Wissenschaftsreflexion: What is it? Why is it needed? Contemporary Challenges for Studies on Science

Barlösius E, Bogner A, Butter M, Carrier M, Diehl P, Frei N, Geis ME, Jungert M, Leistner A, Reinhardt C, Slaatelid R, Zürn M (2025)

Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Other publication type

Publication year: 2025

Publisher: Institutionelles Repositorium der Leibniz Universität Hannover

Series: LCSS Working Papers

City/Town: Hannover

Book Volume: 21

URI: https://repo.uni-hannover.de/handle/123456789/18528 https://doi.org/10.15488/18390

Open Access Link: https://repo.uni-hannover.de/handle/123456789/18528 https://doi.org/10.15488/18390

Abstract

Contemporary liberal democratic societies exhibit a paradoxical constellation. The scientific knowledge, expertise, and academic education informing them are having ever greater influence socially and politically, which has led to the term “knowledge societies.” Yet science is also increasingly being questioned, delegitimized, and attacked. These attacks are often thought of as heralding the end of the era of the knowledge societies. We submit, however, that such contention characterizes knowledge societies; it articulates the ways in which knowledge societies are socially experienced, which societal distortions are perceived, and how they are combatted. For studies on science the question becomes how to respond to these substantial shifts. We assume that studies on science alone are no longer capable of analyzing the assaults on science and their consequences for science and society. We argue instead for Wissenschaftsreflexion as a highly inclusive approach with a broad disciplinary scope for grappling with this paradoxical constellation in liberal democratic knowledge societies. It is imperative to scrutinize the resulting changes of these contradictory conditions in various social systems—including politics, law, and economics—and the ways in which the changes affect science. We do not claim that wissenschaftsreflexive research is a new field of research or that it competes with established approaches of studies on science. We understand it to be a reflexive attitude toward science in society and toward society in science, a mindset to which scholars should feel committed but which should also be recognized as a social and political task.

Authors with CRIS profile

Max-Emanuel Geis Lehrstuhl für Deutsches und Bayerisches Staats- und Verwaltungsrecht Michael Jungert FAU Kompetenzzentrum für interdisziplinäre Wissenschaftsreflexion (FAU ZIWIS)

Involved external institutions

Universität Bielefeld DE Germany (DE) Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften AT Austria (AT) University of Bergen / Universitetet i Bergen NO Norway (NO) Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel DE Germany (DE) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover DE Germany (DE) Universität Leipzig DE Germany (DE) Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen DE Germany (DE) Freie Universität Berlin DE Germany (DE) Universität Basel CH Switzerland (CH)

How to cite

APA:

Barlösius, E., Bogner, A., Butter, M., Carrier, M., Diehl, P., Frei, N.,... Zürn, M. (2025). Wissenschaftsreflexion: What is it? Why is it needed? Contemporary Challenges for Studies on Science. Hannover: Institutionelles Repositorium der Leibniz Universität Hannover.

MLA:

Barlösius, Eva, et al. Wissenschaftsreflexion: What is it? Why is it needed? Contemporary Challenges for Studies on Science. Hannover: Institutionelles Repositorium der Leibniz Universität Hannover, 2025.

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