Ahmet SUERDEM, Istanbul Bilgi University , Turkey
Research activities of any society depend on the level in which its members interact with science and cannot be separate from that of a society’s cultural activities’. Science translates itself to innovations through consumption, production and policy decisions. Problem-solving manners and capacity of the individuals in a society are embedded in the “cultural repertoire” encompassing the symbols, artefacts and everyday practices. This repertoire is used by the group members to construct “strategies of action” for solving the everyday problems (Swidler, 2001). Hence, scientific activities find their way into everyday life through science culture.
The aim of this study is to explore the complex relation between the subjective mentality factors such as attitudes, knowledge, interest and political involvement to science and institutional and economic environmental variables surrounding these factors. Building upon the PREK model [promise, reserve, engagement and knowledge) of science attitudes this study will present how these intrinsic variables are related to science environment factors such as R&D expenditures, number of patent applications, and human development index. Besides these factors, social values reflecting the general cultural environment of the society will also be considered.
The Welcome Trust’s Global Monitor data will be used for deriving the intrinsic-subjective elements of science culture. The environmental data will be collected from secondary sources such as UNESCO. World Value Surveys and Hofstede culture surveys. Statistical analysis of these data involves multilevel analysis which considers the social contexts as well as the individual respondents or subjects. Multilevel data is analyzed through the hierarchical linear regression model which is a type of regression analysis for where the dependent variable is at the lowest level.
Finally, the study will compare how subjective mentality factors are related to external environmental factors with a special emphasis on Silk Road countries.