’Positive engagement with politics can strengthen the academic community’

At a time when the value of scientific expertise is being challenged in society, a positive engagement with politics can strengthen the academic community. That's what Professor of International Data Governance Linnet Taylor will argue in her inaugural address on May 12th, 2023 at Tilburg University. The challenge is especially visible in her own field of technology governance. The central question of Linnet Taylor's lecture is why academics are being accused of activism, and why it is expected that scholars will not engage with the political implications of their work. She argues that when science addresses important issues, different ways of creating scientific knowledge come into conflict with each other. Some disciplines aim for objectivity, others for understanding subjectivity, yet both are grounded in scientific method. Who has expertise?.