Science for Imperial Efficiency and Social Change: Reflections on The British Science Guild, 1905-1936  

Oleh:

MacLeod, Roy

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Public Understanding of Science vol. 3 no. 2 (Apr. 1994), page 155-193.
Fulltext: 155PUS32.pdf (2.35MB)

Isi artikel

On 30 October 1905, the Lord Mayor of London blessed the inaugural meeting of a society created for the purpose of winning the British people to 'the necessity of applying the methods of science to all branches of endeavour. and thus to further the progress and increase the welfare of the Empire'. Now nearly forgotten. the British Science Guild he opened that day was to be among the most visible 'ginger groups' in British science during the first half of the century. Foreshadowing a world of parliamentary lobbies, public interest groups, and 'think tanks'. the Guild was created to 'foster public appreciation of the role of science and the advantage of applying the methods of scientific enquiry, the study ofcause and erect. in aRairs ofevery kind, For just twenty yean, under the banner of 'imperial efficiency'. it campaigned for the application of scientific expertise to national and imperial policy, before it was ultimately forced to wind up its affairs, and combine with the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Its tempestuous history wdS not without achievements. Yet. those achievements were insufficient to change public opinion on the Yale it attempted. Today. the history of the Guild holds important lessons for the 'public understanding of science'. This essay reconstructs that history, and shows how the Guild's irenic vision of science blossomed, withered and Failed. In retrospect, it may be argued. the Guild and its programme reflected the limited success won by the public advocacy of certain scientistic values. and the limits within which the British public was willing to accept those values as public authority.

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