Public participation and the co-production of open scientific knowledge: What is at stake?

FERPOZZI, HUGO

Information Services & Use

IOS Press

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2018 vol. 37 p. 451 - 461

0167-5265

Open access is vindicated across diverse areas of scholarly practice, where it is often expected to overcome the material and symbolic barriers that stand in the way of knowledge circulation. However, whether openness is ultimately a good thing or not also seems to depend on which kind of knowledge is being opened and for whom. In this paper I draw on different areas of science, technology and society studies (STS) to suggest that the mainstream views on open access validate practices that may also constrain the possibilities of addressing social needs via scientific knowledge. Building on the case of open access for drug development initiatives in the field of neglected tropical diseases, I elaborate on the different forms of engagement and exclusions that persist in spite of supporting open access to the research data. Two ideas derived from STS are central to this critique: cognitive exploitation (processes through which third-parties turn non for-profit knowledge outputs into profits) and the relations between central actors and peripheries of scientific production. My claim is that the lack of capacities and the interposition of international, biologically-centered research agendas ? not access restrictions per se ? can hinder the utilization of locally applicable knowledge, deterring public participation in disadvantaged contexts.