I think this is a great example of discursive, and other, manipulation. I’ll focus on the discursive. This advertisement is for Dupont and it’s suggesting that Dupont is awesome because it engages in “open science.” See if you can discern, from the ad, what exactly “open science” is:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KynnzHJS-K4[/youtube]
I certainly couldn’t. It has something to do with scientists working together and Dupont tells us it’s responsible for some pretty great things. But what is it? And why do I feel so goddamn good about it?
Well part of the reason is certainly the pretty colors, lovely voice-over, and cartoon-y images… but it’s also the word “open.” The word “open” is pretty much universally positive. It’s like the word “choice” or “life.” These are good words. So if you label something with a word like that, it must be good, right?
Well, no. Of course not. It’s just labelling. Most of you are probably vehemently pro-life or pro-choice and against the other, despite the fact that both labels have comforting words.
Anyway, if anyone knows what “open science” is, I’d be glad to know!
Comments 4
Sanguinity — November 23, 2008
Open science (aka open research). Kinda like open source software. Blog Around the Clock talks about open science quite a bit, if you want to know more.
Is Dupont actually doing open science, though, or just claiming to do it? I have no way of knowing.
Penny — November 23, 2008
Another source of information on the open science movement is Open Access News:
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/fosblog.html
If you're an independent scholar without university affiliation, open access is a very real big deal.
Will — November 23, 2008
I have heard of open access, open research, open publishing, etc. I don't hear the term "open science" very much, but that may be because I don't actually work in the industry. "Open science" is a bit redundant, because scientific research is by its very nature collaborative, at least it was until the advent of patent law.
If Dupont is publishing their research in an open access journal, as suggested here, they are spending untold millions on R&D and then sharing those findings with their competitors - bold thinking for a corporation!
Gwen — November 23, 2008
If they are actually doing this, my guess is it's an effort to address criticisms of the company, particularly b/c they've been responsible for creating lots of chemicals that people later had significant concerns about, safety-wise. I'm not aware of Dupont being a company that tries to patent living organisms, the way Monsanto has, but those types of criticisms--that a company is trying to patent seeds, plants, etc., that they didn't develop (that is, are a common human resource that the company is trying to make into private property) might also be pushing companies to engage in open science in at least some areas of R&D to boost the perception that they are benefiting humanity, etc.