The COVID-19 pandemic is the most recent example of a global health crisis that revealed multiple social challenges and demanded cooperation between different domains, such as scientists, governments, policy-makers, science communicators, and the publics. Considering the continuous and growing challenges our societies face and the crucial role of science in the organization of knowledge and the shaping of public policies, our panel aims at studying the networks through which knowledge flows are communicated and exchanged in times of crisis.
The complex processes that characterize times of crisis highlight the need for understanding the features of knowledge circulation (practices, spaces, materialities) in a context of scientific uncertainty. While research and literature have paid much attention to the networks of knowledge that go beyond the academic sphere, issues of production and circulation of knowledge and processes of validation and credibility within the boundaries of scientific communities remain obscure and understudied.
The panel aims to investigate how the flows of scientific knowledge are affected by urgency and uncertainty. We would also like to discuss how the conditions created in times of crisis affected the communication between scientists and among scientific and political institutions. To that end, we invite papers exploring these issues in various national, geographical, historical, and cultural contexts. We particularly encourage contributions elucidating the local conditions of knowledge production, as well as the kind of intellectual activity that emerges at the intersection of the local with the global in times of crisis.
Please send abstracts of 300 words and short bios of 150 words, with name(s), affiliation(s), and contact information to Maria Zarifi (marzarif@soc.uoa.gr) and|or Evangelia Chordaki (ec8612@princeton.edu) by 16 November 2023.