Scientific Authority and Eco-centric Values in the Comprehensive Scientific Map of the Country

In today’s information society, science and technology are defined as the most important pillars of the development and progress of societies that are changing rapidly. Thus, governments try actively to enter the category of science and technology in their upstream policies and documents and make policies in order to make science a discourse at the level of society. The two basic concepts in the today’s science and technology discourse in our society, which require attention in documents and upstream programs, are ‘scientific authority’ and ‘eco-centric values’, which are also emphasized by the Supreme Leader. They can be seen in the upstream documents, including the comprehensive scientific map of the country. This study aims to analyze the discourse of the comprehensive scientific map of the country and present solutions to move towards the desirable situation in science and technology in the society.

This study was conducted using the discourse analysis method. The study population is all the contents of the comprehensive scientific map of the country, thirteen strategies of which were purposefully analyzed using Laclau and Mouffe’s method and by reading this scientific map and taking notes.

The findings showed that the central signifier of this discourse is ‘innovative scientific authority’ which has found its meaning structure through the signifiers such as ‘indigenous knowledge’ and ‘knowledge-based economy’. This stabilization is supported by the ‘culture-bound/eco-centric’ hegemony, and the myth-making grounds of this document are also has been provided through slogans such as ‘establishing a new Islamic civilization’, ‘increasing technological production to more than 50% of GDP’, and ‘scientific authority of the Persian language’.

The extracted principles are: scientific authority, eco-centric values, negation of dependence, professional competence, scientific networking, research-based education, empowerment, demand-driven research, modern Islamic civilization.