Civil Engineering September 2022 | Vol 30 No 8

Civil Engineering September 2022 47 industry players like the pharmaceutical industry, carbon fuels industry and anti-climate change groups, to name just a few. 9 The five core strategies or mecha- nisms fundamental to the blue print of the tobacco strategy are: “(1) The emphasis on scientific uncertainty, (2) the support of friendly research, (3) the recruitment of distinguished scientists, (4) the creation of an echo chamber effect, and (5) the attack on unfavourable scientific research”. We now know that when ignorance is deliberately created it is defined as agnotology. Agnotology in the research environment can be defined as either the darkness, or the horse dung referred to earlier that is required for mushroom farming. One can use this tobacco blueprint, identifying agnotology as guide to analyse to what extent it occurs in the South African roads and transportation R&D environment. Currently, three applicable fundamentals of the blueprint can be identified with some clarity. They are from the earlier list: (2) support of friendly research, (3) recruitment of distinguished scientists, and (4) creation of an echo- chamber effect. This perspective is un- packed here largely in terms of trends in commercially driven research and aspects related to secrecy. THE GROWTH IN IGNORANCE When the CSIR became more market oriented in the late 1980s it led to open market competition with economic beneficiation intent. This resulted in increased short-term bottom line focussed type research projects. It inevitably led to the then Division for Roads and Transport Technology (DRTT) and subsequently the Built Environment focus group, forced to play the game of literally repackaging existing knowledge with limited to no new basic knowledge gained. This “repackaging” of previous research efforts continued until the present, with known diminishing returns. Typically, quality researchers went into di- aspora or were literally being encouraged to take early retirement. In some cases, they were actually lured out of the CSIR with dedicated personal funding for R&D as de facto “friendly researchers” to be discussed in more detail later. Other re- search funding, attached to a short lease, effectively kept the researchers in check and basically beholden in an environment of no other research funding going around. It also exposed research focus on much narrower research outcomes in line with industry requirements. This is not dissimilar to what hap- pened overseas. Pinto (2017) 9 reports the following on the American science and research environment : “A series of legislative acts transformed the connec- tion between public and private research, allowing commercial profiting of publicly funded research.” This led to basic transformation of R&D practices as, “In particular, agnotological studies have uncovered the ways in which different mechanisms and practices, traditionally tied to knowledge production, have been reshaped and rechannelled to favour industry friendly outcomes, leading in many occasions to increasing ignorance among policy makers and the public at large.”  REFERENCES 1. Petrini, O and Horak E, eds. Taxonomic monographs of Agaricales . Bib-liotheca Mycologica 1995; 159:91-141. 2. David Dunning. 2011. The Dunning-Kruger Effect: On being Ignorant of One’s Own Ignorance. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. Volume 44, pp 247-296. 3. Ounjian, M.L. and Carne, E.B. 1987. A Study of the Factors which Affect Technology Transfer in Multi-Location Multi-Business Unit Operation . Technical Management Notes. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. Vol. EM-34, No. 3, August 1987. 4. Horak. E., Kleyn, E.G., Du Plessis, J.A., De Viliers, E.M. and Thompson, A.J. 1992. The Impact and Management of the Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS) Fleet in South Africa . Proceedings: 7th International Conference on Asphalt Pavements. Nottingham, U.K. 5. Jooste, F.J. and Sampson, L. 2004. Assessment of Gautrans HVS Programme benefits. Pilot Study report . Gauteng Provincial Government Department of Public Transport, Roads and Works Directorate: Design. 6. Rust, F.C. 2007 . A systems approach to managing R&D in the Road Infrastructure sector in South Africa . PhD thesis, Faculty of Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand. 7. Roberts, J. 2009. From Knowledge Management to Ignorance Management . University of South Hampton. Available: https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/228782478 . 8. Proctor, R.N. and Schiebinger, L. (eds.). 1995. Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance . Stanford University Press. 9 Fernandez Pinto, M. 2017. To Know or Better Not to: Agnotology and the Social Construction of Ignorance in Commercially Driven Research . Science & Technology Studies, 30(2), pp. 53–72. Observation of the client’s existing knowledge recycling or confirmation bias The initial wish lists of research topics for the current SANRAL research projects put together via think scrums and idea generation groups were soon culled. Typically, pro- posals which vaguely looked like basic research were cut first. In hindsight, part of the reason seems to be that the final evaluation was done largely inhouse by SANRAL per- sons. The majority of these basically project leader persons do not have a BEng degree, very few have a master’s degree and none to date have a PhD. Their basic education clearly had limited, if any, exposure to research or research management involvement. This admittedly crude indicator is a clear sign of the mismatch in their evaluation skills and expertise in a field like research or development. Typically, none of them were rated via the Google Scholar rating system. Very few of them had authored as main author any paper exposed to the rigours of a peer review process. It is therefore not strange that the majority of projects shortlisted to be funded drifted towards the end of the R&D life cycle in Figure 1. It is where the emphasis is on the production of products, services, processes, guidelines and policies. Their feedback on the inception report was typically to highlight any words that indicated uncertainty or doubt. Their experience with specifications and contract documents does not allow for such uncertainty. Part 2, which will be published in a future issue of Civil Engineering , will deal with the demonstration of creation of agnotology or “darkness” conducive to mushroom farming.