Knowledge Integration

Funded project from 2021 to 2023

Scientifically generated knowledge is the keystone of the knowledge society. How important science is for the public and politicians is particularly evident in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientific experts regularly inform and advise government crisis management and thus influence the health policy strategies of the federal, state and local governments. Scientifically legitimized measures, such as the lockdown, have a massive impact on broad areas of social life and individual lifestyles. At the same time, however, there is also criticism regarding the way in which politics is guided by science. Skeptical voices criticize in particular a focus on epidemiological and life science expertise and a neglect of the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic.

Against this societal backdrop, the project uses the COVID-19 pandemic as an example to examine the role of science in policy advice and governmental management of public health threats. Special attention will be paid to the possibilities of epistemic pluralism and the interplay of biomedical and social science expertise in European and German pandemic management. The project uses political science and philosophy of science methods to pursue three main epistemic goals:

Within this societal context, based on the example of the COVID-19 pandemic, the project examines the role of science in policy advice and in the way governments deal with public health threats. Special attention is paid to the possibilities of epistemic pluralism and the interplay of biomedical and social science expertise in European and German pandemic management. By using political science and philosophy of science methods, the project pursues three main research objectives:

1. A detailed description and evaluation of the role of the social and life sciences in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, or the roles they did not play.
2. An analysis of the differences in epistemic practices and products of the life and social sciences and the related challenges to interdisciplinary knowledge integration in the context of public health.
3. The development of strategic approaches to improve knowledge integration as well as science communication in evidence-based policy making, especially in the context of public health threats.

Funding:
The project is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation under the funding line "Corona Crisis and Beyond - Perspectives for Science, Scholarship and Society" with support from the excellence cluster "Precision Medicine for Chronic Inflammatory Diseases".

Team:
Dr. Simon Lohse, Institute for Science in Society at Radboud University (Nijmegen), Institute for History of Medicine and Science Research, University of Lübeck (project leader)
PD Dr. Jörn Knobloch, Institute for History of Medicine and Science Research, University of Lübeck

Cooperation partners:
Dr. Karim Bschir, Lecturer at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Executive Director of the Ethics Committee, University of St. Gallen (Switzerland)
Dr. Stefano Canali, Interdisciplinary Unit on Philosophy and Sociology of Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)

Publications:
Bschir, K., Knobloch, J. & Lohse, S. (2023). Post-COVID-19: Auf dem Weg zu einem integrativen Modell der wissensbasierten Politikberatung [Post-COVID-19: Towards an integrative model of knowledge-based policy advice]. In: Wissensproduktion und Wissenstransfer in Zeiten der Pandemie [Knowledge production and transfer in times of pandemic], ed. R. Hauswald & P. Schmechtig. Alber: 81-116.

Bschir, K. & Lohse, S. (2022). Pandemics, Policy, and Pluralism. A Feyerabend-inspired Perspective on COVID-19. Synthese 200, 441. doi.org/10.1007/s11229-022-03923-4

Knobloch, J. (2022). „Welches wissenschaftliche (Nicht-)Wissen hat die politischen Handlungsoptionen während der Pandemie geprägt?“, Infektionen und Gesellschaft (S. 52–61), hg. A. W. Lohse & T. C. Mettenleiter. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66073-7_8

Auth, K., Bohnet, S., Borck, C., Drömann, D., Franzen, K.F. (2021). Synonyms and Symptoms of COVID-19 and Individual and Official Actions against the Disease-A Brief Online Survey 6 Months into the Pandemic and on the Threshold of the Second Wave in Germany. Int J Environ Res Public Health 19(1):169. PMID: 35010429.

Lohse S. & Bschir, K. (2021). „Wider die Einseitigkeit: Ein Plädoyer für mehr Pluralismus in der öffentlichen Gesundheitspolitik“. Soziopolis. Gesellschaft beobachten.

Lohse, S. & Canali, S. (2021). „Follow *the* Science? On the Marginal Role of the Social Sciences in the COVID-19 Pandemic”. European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (99). doi.org/10.1007/s13194-021-00416-y

Lohse, S. & Bschir, K. (2020) „The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case for Epistemic Pluralism in Public Health Policy”. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 42(58). doi.org/10.1007/s40656-020-00353-8.

Borck, C. (2020). Soziologisches zur Pandemie VI. Eine Sammlung aktueller Wortmeldungen. Soziopolis. https://www.soziopolis.de/lesen/presse/artikel/soziologisches-zur-pandemie-vi/

Borck, C. (2020). Vom Unwissen in Zeiten von Corona. Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie 14(2): 101-110.

Borck, C. (2020). Wissenschaft als alternativlose Wahrheit? An Wissenschaft glauben heißt nicht Wissenschaftlern glauben, sondern ihre Ansichten im Namen der Sache zu hinterfragen. Jahrbuch der Universität zu Lübeck 2019: 24-26.