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Making and Remaking the Measurement of Science and Technology: The International Dimension

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The Global Politics of Science and Technology - Vol. 2

Part of the book series: Global Power Shift ((GLOBAL))

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Abstract

In most if not every discussion of policy, statistics play a leading role. Statistics serve as evidence, so it is claimed. Such is the case with statistics on science and technology. This chapter is concerned with documenting how, over history, the international dimension got into statistics on science and technology. More specifically, the chapter documents the policy issue that has influenced the development of official statistics after World War II—industrial competitiveness between countries or “gaps” between Europe and the United States—and the representation of science and technology involved in the statistics.

Using the OECD as an emblematic example, we suggest that the measurement of the international dimension of science and technology has not progressed much in the last 40 years. The same indicators that defined the phenomenon in the 1970s are those included in the more recent standardized manuals of globalization.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The term “Manual” was changed to “Handbook” early on because the OECD judged the document not mature enough.

  2. 2.

    The early draft versions of the Handbook covered five forms of globalization with regard to science and technology: R&D, patents, trade in disembodied technology (technology payments and receipts), international technology alliances between firms, and trade in high technology products. It finally centered around three: R&D, technological balance of payment, trade in high-technology products. The rationale for deleting the other two series of indicators was that the data are collected mainly by private sources, not governments. While the argument is true for technological alliances between firms, it is not entirely true for patents, which come from public patent offices in several countries.

  3. 3.

    The Handbook is a work of compromise from a diversity of OECD Directorates—Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs, the Statistics Directorate, the Trade Directorate and the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry—and international organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The latter could not imagine that the OECD instead of the IMF was responsible for such a handbook.

  4. 4.

    The OECD Handbook limits the measurement of globalization of science and technology to indicators of economic globalization. Yet, two of these indicators—the technological balance of payments and trade in high-technology—are not un-contested, for methodological reasons, and they have no methodological manual.

  5. 5.

    On the controversial relations between development (engineering) and basic research in terms of public funding, see Belanger (1998).

  6. 6.

    One had to wait UNESCO (2010) for the very first statistical survey of engineering development.

  7. 7.

    In contrast, in the nineteenth century technology meant “methodology” or technique.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRS, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Benoît Godin

  2. Center for Assistive Technology, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Joseph Lane

Authors
  1. Benoît Godin
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  2. Joseph Lane
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Benoît Godin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bonn Center for Global Studies, Bonn, Germany

    Maximilian Mayer

  2. GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, Germany

    Mariana Carpes

  3. Institute of Political Science and Sociology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany, Institute of Development Research and Development Policy (IEE), Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany, Bochum, Bonn, Germany

    Ruth Knoblich

Appendices

Appendix 1: OECD Methodological Documents (year = first edition)

1.1 Manuals

  • The Measurement of Scientific and Technical Activities: Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys of Research and Development (Frascati manual) (1962).

  • Proposed Standard Practice for the Collection and Interpretation of Data on the Technological Balance of Payments (1990).

  • Proposed Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Technological Innovation Data (Oslo manual) (1992).

  • Data on Patents and Their Utilization as Science and Technology Indicators (1994).

  • Manual on the Measurement of Human Resources in Science and Technology (Canberra manual) (1995).

  • Measuring Productivity – OECD Manual (2001).

1.2 Handbooks

  • Handbook on Economic Globalisation Indicators (2005).

  • Handbook on Deriving Capital Measures of Intellectual Property Products (2010).

  • Handbook on Measuring the Space Economy (2012).

1.3 Guides

  • Guide to Measuring the Information Society (2005).

1.4 Frameworks

  • A Framework for Biotechnology Statistics (2005).

  • Framework for Nanotechnology Indicators and Statistics (2008).

  • A Conceptual and Methodological Framework for Emerging Technologies Indicators (2011)

1.5 Others

  • Bibliometric Indicators and Analysis of Research Systems: Methods and Examples (1997).

Appendix 2: OECD Handbook of Economic Globalisation (2005)

1.1 Proposed Indicators of International Dissemination of Technology

1.1.1 Internationalization of R&D of Multinational Firms

  • Share of R&D expenditure and of the number of researchers of foreign-controlled affiliates

  • Share of industrial R&D expenditure financed from abroad

  • Share of value-added, turnover and employment attributable to foreign-controlled affiliates whose main domain is R&D

  • Share of parent companies in R&D expenditure and the number of researchers

1.1.2 Internationalization of the Diffusion of Technology

  • Technology payments and receipts as a percentage of GDP

  • Technology payments and receipts as a percentage of R&D expenditure

1.1.3 Internationalization of Trade in Technology-Intensive Products

  • Share of foreign-controlled affiliates’ high-technology manufacturing exports in high-technology manufacturing output

  • Share of foreign-controlled affiliates’ and parent companies’ high-technology manufacturing exports and imports in total high-technology exports and imports

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Godin, B., Lane, J. (2014). Making and Remaking the Measurement of Science and Technology: The International Dimension. In: Mayer, M., Carpes, M., Knoblich, R. (eds) The Global Politics of Science and Technology - Vol. 2. Global Power Shift. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55010-2_10

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