Abstract

This book is about changing social relationships. The authors focus on the question of what social relations make for successful science and technology policies. In particular, the various chapters illustrate what happens at different social interfaces, such as between policy makers and researchers, and between the users and producers of knowledge. In other words, they are interested in the knowledge networks that are emerging between the many different actors involved in the development of science and technology.' Science and Technology Policy for Development' is the outcome of a workshop that brought together scholars and policy makers from the global South and the North, from private and public organizations, to review their experiences. What unites the authors is a common concern for research–policy linkages. In this context, research was taken to mean any systematic effort to increase the stock of knowledge, and 'policy' as any purposive course of action followed by an actor or set of actors. Linkages are seen as the communication and patterns of interaction among the actors involved. Such patterns may consolidate into knowledge networks in which information is evaluated or prioritized. A number of authors stress the communication aspect of such patterns, especially in the form of dialogue between actors or, through them, between institutions like ministries, universities or companies. The subtitle of this book reflects this orientation: 'Dialogues at the Interface' refers to communication between these different institutions. A must read for students of development economics, professionals in the sector and policy-makers alike.

This book is about changing social relationships. The authors focus on the question of what social relations make for successful science and technology policies. In particular, the various chapters illustrate what happens at different social interfaces, such as between policy makers and researchers, and between the users and producers of knowledge. In other words, they are interested in the knowledge networks that are emerging between the many different actors involved in the development of science and technology.

'Box and Engelhard have pulled off a feat in their introduction in bringing the lessons of a very diverse set of papers written from very different standpoints into an unusually coherent intellectual framework.' —Richard Manning (writing in a personal capacity), Chair of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD

Professor Louk de la Rive Box is at the Institute of Social Sciences, The Hague.

Rutger Engelhard is Managing Director of  Contactivity bv, Leiden, The Netherlands.

'This book is a must for practitioners in science and technology policy in developing countries, with a rich array of case studies in the continuing search for demand driven policies which can well tap into globalized knowledge production.' —Jozef Ritzen, President of the Universiteit Maastricht and former Vice President of the World Bank's Development Economics Department