“Demos” is a Greek word that means people, or village, or the common people of Greece. Democratization is the process of making something available to people. So when we talk about the democratization of science, we are referring to the idea of making scientific knowledge, as well as the tools used in scientific pursuits, more available to people in general, as opposed to just scientists and researchers.
We can look at the democratization of science...
“Demos” is a Greek word that means people, or village, or the common people of Greece. Democratization is the process of making something available to people. So when we talk about the democratization of science, we are referring to the idea of making scientific knowledge, as well as the tools used in scientific pursuits, more available to people in general, as opposed to just scientists and researchers.
We can look at the democratization of science in a couple of ways. In at least a sense, the democratization of science involves the democratization of knowledge, which we have seen happening on a large scale in the last several decades. Computers were at one time only available to scientists and researchers. When I was in high school in the mid-70's there were only 5 computers in the building, and they were all in a lab to be used for teaching programming—nobody used them to do the actual work of running a school.
The development of the internet has taken the value of personal computers (and so many other devices now) to a new level. I can access an incredible amount of information, and some of that is scientific, that the ordinary person did not have access to a couple of decades ago. Plenty of this information is in the public health sector.
Let's look at a relatively common health issue in America. Mold that grows in houses can cause health problems, sometimes very serious health problems, for people. I can use the internet to research the issue, including practical methods for eliminating mold (in fact I'm including such a link below). That's democratizing information and science in a way that impacts public health—information is power.
The increased availability of scientific knowledge can also help the average citizen uncover and respond to some of the shadier elements sometimes found in society. The sugar industry has been under fire for decades for the negative effects of sugar on public health. So they go to great lengths to make sugar look less dangerous (sounds a lot like the tobacco industry). I am including a link below from a website that deals directly with this issue. I cannot personally vouch for its accuracy, but it is still a good example of how democratization has increased, through scientific progress, the availability of useful information to the public. The fact that the internet is free and anybody can post on it is the greatest example of democratization of all. We no longer depend only on what a publishing company produces or a newspaper prints or a tv station broadcasts.
Finally, we can also consider the systems and hardware involved in the democratization of science as it pertains to public health. All of the benefits mentioned above would be impossible for someone who did not have a computer (or similar gadget) and access to the internet. Some folks don't. So continued democratization depends on making tools and systems available to more people. We've witnessed one of the successes of a competitive economy with the tremendous drop in computer prices, and this is another case of democratization—our business system and has made it possible for the average person to own and use a much more powerful computing device than what even scientists had a few decades ago. But still there are countries that do not have widespread access to what we take for granted. Democratization will stall if less advantageous countries cannot gain access to basic technologies.
No comments:
Post a Comment