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Political Science General

Strategic Science in the Public Interest

Canada's Government Laboratories and Science-Based Agencies

by (author) G. Bruce Doern & Jeff Kinder

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Jul 2007
Category
General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780802088536
    Publish Date
    Jul 2007
    List Price
    $76.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442684829
    Publish Date
    Dec 2007
    List Price
    $77.00

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Description

The past twenty years have seen considerable shifts and struggles in 'government science' - that is, in the way the state funds, supports, regulates, conducts and uses scientific and technological activity. Focusing on federal labs and agencies, Strategic Science in the Public Interest explores how these labs have been located within, and often buried by, the larger commercially-focused federal innovation agenda.

G. Bruce Doern and Jeffrey S. Kinder examine four labs whose mandates deal with the Alberta oil sands, environmental technologies, wildlife research, and mining and metals, respectively. The authors use these cases to explain why a better middle-level approach to analysis is needed for strategic public interest-centred government science. They illustrate the importance of understanding the variety, as well as the similarity, of federal science and technology labs and agencies, and of instituting policies that reflect this diversity. The growing importance of Related Science Activities (RSA) is also explored, as well as the core trade-offs between commercial and public goods science in their mandates and their internal capacities.

About the authors

G. Bruce Doern is a professor emeritus in the School of Public Policy and Administration, Carleton University. He is the author and co-author of numerous books on Canadian politics and policy, including Faith and Fear: The Free Trade Story, with Brian Tomlin, and Canadian Public Policy: Ideas, Structure, Process, with Richard Phidd.

G. Bruce Doern's profile page

Jeffrey S. Kinder is a PhD candidate in the School of Public Policy and Adminstration at Carleton University.

Jeff Kinder's profile page

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