Science and Public Policy June 2003 0302-3427/03/030183-6 US$08.00  Beech Tree Publishing 2003 183 Science and Public Policy, volume 30, number 3, June 2003, pages 183–188, Beech Tree Publishing, 10 Watford Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 2EP, England Knowledge policy Social control and knowledge in democratic societies Reiner Grundmann and Nico Stehr In this article we introduce the notions of knowl- edge policy and the politics of knowledge. These have to be distinguished from the older, well- known terms of research policy, or science and technology policy. While the latter aim to foster the development of innovations in knowledge and its applications, the former is aware of side effects of new knowledge and tries to address them. While research policy takes the aims of innovations as largely unproblematic (insofar as they help improving national competitiveness), knowledge policy tries to govern (regulate, con- trol, restrict, or even forbid) the production of knowledge. Dr Reiner Grundmann is Senior Lecturer, Public Management and Sociology Group, Aston University, Aston Business School, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK; Tel. +44-121 359 3611 ext 5250; E- mail: r.grundmann@aston.ac.uk; Website: http://staff.abs.aston. ac.uk/rg/reiner.htm. Nico Stehr is Senior Research Associate, Institut für Technikfolgenabschätzung und Systemanalyse (ITAS), Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe Postfach 3640, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany; Tel: +49 7522 3773; Fax: +49 7522 914822; E-mail: nico.stehr@gkss.de. The authors are grateful for critical comments on an earlier version of the paper by Roy MacLeod and Robert K Merton; the constructive comments of an anonymous reviewer were also helpful. UR DISCUSSION OF THE KNOWLEDGE and social control in democratic societies has to be seen against the background of pro- found transformations that characterize modern so- cieties. A growing number of social scientists and, in their trail, politicians, managers, and journalists claim that contemporary western societies may be characterized as knowledge societies (Drucker, 1968; Bell, 1973; Stehr, 2001; 2002). It is not only the expansion of the service sector that is increas- ingly knowledge based, so is production in the agri- cultural and industrial sectors. Knowledge is a wealth-creating power. Knowledge itself is growing at an increasing pace and is transformed in the process (see Stehr, 2003). With it come growing concerns about the impact of knowledge. It is our contention that these is- sues cannot be adequately understood within the existing conceptual frameworks of ‘research policy’, ‘public understanding of science’ or ‘risk assess- ment/management’. If we speak about knowledge societies, we cannot remain silent about knowledge politics. Anxieties and concerns about the social con- sequences of new scientific knowledge and novel technologies are not of recent origin. Nor are elusive promises of the plain blessings of science for human- kind and the mitigation of human suffering that scien- tific advances entail. Nevertheless, a persuasive case can be made that we have reached a new stage. The novelty in question refers to knowledge that empow- ers society to intervene much more directly and on a massive scale into the nature of Nature, both on the micro level (biotechnology) and on the macro level (such as the global climate system and biodiversity). O