence, public accountability and economic responsiveness. This is an uneasy tension since performing science as a job is rendered somewhat less meaningful and evocative as pursuing the calling or vocation.
Broader debate about the commercial exploitation of scientific research often takes place in the abstract, with scholars and activists referring to Enlightenment ideals of the objective self (Slaughter and Rhodes 2004, Royal Society 2003) and Mertonian norms (Resnik 2007, Weatherall 2003) for recourse and reason not to rationalise scientific research within national economic policymaking. Scholarly research in the social sciences has focussed on the economic transformation of publicly funded scientific research (Mirowski and Sent 2007, Gibbons, Nowotny et al 1994) offering little knowledge of how academic scientists come to understand themselves in an arguably changing institutional landscape. Focussing on biomedical research within a large UK university, this thesis addresses this gap by presenting three narratives that emerged prominently from the data and challenging how they should be read. These three narratives can be summarised as such: lamenting a golden age, the pursuit of pure science; and auditing academia. Rereading these narratives reveals inconsistencies as well as crucial interdependences between scientists at different stages of their career, and thereby proffers critical insights into the nature of being a scientist within contemporary academia that has relevance for readdressing wider academic and policy debates.
References
Gibbons, M., Nowotny, H. et al (1994). The New Production of Knowledge: the Dynamics of Research in Contemporary Societies. London: Sage.
Mirowski, P., Sent, M. E. (2007). The commercialisation of scientific knowledge and the response of STS. The New Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. Hackett, E., Amsterdamska, O., Lynch, M., and Wajcman, J. (eds). Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Resnik, D. B. (2007). The Price of Truth: How Money Affects the Norms of Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Royal Society. 2003. Keeping Science Open: The Effects of Intellectual Property Policy on the Conduct of Science. London: Royal Society
Slaughter, S. and Rhoades, G. (2004). Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State, and Higher Education. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.
Weatherall, D. (2003). Problems for Biomedical Research at the Academia-Industrial Interface. Science and Engineering Ethics 9 (1): 43-48.
Based on a series of interviews with biomedical scientists at different career levels working within a large London university, this thesis explores how they narrate biomedicine and their careers. Their narratives reveal tensions reconciling the pursuit of science as a vocation with performing it as a job within the current drive to achieve research excellence, public accountability and economic responsiveness. This is an uneasy tension since performing science as a job is rendered somewhat less meaningful and evocative as pursuing the calling or vocation.
Broader debate about the commercial exploitation of scientific research often takes place in the abstract, with scholars and activists referring to Enlightenment ideals of the objective self (Slaughter and Rhodes 2004, Royal Society 2003) and Mertonian norms (Resnik 2007, Weatherall 2003) for recourse and reason not to rationalise scientific research within national economic policymaking. Scholarly research in the social sciences has focussed on the economic transformation of publicly funded scientific research (Mirowski and Sent 2007, Gibbons, Nowotny et al 1994) offering little knowledge of how academic scientists come to understand themselves in an arguably changing institutional landscape. Focussing on biomedical research within a large UK university, this thesis addresses this gap by presenting three narratives that emerged prominently from the data and challenging how they should be read. These three narratives can be summarised as such: lamenting a golden age, the pursuit of pure science; and auditing academia. Rereading these narratives reveals inconsistencies as well as crucial interdependences between scientists at different stages of their career, and thereby proffers critical insights into the nature of being a scientist within contemporary academia that has relevance for readdressing wider academic and policy debates.
References
Gibbons, M., Nowotny, H. et al (1994). The New Production of Knowledge: the Dynamics of Research in Contemporary Societies. London: Sage.
Mirowski, P., Sent, M. E. (2007). The commercialisation of scientific knowledge and the response of STS. The New Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. Hackett, E., Amsterdamska, O., Lynch, M., and Wajcman, J. (eds). Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Resnik, D. B. (2007). The Price of Truth: How Money Affects the Norms of Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Royal Society. 2003. Keeping Science Open: The Effects of Intellectual Property Policy on the Conduct of Science. London: Royal Society
Slaughter, S. and Rhoades, G. (2004). Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: Markets, State, and Higher Education. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.
Weatherall, D. (2003). Problems for Biomedical Research at the Academia-Industrial Interface. Science and Engineering Ethics 9 (1): 43-48.
Publications
HOLDEN K and Demeritt D. 2008. Democratising Science? The Politics of Promoting Biomedicine in Singapore’s Developmental State, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 26: 68 – 86 doi:10.1068/d461t pdf
Burchell K. and Holden K. 2008. The roles of social science in public dialogue on science and technology: report of a one-day stakeholder workshop, London: London School of Economics (disseminated to policymakers, stakeholders and academics).
Holden, K. 2007 Review of Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in Europe and the United States by Sheila Jasanoff. Environment and Planning A 39 (10) 2540-2544.
Burchell K. and Holden K. 2008. The roles of social science in public dialogue on science and technology: report of a one-day stakeholder workshop, London: London School of Economics (disseminated to policymakers, stakeholders and academics).
Holden, K. 2007 Review of Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in Europe and the United States by Sheila Jasanoff. Environment and Planning A 39 (10) 2540-2544.
Attached files
