Hundreds of scientists protested government efforts to restrict educational access to Western science theories, including Darwin’s theory of evolution, in June 2023 in India. Similarly, scientists in Mexico participated in a research strike in May 2023 to protest a national law they claimed would threaten the conditions for basic research. And during the same month in Norway, three scientists were arrested for protesting the nation’s slow-moving climate policy.
As these among many other actions show, scientists today are speaking out on a variety of political and social issues related to their own research fields and in solidarity with other social movements.
We are social scientists who study the relationship between science and society. Through our work, we’ve noticed more scientists seem empowered to advocate for a wide range of policy issues. We’re interested in how the surge in science activism may be changing the norms of scientific research.
With colleagues, we recently reviewed and summarized a growing body of studies examining how scientists are mobilizing for social activism and political protest. We also surveyed 2,208 members of the Union of Concerned Scientists Science Network to learn more about scientists’ political engagement. Here is what we have found so far.
A new wave of science activism
Science activism has long been considered taboo, as many in the field fear that politicizing science undermines its objectivity. Even so, scientist-activists have still managed to shape the U.S. political landscape throughout history. Over the past century, for example, scientists have protested the atomic bomb, pesticides, wars in Southeast Asia, genetic engineering and the federal response to the AIDS epidemic.
More recently, the election of Donald Trump in 2016 triggered a wave of political mobilization not seen in the United States since the Vietnam War era. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change activism, Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo movement, scientists have also mobilized, and science advocacy organizations are playing important roles.
Some groups, like March for Science and Scientist Rebellion, are new and claim dozens of chapters and thousands of members around the world. In addition, older organizations like the Union of Concerned Scientists are growing, while once-defunct organizations like Science for the People have reemerged.
Science organizing also happens within universities, graduate student unions and professional associations. These groups use their connections to local communities and larger networks of science professionals to mobilize others in the scientific community.
Many science advocacy groups borrow protest tactics from previous eras, like mass marches and teach-ins. Others are more innovative, including “die-ins” at medical schools to protest police racial violence and data-rescue “hackathons” to protect public access to government data.
Some efforts…
