 There and back again: Revisiting Vannevar Bush, the linear model, and the freedom of scienceJamie Shaw Research Policy, 2022, vol. 51, issue 10 Abstract: Despite its age, Vannevar Bushs Science: The Endless Frontier has remained a touchstone for science funding policy discussions. More specifically, many claim that Bush ushered in a new ‘social contract’ that allowed scientists to freely choose projects in accordance with their own interests while promising deliverables for the society that funds scientific institutions. Despite the prominence of The Endless Frontier, there are countless interpretations of its argumentative structure. Building off others, I develop an interpretation of how the linear model relates to the freedom of science in SEF. I critically assess this view and argue that it provides a valuable starting point for a social contract for the 21st century. To accomplish this, I clarify Bush's stance on the linear model and show that it bypasses the most common objections against its plausibility, consider the relationship between Bush's conception of the freedom of science and the rise of citizen science, and articulate a more nuanced approach to government intervention in research priority setting. Keywords: Vannevar Bush; Linear model; Freedom of science; Basic/applied; Social contract; Urgency (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:51:y:2022:i:10:s0048733322001330 DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2022.104610 Access Statistics for this article Research Policy is currently edited by M. Bell, B. Martin, W.E. Steinmueller, A. Arora, M. Callon, M. Kenney, S. Kuhlmann, Keun Lee and F. Murray More articles in Research Policy from Elsevier |
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