New Spaces of Scientific Knowledge

The 2011 MOVE Conference will take place 30 June to 1 July 2011 at the : Amphimax Building in Lausanne, Switzerland. Free registration (see below).

Programme

The MOVE 2011 conference explores different themes related to the emergence of new spaces of scientific knowledge. Each session will involve academics and practitioners, who were invited to provide an overview of empirical and theoretical developments of the respective fields from their different perspectives.

30 June 2011

12:00 – 13:00 Registration, Welcome Buffet

13:00 – 14:00 Welcome by Dominique Foray and Francesco Panese

14:00 – 15:45 Session 1

16:00 – 17:30 Session 2

1 July 2011

9:00 – 10:30 Session 3

11:00 – 12:30 Session 4

Lunch

14:30 – 16:00 Session 4

16:00 – 17:30 Closing session, followed by drinks

Session 1: Higher education landscapes: Institutional initiatives and the production of new scientific spaces

This session explores the transnational reorganization of higher education institutions (HEIs). It will discuss new forms of research and teaching collaboration and the development of foreign branch campuses, as well as the ways in which these initiatives influence the physical/spatial reconfigurations of university campuses. The session will examine both the political-economic and institutional motives contributing to these developments, as well as the ways in which the new scientific spaces are spatially planned and ordered.

Chairs: Francesco Panese (University of Lausanne) and Ola Söderström (University of Neuchâtel)

• Brigitte Dumortier (Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi): New aspects of cultural action for a new environment : the case of French academic institution in the UAE
• Bas Van Heur (University of Maastricht): The Built Environment of Higher Education and Research: Architecture and the Expectation of Innovation
• Warren Halsey Fox (Knowledge and Human Development Authority Dubai (KHDA)): The Dubai Higher Education Landscape: Rapid Growth, Student Access, Quality Assurance, and the Rise of International Branch Universities

Session 2: Diaspora knowledge networks: Practices from below and from above

The global competition for talent acquires new dimensions in a knowledge-based society. Highly skilled migration is today one of the main trends in international migration. This session explores diaspora knowledge networks as valuable pools of skills, technologies and know-how, and asks the question of the intersection between top-down policies and bottom-up practices.

Chair: Hans-Rudolf Wicker (University of Bern)

• Gabriela Tejada (EPFL): Connecting scientists and skilled professionals abroad with home country development: The experience of the Republic of Moldova
• Fernando Rivera (Caldas Network): A diaspora knowledge network: the Colombian case in the 90’s, a bottom up approach
• Mihaela Nedelcu (University of Bern): The Romanian scientific e-diaspora. Revisiting the “brain gain” paradigm at the digital age

Session 3: The science-policy nexus as a constructed space for transferring knowledge

How the social sciences are both produced by and influence the practical world were questions on the minds of the founders of the social science disciplines from the start. This session seeks to understand the process by which policy-makers draw upon and solicit academic research to inform and justify certain policies.

Chair: Gianni D’Amato (University of Neuchâtel)

• Christina Boswell (University of Edinburgh): The Political Uses of Expert Knowledge
• Erhard Stölting (University of Potsdam): The public media and experts: Informal structures of influence
• Simone Prodolliet (Federal Commission on Migration, Switzerland): Translating for policy makers: The Federal Commission on Migration as think tank in a field of controversial debates

Session 4: Scaling up the state-science nexus and its effects on public health

Traces the effects on public health of the scalar transformations in international health policy, including the shift away from “international health” toward “global health,” as well as the WHO’s transformed position in the landscape of health policy and practice. The decentralization of authority from the WHO has given way to the formation of new partnerships which will be explored.

Chairs: Shalini Randeria (University of Zurich) and Fouzieyha Towghi (University of Zurich)

• Matthew Connelly (Columbia University): The Demographic Transition to Global Health
• Amar Jesani (Center for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes; Center for Studies in Ethics and Rights, India): Scaling up of research and scaling down of researchers in developing countries: The clinical trials and CROs in India
• Aditya Bharadwaj (University of Edinburgh): (Bio)technologies as Public Good: The State-Science Nexus in the promotion of new biotechnologies in India
• Vinh-Kim Nguyen (University of Montreal): Global health and mobility in HIV
• Guillaume Lachenal (Univeristé Paris Diderot): Global health as performance. Emerging viruses research and neoliberalization in Cameroon
• Alan Ingram (University College London): Securing populations? Neoliberalism, exception and the international response to HIV/AIDS

Registration

Attendance is free, but please register by sending an e-mail to didier.ruedin@unine.ch