Catch 22 syndrome pdf

Expressing Enlightenment ideals of humanism and individualism, scientists were to pursue truth irrespective of culture or nationality Shils ; Shils Their commitment was to be oriented to the global scientific community rather than to any primordial center.

Science, therefore, was defined as a general good that should be pursued and promoted for the betterment of humanity. It was to be an open arena for cultivating human talent, allowing scientists from around the world to have an equal share in the communal effort of advancing scientific knowledge.

In contrast with its ethos, however, science is nationally, geographically and culturally distributed; the social sciences are also reflecting the colonial history of their setting Bremen, Ben-Ari and Alatas ; Harding ; Lemert Instead of its avowed pluralism and openness, science evolved into a hierarchically organized closed system.

It is true that universities and research centers have spread around the world Frank and Meyer , but these loci of scientific activity are peripheral satellites in a world that is dominated by strong scientific centers Wallerstein The scientific projects carried in remote locations usually apply ideas that were generated in the center. Furthermore, center-generated theories are often tested by local data to extend their use; and local evidence is often presented as an example for these centrally generated theories.

In several comprehensive studies of the global scientific community Thomas Schott has clearly shown that science is, indeed, hierarchically organized Schott a; Schott b; Schott a; Schott b; Schott, Kanamitsu and Luther These studies have repeatedly shown that scientists in semiperipheral areas defer in face of their colleagues in the Western centers of science. Though he believes in the functional openness of science — coming from the center of the center — Schott has clearly shown that scientists in the semiperiphery are users of Western science rather than contributors to its collective stock of knowledge Schott a; Schott b; Schott a; Schott b; Schott, Kanamitsu and Luther These comprehensive studies have also illuminated the Achilles heel of Western science, namely its self-reliance — which we deem to be its parochial orientation.

For example, American universities usually host students from around the world, but excellent American students rarely leave their country to study abroad. This closure has many consequences. As Schott suggested, North American scientists defer mostly inward, to their local contributors, and little outward, to contributors in Western Europe and elsewhere around the world…North American scientists receive influence mostly from peers in North America, some from Western Europe and little from elsewhere…North American scientists desire recognition mostly from their local peers…Self- reliance in the deferential ties is far higher in North America than in any other region North American research is considerably more self-reliant than the research in any other region.

Why the Semiperiphery? A Note on Knowledge Production In the present context, we focus on social scientific work in European semiperipheral countries Terlouw because scholars in these settings are especially attuned to the rise or fall of states, institutions, organizations, and careers Blagojevic et al. Theoretically, knowledge about the social is highly influenced by concrete exposure to historical events and political regimes Wessely It follows that semiperipheral settings constitute ripe settings for exposing scientists to extreme forms of social change, and hence for deep understanding of social life.

Having been exposed to institutional and organizational earthquakes, they become sociologically privileged: they learn to deconstruct interests and assess reforms; they clearly see the rule of arbitrariness and perceive the ways of power with naked eyes. As other scholars suggested, this epistemic advantage is a potential source for unique knowledge Levine ; Pels ; Schutz ; Tiryakian This position is said to allow scholars in the semiperiphery to see more clearly the arbitrariness of social institutions.

This position is a productive one; it engenders new possibilities of thought and provides room for new paradigms to evolve Bhabha This general argument is especially true in post-Soviet and post-communist societies. Remembering the functioning of prior institutions, scholars in these places can clearly appreciate the operation of new ones; having a clear memory of one type of society e. Actually, semiperipheral locations often provide scientists with knowledge that is generated by quasi controlled-experiments, namely with a design of before-and-after society before and after war, rapid inflation, mass immigration, etc.

Since social knowledge is so intimately tied to personally embodied experiences, social scientists in semiperipheral areas should be excellent sources for innovative social science insights.

Paradoxically, however, — and against the avowed advantages just described — the very social location that potentiates their knowledge of the social is also the cause for the inadvertent muteness of social scientists in European semiperipheral settings Blagojevic Given their potential for outstanding insights, the dependent position of social scientists in semiperipheral countries may be thus counterproductive for global social science, not least because it produces unintended censorship.

The Academic Catch 22 in the Semiperiphery In the following exploratory and qualitative analysis we expand on previous analysis of the problems of East-European sociology Blagojevic ; Blagojevic ; Hadas ; Kovac ; Lengyel ; Wessely by detailing how center-semiperiphery relations in the social sciences censor academic work in the latter while delimiting potential innovativeness in the former.

We argue that power- dependency relations amongst scientists in Western and semiperipheral countries produce a series of catch paradoxes. In the analyses we focus on different interrelated facets of scholarly work: problem setting and conceptualization, the hierarchy of scholarly publications, the definition of excellence through citation patterns, scientific conferences, and lastly, funding schemes for research.

Problem Setting and Conceptualization Allegedly, social science concepts are universal. People often believe that their features are like those of natural science concepts, namely that they are applicable across contexts, and that they are invariant. Practically, however, social science concepts are culturally defined.

They are applicable in their original context, but prove to be less effective or even invalid across cultural or national borders. Notwithstanding their contextual nature, however, Western social scientists believe that their indigenous terminologies constitute objective toolkits that allow valid cross-cultural inferences.

They also expect scholars in the semiperiphery to use these toolkits, without reflecting on their contextual nature, assuming them to be universal. This, however, may be a source of bias or distortion.

In America, he argued, race relations boil down to the clear dichotomy between Blacks and Whites Myrdal In other contexts, however, race relations obey a gradated framework, allowing many shades and colors along a racial continuum. This is the case, for example, in Brazil. However, due to their weakness in the world of science, Brazilian sociologists adopt the American model of race relations and apply it to their own context Schott a. Directed by American foundations, these scholars acquiesce with American pressures, awkwardly applying foreign concepts to a reality which follows unique normative structure.

For Bourdieu, this imperialism — most severely critiqued in the case of the neo-liberal economic theory Bourdieu — is bad for the social sciences. Like other forms of imperialism, it obstructs truth and besets a just world order. This pattern of scientific imperialism was recently exemplified in a European study on private schools. Wishing to publish their study in an American journal, the European authors had to frame it within the American liberal discussion about privatization of public services and school choice Chubb and Moe This American strand suggests that private schools are more effective than public schools, and that, in order to improve productivity and competitiveness, it would be advisable to privatize schooling Chubb and Moe ; Coleman and Hoffer In the European context, however, private schools are often run by religious institutions, and their framework is utterly different from the American liberal model of market choice.

Consequently, in negotiating the publication, the American editors and the European authors had difficulty to agree about the meaning of what privatization means. At the end of the day, however, the American version prevailed, leaving the European authors frustrated because they felt that the US model is the exception and that the best thing to do was to drop it from the statistical models. This, however, was hardly an option. As different scholars have suggested, Eastern Europe has unique ways of conceptualizing phenomena, and they have locally applicable theories Hadas ; Lengyel ; Wessely Paradoxically, however, most of those differences stay invisible and unrecognized because they do not fit into dominant frameworks which the center defines.

Western agendas — academic, social, economic, and political — latently impose frames of reference on scholars in the semiperiphery, regardless of their relevance for those countries. These agendas — centrally set by major international players like The World Bank, G8, or the IMF — often assume a univocal model of development. Consequently, everything is seen through the lenses of deficiency and delay. The strategies of camouflaging and self-censoring clearly appear when Eastern-European countries join the European Accession process.

If they really want success, they become advocates and ambassadors of those agendas. Having a shattered infra-structure for carrying out research, these scholars see their original ideas being taken away because they have no means to test them through rigorous empirical studies. Other scholars report about a sense of mistiming, namely of never being in synch with current academic fads. They feel that either they wrote new ideas before their time and were therefore left unused , or were too late, arriving on scene after center-based academics have written about their topics leaving them the turf of irrelevant esoteric examples.

Scholars from the semiperiphery indeed feel that their contributions can only be recognized if they connect with ready-made conceptualizations in the center. They enter into academic debates, but rarely do they frame them or define their agendas.

At best, they get a niche in the debate, providing a cornered example that expands cross-cultural perspectives. This means that they are — almost by definition — deprived of the capacity to be recognized as original. These notes suggest that social science concepts are not politically innocent. Whether one uses strong words — like imperialism, phantasms of universalism, or colonization — or more polite ones like transition, democratization, and modernization, the fundamental power structure is the same.

Western science cannot escape its colonial heritage, not necessarily because of inherent aggressive tendencies, but rather as a consequence of the unequal global institutionalization of the social sciences in the world Wallerstein Because of their subordinate position in this power structure, social scientists in the semiperiphery are caught in a troubling double bind.

Using concepts of little relevance for their setting they are destined to become irrelevant at home. Either way, they become personae non gratae. Scholarly Publications Like other facets in academic work, publication of scientific studies in scholarly journals were historically and culturally determined by Western traditions Clark However, sociologists of science have often believed that in order to ensure true meritocracy publication of scientific papers should never reflect geographical or cultural borders Merton Of most spheres of life, indeed, science was to be the most open for talent.

In a recent complaint against the U. This openness of the Western academic ethos is strongly endorsed by journal editors and reviewers. However, scholarly publications are rarely open for non-Western perspectives, and — in contrast to its avowed openness — academic freedom is usually allowed only for those who adopt Western scientific and often political agendas.

Though unintentionally, indeed, scholarly journals impose a Western discourse that delimits its own breadth. Indeed, because of their dependent position, scholars in the European semiperiphery distort their agendas and conform to externally-set agendas, thereby allowing Western uni- vocality to remain unchallenged. In the following notes we detail how this state of affairs eventuates.

The delimited nature of Western social science often necessitates scholars from the semiperiphery to re-orient their problem setting and conceptual frameworks to those familiar for American and Western European readers. The following examples — informally collected from different sociologists — convey the spirit of these requests by Western journal editors.

Scholars from semiperipheral countries are indeed accustomed to receive such requests for re-orientation and re-drafting. In fact, if they want to be heard by Western scholars they have to reframe their original interests in order to match those of Western gatekeepers. For example, a paper written by a top MA student from Hungary was rejected twice by Western journal editors.

In the first round of review they requested her to frame her results around a Western theoretical framework. In the second round they rejected her paper because it did not confirm or reject Western theories, and was therefore not important enough to be published. It is important to note that these requests by Western editors and reviewers do not express neutral scientific requests for clarification; rather, they should be understood as unintentional power-laden impositions.

Expressing a limited, often national point-of-view, they become unintended acts of domination which makes foreign social science only relevant to the extent that it converses with the local and delimited communities of Western countries.

In other words, they need to review Western sources, to adopt Western problems, and to frame their studies through Western conceptualizations. For example, to pass journal gatekeepers social scientists in the semiperiphery need to engage in an ongoing dialogue with Western ideas, even when the terminology they adopt is out of synch with their original agendas.

But in detailing and justifying these differences or similarities the authors are forced to use Western lenses or agendas. Furthermore, in writing their papers they are not expected to cite much relevant work from their own country and in their native language. This practice unintentionally undermines academic communities in the semiperiphery, because a large body of work is left un-cited as a result of power-dependency relations.

This is why career progression is more difficult for academics in their own land. Additionally, in order to be recognized by the center, scholars in the semiperiphery often need to conceal their own innovations and theoretical contributions, tactically but unnecessarily applying Western ideas.

Though generally true, this pressure to accommodate to Western frameworks is especially felt by researchers who engage with empirical research. However, whatever strategy of justification they adopt, many scholars feel that in order to publish in recognized Western journals they have to abandon their original orientations, silence local debates to which they respond, and censor their real interests.

If they choose to frame their studies through locally-generated knowledge schemes — namely, local interests and local concepts — social scientists in the semiperiphery risk being muted by journal gatekeepers. This is exacerbated by the fact that in many cases, social scientists in semiperipheral settings prefer writing in their native language, aiming for their native audience.

However, by using native languages they fully exclude themselves from the global scientific community because foreign scientists can rarely read and evaluate their contribution and situate it within the appropriate context. Learn More. DiGeorge syndrome DGS comprises thymic hypoplasia, hypocalcaemia, outflow tract defects of the heart, and dysmorphic facies. It results in almost all cases from a deletion within chromosome 22q We report the clinical findings in 44 cases. We propose that DiGeorge syndrome should be seen as the severe end of the clinical spectrum embraced by the acronym CATCH 22 syndrome; Cardiac defects, Abnormal facies, Thymic hypoplasia, Cleft palate, and Hypocalcaemia resulting from 22q11 deletions.

Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy PDF file of the complete article 1. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References. These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List J Med Genet v. J Med Genet. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Kenny-Caffey syn- birth.

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