A new problem of demarcation: Democratisation of science as a challenge to objectivity – Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher

The project aims to outline ways for assessing the objectivity of academic research where researchers collaborate with extra-academic agents or utilise extra-academic knowledge. In the new forms of research I study, the line between science and non-science is found inside the research process. As participatory, transdisciplinary and activist research is often supposed to be policy-relevant, it is important that it be reliable. However, the democratisation of science does not guarantee objectivity. In fact, it may lead to new types of bias. In this empirically informed project, I apply and develop ideas presented in the current philosophical discussions of objectivity. I problematise and develop the notion of research communities popular in the discussion; identify and analyse tensions in the idea of trustworthiness; and examine the possibilities of assessing the objectivity of research that utilises extra-academic forms of knowledge.