Science and civil society: Lessons from an organization at the borderland

This article explores the sorely overlooked role of science within the civil society scheme, subscribing a scientific sphere of influence according to the minimalist civil society model. It first introduces the relevance of this sphere to the civil society project as a whole, and then provides a case study of one organization of scientists, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), situated on the border of the science and civil spheres. The study reviews SPSSI’s successes in advancing values today associated with civil society, and then examines more closely the challenges that have been posed to such activities by the state, market, science, and civil realms alike. These challenges, it is argued, are a threat to all organizations seeking to advance the values of civil society, and such organizations would do well to prepare for the probable interference by each of these spheres as SPSSI did not. In addition, those aspects of SPSSI’s history unique to social scientific endeavors can illuminate challenges which civil society researchers share as social scientists with a particular social vision. SPSSI’s perpetual negotiation of two sets of tensions – that between elitism and democratic values; and that between scientific neutralist and social engagement – reveal the paradoxes inherent in any social scientific movement. Finally, it is concluded that studies of “borderland” organizations like SPSSI may provide a fruitful point of departure for further studies of science and civil society.