Please Repost Widely
HELP CONGRESS RETHINK U.S. SCIENCE POLICY!!
Friends and Colleagues:
This is one in an occasional series of electronic postings
on democratic politics of science and technology, issued by the
nonprofit Loka Institute. If you would like to be added to, or
removed from, the Loka Institute's E-mail list, please send a
message to: <Loka@amherst.edu>. PLEASE INVITE INTERESTED FRIENDS
AND COLLEAGUES TO SUBSCRIBE TOO. Thanks!
--Dick Sclove
Executive Director, The Loka Institute, P.O. Box 355,
Amherst, MA 01004, USA
E-mail: resclove@amherst.edu
World Wide Web http://www.amherst.edu/~loka
Tel. +1-413-582-5860; Fax +1-413-582-5811
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HELP CONGRESS RETHINK U.S. SCIENCE POLICY!!
Newt Gingrich, the leader of the U.S. House of
Representatives, has recently asked the House Science Committee
to develop a new, post-Cold War, national science policy.
Congressman Vern Ehlers (a Republican from Michigan and also Vice
Chairman of the House Science Committee) is leading the effort.
House insiders report that there may be opportunities here to
inject some new, more progressive thinking into U.S. science and
technology policy . . . provided that people like you and me make
some effort now to ensure that the process is opened up to a
diversity of views.
THE CURRENT STATE OF PLAY
On Oct. 23 Vice Chairman Ehlers kicked off his science-
policy-revisioning process by convening a group of experts to
help him frame the task. Those invited read like an elite Who's
Who of conventional science-and-technology policy leaders: the
Presidents of the National Academies of Science and Engineering;
the President, Vice-President, Chairman, plus a Senior Fellow
from the Council on Competitiveness; leaders of the Sandia and
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories; the retired President of
Hewlett Packard Corporation; the President of MIT, and so on.
Altogether there were 23 men and only 8 women, no people of
color, and almost no one under 50 years old.
These are people who made their careers within the existing
Cold-War-driven institutional order for science and technology.
Thus their principal concern is to secure the resources needed
to keep the current science-and-technology system going.
Not included were . . . any representatives of the public-
interest, grassroots, or labor communities concerned with science
and technology policy or, for that matter, anyone at all likely
to bring fresh, far-sighted thinking to the task of adapting U.S.
science policy to the real social needs of the 21st century.
To his credit, however, Vice Chairman Ehlers has set up a
Web site that will provide up-to-date information on his
projected year-long effort to rethink U.S. science policy:
http://www.house.gov/science/science_policy_study.htm
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
If you log onto that Web site, you will find a link where
you can E-mail your comments back to Ehler's science policy
staff. My suggestion:
(1) Visit the Web site and leave a short comment. (If you
are at a loss for words, you might simply thank Rep. Ehlers for
setting up the Web page, and then ask to be included more
actively in the process and/or politely encourage him to open his
process up to a much wider group of societal representatives.)
This is *not* a demanding task: a short note that you can write
in only 2 or 3 minutes will suffice.
(2) Please pass this Loka Alert around widely, and urge as
many friends and colleagues as you can to make the small effort
to log onto Ehler's site and leave a brief message of their own.
It is the total *number of messages* that will really make a
difference in encouraging the Congress to open this process up to
fresh, more socially representative thinking.
(If you do not have Web access, you can send your comments
to the Hon. Vern Ehlers, Vice Chairman, House Committee on
Science, 2320 RHOB, Washington, D.C. 20515 USA; E-mail:
<sharon.hays@mail.house. gov>; Tel. +1-202-225-6371. Mention
that you are contacting him in reference to the "Science Policy
Study" that he is leading.)
(3) If you want to discuss and strategize concerning Ehler's
science policy study--now or anytime in the future--subscribe to
the Loka Institute's FASTnet (Federation of Activists on Science
& Technology Network) listserv. To subscribe, just send an
E-mail message to <majordomo@igc.apc.org> with a blank subject
line and "subscribe FASTnet" as the message text. (FASTnet is a
moderated discussion list, which protects you from receiving
posts inappropriate to the list's purpose.)
A FEW MORE DETAILS
Congressman Ehlers' current plan for his science policy
study is to post a mission/challenge statement on his science
policy Web site (see above), and receive comments through January
1998. He envisions taking those comments into account in
fashioning a draft science policy statement. He will then hold
Congressional hearings on this draft through early summer 1998,
at last issuing a final science policy document that he will seek
to have adopted as a concurrent resolution of the Congress (i.e.,
as a statement that will need to pass both the House and the
Senate, but that--unlike a law--will not need a presidential
signature).
Our task is to make sure that this process is opened up to
include a much broader range of perspectives and fresh ideas!
Thanks for contributing to this effort!
--Dick Sclove
The Loka Institute <Loka@amherst.edu>
http://www.amherst.edu/~loka
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ABOUT THE LOKA INSTITUTE
The Loka Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to
making science and technology responsive to democratically
decided social and environmental concerns. TO FIND OUT MORE
ABOUT THE LOKA INSTITUTE, to participate in our on-line
discussion groups or to help, please visit our Web page
<http://www.amherst.edu/~loka> or contact us via E-mail at
<Loka@amherst.edu>.
LOKA INSTITUTE INTERNSHIPS: The Loka Institute has openings
for both paid and volunteer interns and paid work-study students
in 1998 (and beyond). We are a small nonprofit organization,
and the activities in which interns are involved vary from
research assistance and writing to assisting in organizing
conferences, project development and management, fundraising,
managing our Internet lists, Web page updates, helping with
clerical and other office work, etc. If you are interested in
working with us to promote a democratic politics of science and
technology, please send a hard copy resume along with a succinct
letter explaining your interest to: The Loka Institute, P.O. Box
355, Amherst, MA 01004, USA.
TO LEARN MORE about the Loka Institute's concerns and
vision, see Loka founder Richard Sclove's book, _DEMOCRACY AND
TECHNOLOGY_--recipient of the 1996 Don K. Price Award of the
American Political Science Association as "the best book of the
year on science, technology and politics". For a paperback copy,
contact your local bookseller or Guilford Press (in the U.S.
telephone toll free 1-800-365-7006; or, from anywhere, fax Guilford
Press in the U.S. at +1-212-966-6708; visit Guilford's Web page
<http://www.guilford.com>; or E-mail: <info@guilford.com>.)
"Mr. Sclove is refreshing in the way he rejects
ideas so nearly universally held that most people
have never thought to question them." -- _New York
Times Book Review_
RECENT PUBLICATIONS BY OR ABOUT THE LOKA INSTITUTE:
Hackman, Sandra. 1997. "First Line: And Now a Word From Your
Neighbors." _Technology Review_, Aug./Sept. 1997, p. 5.
[This is the Editor's Introduction, devoted entirely to
the Loka Institute's April 1997 pilot Citizen's Panel on
"Telecommunications & the Future of Democracy."]
Scammell, Madeleine, Will Snyder, and Phil Shepard. 1997.
_Building a Community Research Network: Report of the 1996
Community Research Network Conference_. Amherst,
Massachusetts: The Loka Institute and UMass Extension.
Sclove, Richard E. 1997. "Citizen Policy Wonks." _YES! A
Journal of Positive Futures_, No. 3 (Fall), pp. 52-54.
________. 1997. "Research By the People, For the People."
_Futures_, Vol. 29, No. 6 (August), pp. 541-549.
________. 1997. "Research by the People: Building a Worldwide
Community Research network(CRN)." In _A World That Works:
Building Blocks for a Just and Sustainable Society_. Ed.
Trent Schroyer. New York: Bootstrap Press. Pp. 278-290.
________. 1997. "Technological Politics as if Democracy Really
Mattered." In _Technology and the Future_. Ed. Albert
Teich. 7th ed., New York: St. Martin's Press. Pp. 223-245.
________. 1997. "Cybersociety: Democracy and Technology."
_Initiative_, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Summer), pp. 1-3.
________. 1997. "Myten Om Den Apatiske Amerikaner." [The Myth
of the Apathetic American.] _TeknologiDebat_ No. 4 (Sept.),
Back Page Feature (p. 32). [Published by the Danish
Parliament's Board of Technology.]
Cohn, Steven. 1997. "Book Review of _Democracy and Technology_
by Richard Sclove." _The Ecological Economics Bulletin_,
Vol. 2, No. 4, p. 12.
Rosenkrands, Jacob. 1997. "Put Ekstra Skat Pa Cybershopping."
_Politken_, 4 Sept., Sect. 3, p. 6. [Interview in a major
Danish daily newspaper with Loka Institute Executive
Director, Richard Sclove]
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