Episode 6: COVID Knowledge, Technology, and Politics: Dispatches from Around the World

The Received Wisdom

Jack and Shobita talk to five experts in science, technology, policy, and society about their perspectives and experiences with COVID-19 around the world. Interviews include Monamie Bhadra (Singapore), Silvio Funtowicz (Italy), Roger Pielke (US), Poonam Pandey (India), and Michael Veale (UK).

Guests:

- Monamie Bhadra Haines is Assistant Professor of Global Science, Technology, and Society in the School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her work focuses on understanding the political and cultural implications of energy transitions in the developing world, specifically contexts in Asia. You can find her on Twitter: @BhadraMonamie.

- Silvio Funtowicz is Professor in the Center for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is a philosopher of science and tweets at @SFuntowicz.

- Roger Pielke Jr. is Professor in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He where he teaches and writes on a diverse range of policy and governance issues related to science, innovation, sports. He tweets at @RogerPielkeJr.

- Poonam Pandey is Postdoctoral Fellow in the DST-Centre for Policy Research at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Her work at DST-CPR engages with Responsible Research and Innovation and policy aspects of second generation (2G) bioethanol in India and Brazil.

- Michael Veale is Lecturer in Digital Rights and Regulation at University College London’s Faculty of Laws and Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute. He specialises in technology law and policy, particularly around, privacy, data protection, and emerging technologies such as machine learning and encrypted data analysis. He tweets (likely too much) at @mikarv.

For further reading:

- Hallam Stevens and Monamie Bhadra Haines (2020). "TraceTogether: Pandemic Response, Democracy, and Technology." To appear in East Asian Science, Technology, and Society.

- Silvio O. Funtowicz and Jerome R. Ravetz (1995). "Science for the Post Normal Age." In: Laura Westra and John Lemons, eds. Perspectives on Ecological Integrity. Environmental Science and Technology Library, Vol 5. Dordrecht, NL: Springer.

- Roger Pielke Jr. (2020). "Eight Weeks Behind: Clarifying the Early U.S. Coronavirus Testing Failure."

- Roger Pielke Jr. (2020). "Why Isn’t the White House Using the Nation’s Pandemic Experts?" Slate. April 10.

- Ritu Priya and V. Sujatha (2020). "Will Traditional Indian Medicine Be Allowed to Contribute to the Fight Against COVID-19?" The Wire. April 1.

- Human Rights Watch (2020). "India: COVID-19 Lockdown Puts Poor at Risk." March 27.

- Documents on the D3-PT app.

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