Science and National Identity

Science, Technology and the Nation

Some current, recent and earlier publications by Dr Roy H W Johnston,
Techne Associates,

mostly socio-economic, socio-technical, socio-political, some historical, in all cases related to the interaction of global scientific culture with the local national techno-economic culture, mostly in the Irish context.

(c)All this material is copyright to the author

As background to this work I have collected over the years a good few books, which I am in the process of listing in a (growing) classified catalogue. Any person or organisation interested in taking over selected volumes or groupings is welcome to contact me; the address can be reconstructed from rjtechne at iol dot ie. RHWJ April 2005.

TABLE of CONTENTS

Objectives of this web-site.
Links to associated professional sites.
Primarily related to Energy and Climate Change:
- Some notes on Local Food Supply in a Global Context, arising from the August 2007 world Quaker conference in Dublin.
- Notes and comments arising from the August 2007 Feasta Climate Change seminar at the 'Green Gathering' at Woodbrook, Bunclody, Co Wexford.
- Limerick seminar June 2006: Bernal Institute: a Possible Approach?.
- A vision for Dublin public transport (1991).
- Steps towards the development of a Regional Policy (1990).
Primarily Science-related (though with a political flavour):
- In IFIP WG9.4 July 2006: Some Reflections on ICT and Development (in the Bernal tradition);
- Chapter on JD Bernal in Physicists of Ireland, published by the Institute of Physics, 2003;
- The Boyle Medal of the RDS as a measure of scientific esteem: an account of the century 1899-1999;
- Science in India (Science and Public Policy Feb 1997);
- Scientific Culture and National Identity: a 1995 hypertext construction based on several works on this theme;
- The Practical Arts in Irish Culture (Causeway, Belfast, Sept 1993);
- Physics on the Fringe (Physics Today July 1992, unabridged version);
- Science in a Post-colonial Culture (Irish Review Spring 1990, full version);
- The British Association in Ireland (Crane Bag 1983, version cleaned up; there were many misprints!);
- In Search of Techne (Irish Times Science and Technology Column 1970-1976, grouped and edited).
Primarily politics-related, though sometimes with a scientific flavour:
- Century of Endeavour: introducing my 2003 memoir giving a view of the 20th century as seen by my father Joe Johnston and myself.
- Current (2001) and historic (1970s) Science Policy Papers relevant to the Irish situation.
- Civil War in Ulster: an annotated edition of my father's 1913 book has been re-published in 1999 by UCD Press; a table of contents and some sample chapters are given.
- Updating the Manifesto: an Irish Perspective on the 1848 Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels (Paris 1998).
- Violence and the Nation-Building Process-Some Reflections on Irish National Identity; a paper read at the AGM of the Ulster Quaker Peace Committee on February 13 1988.

Objectives of this web-site: a 'mission statement':

This web site is dedicated to exploring the relationship between the evolving culture of science, with its roots in ancient Greece, mediaeval Islam, the European Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and the (also evolving) culture of Irish nationality, with its roots in a complex variety of local economic, social, political, linguistic and religious traditions.

It is also dedicated to exploring how this experience might be of value in other emergent nations making the transition from colonial to post-colonial status, and to fostering the convergence of all scientific specialist disciplines, including the physical, biological, social, economic and political sciences, towards a holistic philosophical dynamic.

The site is under continuous development and comments are welcome. The author may be contacted by e-mail, with an address which can be reconstructed from the URL of this site, according to convention.

Some navigational notes: