Emerging Search Regimes: Measuring Co-evolutions among Research, Science, and Society

TL;DR

This paper empirically investigates how research, science, and societal factors co-evolve to form complex search regimes in Biotechnology, Genomics, and Nanotechnology, highlighting differences in self-organization and contextual relevance.

Contribution

It introduces a model analyzing the interactions among research activities, scientific communication, and socio-economic dynamics across emerging technological fields.

Findings

Regimes differ in self-organization among research, science, and society.

Opportunities for contribution vary by field and knowledge scope.

Context of application influences knowledge dynamics.

Abstract

Scientometric data is used to investigate empirically the emergence of search regimes in Biotechnology, Genomics, and Nanotechnology. Complex regimes can emerge when three independent sources of variance interact. In our model, researchers can be considered as the nodes that carry the science system. Research is geographically situated with site-specific skills, tacit knowledge and infrastructures. Second, the emergent science level refers to the formal communication of codified knowledge published in journals. Third, the socio-economic dynamics indicate the ways in which knowledge production relates to society. Although Biotechnology, Genomics, and Nanotechnology can all be characterised by rapid growth and divergent dynamics, the regimes differ in terms of self-organization among these three sources of variance. The scope of opportunities for researchers to contribute within the constraints of the existing body of knowledge are different in each field. Furthermore, the relevance of the context of application contributes to the knowledge dynamics to various degrees.