Science and Technology Policy

The Perfect Solution: How Trans Fats Became the Healthy Replacement for Saturated Fats

by David Schleifer

David Schleifer. 2012 “The Perfect Solution: How Trans Fats Became the Healthy Replacement for Saturated Fats.” Technology and Culture 53(1): 94-119.

Trans fats became part of the American food system due to a complex interplay among activism, industrial technology,... more Trans fats became part of the American food system due to a complex interplay among activism, industrial technology, and nutritional science. Some manufacturers began using partially hydrogenated oils, which contain trans fats, in the early twentieth century. Medical authorities began framing saturated fats as unhealthy in the 1950s. In the 1980s, activist organizations, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, condemned food corporations’ use of saturated fats and endorsed trans fats as an acceptable alternative. Nearly all targeted corporations responded by replacing saturated fats with trans fats, which fit easily into their existing products. Trans fats thus became the perfect solution to the political problem of saturated fats and to the technical problem of what to use in their place. Activists helped precipitate technological change, but by 1994, trans fats were no longer regarded as a solution. Instead, they became regarded as a new nutritional problem.

Partnering with Industry to Build Minnesota's 21st century Workforce: Industry Clusters Assessment Project

by Jennifer Clark

Lee Munnich, Tim Sheldon, and Jennifer Clark. "Partnering with Industry to Build Minnesota's 21st century Workforce: Industry Clusters Assessment Project" State and Local Policy Program, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Minneapolis. Jan. 1999.

Industry Clusters: An Economic Development Strategy for Minnesota

by Jennifer Clark

Lee Munnich, Patricia Love, and Jennifer Clark. "Industry Clusters: An Economic Development Strategy for Minnesota" State and Local Policy Program, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Minneapolis. Jan. 1999.

As a region, state, and nation, we are being challenged to become more efficient, more intelligent, more ecological... more As a region, state, and nation, we are being challenged to become more efficient, more intelligent, more ecological —in short—more competitive. Today, workforce shortages and shifting economic sands threaten even the most economically stable states.
It seems prudent in these times to make the most of our regional potentials and economic endowment. One of the ways we do this is to get smarter about our approach to economic development policy. We must begin to see industry, education, and other institutions in the context of the surrounding economy and begin to develop a unified approach to economic development problems. Today we know that the health of Minnesota is intimately connected to the health of our local and regional economies.
We believe you will find this preliminary report a sort of primer for understanding the industry cluster approach. We hope that this document will be useful to state policy makers, businesses and industry, as well as, to students and other individuals interested in economic development.
An industry cluster strategy offers Minnesota an opportunity to make its economic development efforts more effective and comprehensive. It will require the leadership from and collaboration among government, business, and education. This strategy would ensure that the state builds on its strengths and has the appropriate skills and infrastructure it needs to move the state forward. To be successful, Minnesota’s industry cluster strategy will also need to address both the needs of the state as a whole and the regions within it. Regional clusters located throughout greater Minnesota and also concentrated in major metropolitan areas play a vital role in the state’s overall economy. As awareness and interest in cluster strategies grows throughout the state, a first step in implementing clusters is for state leaders of industry, education, and government to explore together the costs and benefits of an industry cluster approach.
In Minnesota, the reasons for pursuing an industry cluster strategy include, opportunities to: • address the current and projected workforce shortages; • plan for and develop the infrastructure needed to move the state economy forward; • develop and strengthen rural communities and regions of the state;
• provide for strong companies and a strong workforce; and, • create more efficient and effective government
In this preliminary report, we have sought to provide a clear overview of an industry cluster approach. In Chapter 1, we clearly define industry clusters and provide examples of them. In Chapter 2, we articulate the benefits of an industry cluster approach both as a means of understanding industries and to initiate and facilitate a powerful statewide economic development policy that takes into account the full potential of the state’s regions. In Chapter 3, we provide examples of the industry cluster approach, and industries that have been studied by the State and Local Policy Program.
Finally, the appendices are replete with collaborators, examples, and resources that have aided this study greatly and may be valuable resources to the reader. We hope that you, the reader, will find this report helpful in understanding an important new approach to understanding economic development.

The Politics of a Paradigm Shift: Telecommunications Regulation and the Communications Revolution; by W. Russell Neuman, Lee W. McKnight, and Richard Jay Solomon, in Political Communication, Vol. 10, pp. 77 - 94, 2003.

by Lee McKnight

Is There a Progressive Approach to Innovation Policy?

by Jennifer Clark

Clark, Jennifer (2012) Is there a Progressive Approach to Innovation Policy? Special Issue: Manufacturing: New Industries, Progressive Approaches? Progressive Planning. No. 190 Winter 2012.

A reimaging of manufacturing policy requires looking again at innovation and what it means for the long-run viability... more A reimaging of manufacturing policy requires looking again at innovation and what it means for the long-run viability of the neighborhoods and communities that constitute our regional economies. Innovation leads to adaptation, flexibility, and resilience of local economies. Consistent innovation, deployed through a network of advanced manufacturers, presents the possibility of a sustainable production system capable of adapting over time rather than collapsing. In this context then, advanced manufacturing policy, requires a progressive approach to innovation investments.

Evolution of the South Korean wireless industry: from state guidance to global competition

by Florence Chee

Innovation in the chemicals sector and the new European Chemicals Regulation

by Georgina Voss

The New Inventors: How users are changing the rules of innovation

by Georgina Voss

NESTA Policy Report 2008. Co-authored with Stephen Flowers, Andrew Grantham, Juan Mateos-Garcia, Jon Sapsed and Paul Nightingale.

Should we Aim for Consensus?

by Alfred Moore

Co-authored with John Beatty

There can be good reasons to doubt the authority of a group of scientists. But those reasons do not include lack of... more There can be good reasons to doubt the authority of a group of scientists. But those reasons do not include lack of unanimity among them. Indeed, holding science to a unanimity or near-unanimity standard has a pernicious effect on scientific deliberation, and on the transparency that is so crucial to the authority of science in a democracy. What authorizes a conclusion is the quality of the deliberation that produced it, which is enhanced by the presence of a non-dismissible minority. Scientists can speak as one in more ways than one. We recommend a different sort of consensus that is partly substantive and partly procedural. It is a version of what Margaret Gilbert calls “joint acceptance” – we call it “deliberative acceptance.” It capitalizes on there being a persistent minority, and thereby encourages accurate reporting of the state of agreement and disagreement among deliberators.

Peer review and the ex ante assessment of societal impacts

by J Britt Holbrook

Assessing the science-society relation: The case of the US National Science Foundation's second merit review criterion

by J Britt Holbrook

Answering NSF's Question: What are the" Broader Impacts" of the Proposed Activity

by J Britt Holbrook

THE USE OF SOCIETAL IMPACTS CONSIDERATIONS IN GRANT PROPOSAL PEER REVIEW: A COMPARISON OF FIVE MODELS

by J Britt Holbrook

The Social Epistemology: A Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Policy: Special Issue on US National Science Foundation's Broader Impacts Criterion

by J Britt Holbrook

NSF's Struggle to Articulate Relevance

by J Britt Holbrook

We spent a million bucks and then we had to do something: The unexpected implications of industry involvement in trans fat research

by David Schleifer

Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, 2011, published online ahead of print.

Many scholars assume that industry meddles in scientific research in order to defend their products. But this article... more Many scholars assume that industry meddles in scientific research in order to defend their products. But this article shows that industry meddling in science can have a variety of consequences. American food manufacturers long denied that trans fats were associated with disease. Academic scientists, government scientists, and activists in fact endorsed trans fats as a healthier alternative to saturated fats. But in 1990, a high-profile study showed that trans fats increased risk factors for heart disease more than saturated fats did. Industry funded a U.S. Department of Agriculture study that they hoped would exonerate trans fats. But the industry-funded U.S. Department of Agriculture study also indicated that trans fats increased risk factors for heart disease more than saturated fats. Industry quickly began developing trans fat alternatives. This confirms that corporations get involved in science in order to defend their products. But involvement in science can be the very means by which corporations persuade themselves to change their products.

Conceitos de Ciência e a Política Científica, Tecnológica e de Inovação

by Lea Velho

Sociologias (2011), vol.13, n.26, pp. 128-153. ISSN 1517-4522.

This paper contributes to the debate on the occurrence of a process of inter- nationalization of the Science,... more This paper contributes to the debate on the occurrence of a process of inter- nationalization of the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy – STIP, a process in which different countries adopt the same views of the STIP, the same instruments and similar forms of management of the STIP. The debate shows that the dissemina- tion of these ideas occurs through the international relations in the STIP, i.e., contacts at the international level, mediated by international organizations and multilateral agencies (in addition to the authors’ knowledge of the works of others). The central argument developed here is that the historical evolution of the STIP is strongly cor- related with the evolution of the dominant conception of science. In other words, the focus, the instruments, and the forms of management that define the STIP in a given time are closely related to the dominant conception of science. Insofar as the dominant conception of science tends to be international, the policies of STI raised by this concept are likely to be international too. And it is this relationship between the concept of science and the logic of the STIP that constitutes what has been labe- led, in this text, as the paradigms of science and technology policy.

Towards a Euro-Mediterranean Innovation Space: Some lessons and policy queries

by Rigas Arvanitis

L'INÉGAL DÉVELOPPEMENT INDUSTRIEL DE LA CHINE: CAPACITÉS D'INNOVATION ET COEXISTENCE DE DIFFÉRENTS MODES D'APPRENTISSAGE …

by Rigas Arvanitis

Published in "Régions et développement"

THE UNEQUAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHINA : INNOVATION
CAPABILITIES AND THE CO-EXISTENCE OF DIFFERENT
INDUSTRIAL... more THE UNEQUAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHINA : INNOVATION
CAPABILITIES AND THE CO-EXISTENCE OF DIFFERENT
INDUSTRIAL GROWTH PATTERNS

Abstract : Based on the example of the automobile and electronics sector in
China, the article examines the technological learning of companies in China
and the way it is influenced by industrial policy. Companies have consolidated
their production capacity and technological learning but are rarely in the
position to develop an innovation capability. The article shows the diversity of
enterprises and identifies two opposing modes of development, either based on
technological transfers of foreign technologies mainly through state-owned
enterprises, or based on assimilation and learning of technologies acquired
through the clients in private or foreign-owned companies or other new
enterprises, of a rather small size. The latter are less favoured by official
policies and have difficulties in obtaining the advantages that may have been
available through the national innovation system (training, higher education,
research, technical centres, funding). This separation of the innovation system
promoted by the government and the industrial system that was created through
technological learning is, in the authors’ opinion, the main reason for a low
innovation capability of the Chinese industry. The co-existence of these two
different modes is a characteristic feature of China and explains why China
does not follow the “imitation to innovation” path experiences by South Korea
and Japan.

The Internet, Projectization, and Science and Technology: Strategic Tools to Develop Caribbean Cultural and Creative Industries

by Ian Walcott

The Internet presents the single greatest opportunity for developing nations to increase their insertion into the... more The Internet presents the single greatest opportunity for developing nations to increase their insertion into the global economy by way of trade. However, this must be done by
developing strategic programmes in E-government, e-commerce and e-business which must be underpinned by national strategies that speak to developing Science and Technology as it relates to favorable insertion into the Digital Global Economy. With
these systemic features in place, then ‘projectization’ becomes the effective tool for planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
This paper is set within the conceptual framework of International Political Economy and examines, in particular, the Caribbean knowledge structure (as it relates to science and
technology) and cultural policy. A more narrow focus will be on the Caribbean island states and their strategies for developing the cultural and creative industries. A closer look at the region’s e-readiness will show that there is little evidence to support the
Caribbean’s willingness to seize the opportunities on the Internet as a global trading place for its cultural goods and services. Such limitations will therefore hinder the region’s attempts at global insertion.