Abstract
Most observers would agree that the American scientific community is performing relatively well. There are more scientific discoveries in the United States than in any other country, and a high proportion of all scientific papers are written by Americans. Even so, we do not have a good understanding of the ideal conditions under which science will best flourish. Over the past one and half centuries, the center of science has moved, first from France then to Germany and ultimately to America. In France and Germany at the peak of their productivity, as in America today, there was a widely shared view that their scientific communities were performing extremely well. But in France and Germany, numerous contradictions slowed the development of sciences. And today American science has its own set of contradictions which pose problems for its future. American science is strong, but this is the time to address some of its contradictions in order to protect its strength (Nagi and Corwin, 1972:63–4; Smith and Karleski, 1977).
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© 1988 Policy Studies Organization
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Hollingsworth, J.R. (1988). Specialization and the Problem of Communication within and across Academic Disciplines. In: Lazin, F., Aroni, S., Gradus, Y. (eds) The Policy Impact of Universities in Developing Regions. Policy Studies Organization Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08879-9_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08879-9_5
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