Genç Bilim İnsanlarının Bilimsel Bilgi Anlayışları ve Bilimsel Bilginin Üretim Sürecine Karşı Tavır Alışları

Abstract

This study examines from a comparative perspective how the attitudes of young scientists at the doctoral dissertation stage or who have just completed their doctoral dissertations are influenced by the social, cultural, political and individual factors, especially the academic socialization process, and how their understanding of scientific knowledge is formed depending on these conditions. The research was designed in accordance with the intensive research method. Within the scope of the study, in-depth interviews were conducted with 41 participants working in five different fields: physical sciences, health sciences, life sciences, social sciences and humanities. The data obtained from the interviews were described and interpreted in order to make a comparison between scientific fields within the expectations, strategies, relationships, positioning and mechanisms of young scientists in the formation and development of their scientific understanding and attitudes since their entry into the scientific field. The findings of the research show that young scientists choose academy as a professional preference rather than their interest and curiosity on the intrinsic value of science, that they determine their research topics with their individual experiences, career goals or the guidance of advisors rather than intra-scientific discussions. In addition, it is seen that they mostly draw attention to ethical problems related to the scientific production process and scientific production for the purpose of obtaining a title, that academy is a field where conflicts of interest and unscientific confrontations can be observed intensely, and that young scientists try to strengthen their position in the scientific field through the social relations they establish. In this context, it is possible to see that, on the one hand, the disagreements between the sciences and social sciences on whether there can be more than one way of scientific production continue; on the other hand, in the field of science, the understanding of only and superior science has begun to erode, and the need for science that is more aware and inclusive of the social has become an important issue, and in the social sciences, while ensuring the objective production process continues to be a problem, the idea that positivism is not the only option to solve it has begun to emerge.