Una teoría sociológica de la innovación en la ciencia: la obra del primer Mulkay

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La ambivalencia ante la Ciencia y la Tecnología

This article maintains the ambivalence thesis as an essential part to constitute the social representations of science and technology. The ambivalence is based on the dual nature of technoscientific activity. Therefore, it has been present since its historical irruption as a variable capable of shaping over the society. This ambivalence has grown and made more visible while the contemporary advanced societies, as knowledge societies, are based on the technoscientific vector. The article presents several empirical evidence, from primaries and secondaries sources, and quantitative and qualitative nature, to support this interpretation.Este artículo sostiene la tesis de la ambivalencia como eje básico en la conformación de las representaciones sociales de la ciencia y la tecnología, ambivalencia que descansa en la naturaleza dual de la actividad tecnocientífica y que, por tanto, está presente desde su irrupción histórica como variable capaz de afectar el decurso de las sociedades. Pero esta ambivalencia ha aumentado y se ha hecho más visible en tanto que las sociedades avanzadas contemporáneas, como sociedades de conocimiento, pivotan su estructura sobre el vector tecnocientífico. El artículo presenta evidencia empírica diversa, de fuentes secundarias y primarias, y de índole cualitativa y cuantitativa, que avala esta interpretación

Designer Grapes: The Socio-Technical Construction of the Seedless Table Grapes. A Case Study of Quality Control

This article focuses on agro-food production in Murcia, Spain, and analyses the socio-technical production processes of the seedless table grape. In the agro-food industry, a focus on quality has driven an unstoppable process of bio-technological innovation, which is also evident in the object of this study. Before these technological innovations, taste, colour and calibre as specific qualities of the grape were not considered a determinable characteristic. They had only emerged in the context of certain productive, technological and institutional conditions of possibility and the establishment of particular relationships between the agents implicated in its cultivation. By using Callon´s contribution to Actor Network Theory, the article examines how the different qualities of the seedless table grape are constructed through quality control procedures that try to stabilise the relationship between human (labour) and non-human (technology, insects, fungi, water, sun) actors.Research Funding: Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Grant Numbers: CSO2011–28511, CSO2012–3568

Inequalities in digital welfare take-up: lessons from e-government in Spain

This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Policy Studies 43.5 (2022): 1096-1111. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any wayE-government offers opportunities for improving the interactions between citizens, governmental and public institutions, private sector organizations, and public employees. Despite this, the take-up of e-government services has been vastly uneven in many societies with considerable digital divides existing. This study identifies the determinants of use of e-government in Spain through an analysis of the Survey on Equipment and Use of information and Communication Technologies in Households. A Path Analysis Model was used to identity the variables that explain why almost half of the Spanish population does not make use of E-government and how these variables are related. Two large groups of variables were found to be important: digital skills and trust in the Internet. Digital skills were affected by an individual citizens’ resources, such as their educational level and economic resources, as well as by age and gender. Meanwhile, their trust in the Internet was shaped by other attitudes and beliefs – mainly their concern about being targeted by advertising. These findings have important consequences for the design of policies to address digital inclusion across Europe and elsewhere, which need to focus on building citizen's trust.This work was supported by Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnologí

El declive de la fe en el progreso. Posmaterialismo, ideología y religiosidad en las representaciones sociales de la tecnociencia

In contemporary societies, social representations of technoscience have become more complex and polyhedral, moving away from traditional positive conceptions. We explore the growing importance of ambivalence in their analysis, as well as questioning the cognitive deficit model as an explanatory theory. We note that cognitive shortcuts linked to the level of religiosity and post-materialist values have a decisive role in shaping the positions on controversial aspects of science and technology. Furthermore, we conclude that these links vary in different national cultures. In Spain, the problematization of the impacts of technoscience is associated with both lower levels of religiosity and the increase of post-materialist concerns due to the secularization of the society.En las sociedades contemporáneas, las representaciones sociales de la tecnociencia han devenido más complejas y poliédricas, alejándose de las concepciones meliorativas tradicionales. Nuestro trabajo profundiza en el análisis de la creciente importancia de la ambivalencia, así como en el cuestionamiento del modelo del déficit cognitivo como teoría explicativa. Apuntamos que los esquemas cognitivos vinculados a valores posmaterialistas y al nivel de religiosidad tienen un papel decisivo en la conformación de los posicionamientos de la opinión pública sobre aspectos controvertidos de la tecnociencia. Por otro lado, constatamos que estos vínculos varían según las distintas culturas nacionales. En el caso de España, la problematización de las representaciones sociales de la tecnociencia suele estar asociada, de un lado, a las personas con menores niveles de religiosidad y, de otro, con un aumento de las preocupaciones posmaterialistas debido al proceso de secularización de nuestra sociedad

A sociological injection to the technology acceptaction acceptance model: reply to our critics

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El prestigio social de las profesiones Tecnocientíficas

Agradecemos a FECYT la oportunidad de participar en el análisis de la Encuesta de Percepción Social de la Ciencia y la Tecnología de 2014 (EPSCT2014). Este texto también se integra dentro del proyecto CSO2012-35688 del Plan Nacional de I+D+i del Gobierno de Españ

Dissemination practices in the Spanish research system: scientists trapped in a golden cage

The aim of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it offers a systematic analysis of the data available regarding Spanish scientists’ dissemination activities; on the other, it seeks to shed light on their behaviour and motivations. To do this, we consider the context of Spanish society and the conditions affecting the work and professional promotion of scientists. We present evidence from two surveys of CSIC researchers and of participants in Spain’s main science fair, with the caveat that the data were obtained in a methodologically favourable scenario. A contrast exists between scientists’ vocation to disseminate and the limitations derived from a low degree of interest in science in Spanish society, together with professional promotion policies that do not give priority to dissemination activities. This leads us to conclude that Spanish scientists are trapped between dissemination activities governed by moral values and a scarcely favourable social and professional context

Public procurement for knowledge transfer in peripheral regions: evidence from a case study in Spain

This article analyzes the first experience in Spain of pre-commercial public procurement (PCP) applied to knowledge transfer. The evidence shows that, beyond the good results obtained in terms of innovative prototypes, this type of instrument has characteristics that potentially could boost deep changes in the innovation system. Particularly, the change of role in the public research organization (CSIC), from having functions for production of I+D to decision making capacity in the allocation of funds and monitoring the development of innovations, positively transforms the relational ecosystem. The results we present show a greater effectiveness of the PCP compared to other instruments for knowledge transfer that have been more settled over tim