The Commodification of Academic Research

"This volume offers a very balanced, thorough, accessible treatment of an unsettling topic---the current large-scale economic shaping of academic scientific research. Of first-rate importance to scientists and philosophers of science as well as those in the wider science studies and science policy communities, it will prove eye-opening as well to graduate and even undergraduate students in a variety of courses."---Janet A. Kourany, University of Notre Dame

"The threat to academic culture by commodification is a hot and controversial topic, and publications addressing it abound. This carefully crafted collection reaches beyond many of them by bringing together a broad variety of perspectives---sociological, ethical, historical, and philosophical---probing the issue with scholarly detachment, scientific rigor, and passion for the culture of public science."---Peter Weingart, Universitat Bielefeld

"With this pioneering volume, Hans Radder has turned the commodification of research into an issue for the philosophy of science field. The contributors present a broad range of views, united by the fact that they take commodification as both a practical problem and a theoretical one. This provocative book will lead us to reevaluate our thinking about the norms of science and how they should relate to new economies of knowledge."---Sergio Sismondo, Queen's University

Selling Science has become a common practice in contemporary universities. This commodification of academia pervades many aspects of higher education, including research, teaching, and administration. As such, it raises significant philosophical, political, and moral challenges. This volume offers the first book-length analysis of this disturbing trend from a philosophical perspective and presents views by scholars of philosophy of science, social and political philosophy, and research ethics.

The epistemic and moral responsibilities of universities, whether for-profit or nonprofit, are examined from several philosophical standpoints. The contributors discuss the pertinent epistemological and methodological questions, the sociopolitical issues of the organization of science, the tensions between commodified practices and the ideal of "science for the public good," and the role of governmental regulation and personal ethical behavior. The contributors consider alternatives to the coercive and corruptive influences of academic commodification, and offer practical recommendations for establishing appropriate research standards, methodologies, and institutional arrangements and a corresponding normative ethos.

Hans Radder is professor emeritus in philosophy of science and technology at the Department of Philosophy of VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is the author of many articles and several books, including The World Observed/The World Conceived and The Material Realization of Science: From Habermas to Experimentation and Referential Realism, and editor of The Commodification of Academic Research: Science and the Modern University.