Culture counts more than money: Israeli critiques of German science

Abstract

While economic investments and organizational reforms may support Germany’s scientific ambitions, its culture remains a significant influence on how those ambitions work themselves out. The study relied on interviews with 125 Israeli scientists and on responses of nineteen of their German collaborators to a questionnaire. Data analysis found four cultural priorities that – in the context of comparisons with Israeli scientific culture – respondents suggest cut short the potential of German science: privileging technology over meaning and insight, privileging hierarchy over creativity, privileging cosmos over chaos, and privileging German over English. Respondents suggest that these cultural priorities silence alternative points of view and censor young scientists, limit motivation and stifle imagination, preordain problem-solving orientations, and restrict communication flows. As they consider policy targets for 2020 and beyond, the new German government, foundation leaders, and scientists need to discuss those cultural challenges. The study calls for scholars in science and technology studies to pay more attention to national cultures as decisive factors in framing the limits and possibilities of science.

Emotional reason: The Israeli scientific mind facing a German cultural mirror

“…This article advances beyond previous reports from this study (Yair, 2019, 2020a, 2020b). One article relied on a complementary effort of Elias Kuhley, a master’s student from the Free University of Berlin, who studied the German partners.…”

Spielwiesen: Preparing a Research Agenda on Playgrounds and Serious Work in Academia

“…Nevertheless, traditional characteristics still hold: The German chair-faculty system remains characterized by comparatively steep hierarchies in which younger scholars are usually expected to participate in the chair-holding professor's research. This system can suppress creativity and the autonomous pursuit of a primary research agenda (Yair, 2019). Under such conditions, Spielwiesen may be both difficult to carve out but also important as a means for non-tenured academics to develop their own profile.…”

Academic lives and cultures

“…Strongly indicating that the form, in the context of its expected evaluation, of a grant application encourages conservatism, Philipps and Weißenborn observe that the balancing act tends to downplay radical ideas. However, Yair's (2019) research in this issue would suggest a need for cross-cultural comparisons, because it may be that German science has a culture that encourages conservatism, and that shapes choices about how to present and make claims about innovative research. Yair (2019) argues that there is a strong contrast between German and Israeli research cultures, along lines closely related to national stereotypes.…”

“…However, Yair's (2019) research in this issue would suggest a need for cross-cultural comparisons, because it may be that German science has a culture that encourages conservatism, and that shapes choices about how to present and make claims about innovative research. Yair (2019) argues that there is a strong contrast between German and Israeli research cultures, along lines closely related to national stereotypes. German and Israeli informants, who are working alongside researchers from the other country, agree that, in comparison with Israeli ones, German research cultures value technical proficiency and incremental progress, features that tend to stifle bold innovation.…”

“…Yair (2019) argues that there is a strong contrast between German and Israeli research cultures, along lines closely related to national stereotypes. German and Israeli informants, who are working alongside researchers from the other country, agree that, in comparison with Israeli ones, German research cultures value technical proficiency and incremental progress, features that tend to stifle bold innovation.…”