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While science policymakers and university administrators in Canada have been pushing interdisciplinary research and greater collaboration between the social sciences, humanities and traditional health research disciplines, social scientists and humanists face several cultural and material hurdles. In this chapter, we use neo-institutionalist theory and Pierre Bourdieu's social theory to shed light on these challenges. We argue, based on qualitative interviews with social scientists and humanists in medicine-related programs, that merely wishing for successful interdisciplinarity does not erase the tensions between different doxa (i.e. field logics) and leads to decoupling. Our research suggests that for social scientists and humanists to succeed in the health research fields, they often have to adapt to their new field and align their work with the dominant doxa of biomedical research. This necessary adaptation clashes with their epistemic habitus, leading to perceived changes in the quality of their research and to professional dissatisfaction. Conversely, the health research field has not changed its rules of the game to adapt to its new occupants, thus reproducing previous hierarchies that give social scientists and humanists low legitimacy and undermines their academic success in the broader field. Previous research has looked at the everyday practice of interdisciplinarity without considering the power relationships between disciplines in depth. Our approach is novel in that it takes into account the power relationships that shape interdisciplinarity at the institutional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While science policy makers and university administrators in Canada have been pushing interdisciplinary research and greater collaboration between the social sciences and health research, social scientists face several cultural and material hurdles that limit their ability to participate fully in the health research field and reinforce disciplinary hierarchies. In this chapter, we use neo-institutionalist theory and Pierre Bourdieu's social theory to make light of these challenges and expose the inequality faced by social scientists in Canadian medical research. We argue, based on institutional data and qualitative interviews with social scientists in medicine, that merely wishing for successful interdisciplinarity does not erase the hierarchies between different field logics. Previous research, in contrast, has looked at the everyday doing of interdisciplinarity without considering power relationships between disciplines in depth. Our approach is novel in that it takes into account the power relationships that shape disciplinary inequality at the institutional level. Social scientists in medicine are facing institutional reforms that have transformed the rules of the game and forced them to transform their work in a way that may undermine the perceived quality of their research and lead to professional dissatisfaction. Conversely, the medical field has not changed its rules of the game to adapt to its new occupants, thus reproducing previous hierarchies that give social scientists low legitimacy and undermines their academic success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This poster will present preliminary findings from a study investigating how basic scientists define and pursue academic success in the context of a new market-driven approach to science funding. In this funding climate, scientists are required to demonstrate the economic value of their research and to engage in industry collaboration and the commercialization of research findings. Have these changes in funding led to changes in the definition of academic success? How do basic scientists negotiate the tensions between achieving academic and commercial goals? Do these definitions and strategies vary across research settings and across career stage? Interviews with 18 basic scientists in a large research university in Canada were carried out and analyzed. Bourdieu's concepts of field, capital and habitus are used to explore the dynamics between scientists and between the university and the state. While market-driven funding pressures have not affected the core values and goals of basic scientists, they have had effects on how scientists achieve these goals. Scientists in this study sought to advance their science by a) avoiding these pressures, even at the cost of losing potential grant income; or b) by harnessing these commercial opportunities, even if it required a significant investment in activities that did not advance their science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing interest in interdisciplinary research within the Canadian health sciences sector has been manifested by initiatives aimed at reinforcing the presence of the social sciences (SoSc) in the health research domain. Our project seeks to explore the extent to which it is possible for the SoSc to integrate into, and thrive in, an environment in which the experimental paradigm occupies a hegemonic position and represents the epitome of science. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews with biomedical scientists (BMScts) were conducted to explore their receptiveness (i.e., their perceptions and judgments) toward the SoSc. Results showed that BMScts are not a homogenous group with regard to their receptiveness toward the SoSc: seventeen BMScts were shown to be fairly unreceptive, three held an ambivalent position, and eleven were shown to be receptive to the SoSc. Moreover, examination of the BMScts' career profile showed that exposure to social science research contributes to the development of a favorable stance toward the SoSc. Those who had had the opportunity to participate in the development of social science research projects or to evaluate such projects as a member of an interdisciplinary peer review committee manifested the greatest understanding of social science research. One major difference between the receptive and unreceptive groups lay in their differential definition of legitimate research. Whereas the receptive group defined it as the researcher's ability to develop a method that is appropriate to its research subject, the unreceptive group defined it exclusively in terms of the use of experimental methods. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its development in the 1990s, the Innovation System (IS) approach has had a considerable influence on science and technology policies in OECD countries. Most of these countries have adopted IS policies aimed at intensifying collaboration between knowledge-producing institutions and private organizations in order to increase economic competitiveness. This study draws upon P. Bourdieu?s conception of culture as well as on the concept of hegemony developed by Neo-Gramscian scholars. It explores the social logic underlying the massive adoption of the IS approach by policy-makers and civil servants and the processes by which this approach is disseminated throughout the various levels of public administration. Drawing on a theoretical sampling method, 20 semi-structured interviews with policy-makers and employees of the Quebec and Canadian civil service were conducted; a two-year participant observation in a public agency using the IS approach as an analytical framework had taken place prior to conducting the interviews. Results suggest that, rather than being founded on the critical evaluation of a set of possible models, the dissemination and use of the IS approach within the public sector is closely linked to the perceived scientific prestige of the OECD and its affiliated university economists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to explore senior women’s conceptions of aging well and account for their correspondence with the biomedical and clinical definitions of "successful aging". The data consist of 36 interviews with women aged 65 to 75 from underprivileged and affluent milieus of Montreal (Canada). Content analysis revealed that senior women’s conceptions of aging well cover a wide range of issues, and that few of them tally with the biomedical and clinical definitions which focus on high physical and cognitive functioning. Different socioeconomic living conditions appear to generate some variation in the conceptions of well-ageing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]