scholarly journals Is art a "good" mediator in a Science Festival?

2007 ◽  
Vol 06 (03) ◽  
pp. A02 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabienne Crettaz von Roten ◽  
Olivier Moeschler
Keyword(s):  
Public Understanding ◽  
Science And Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
Complex Relation ◽  
Science Society ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Special Case ◽  
Shed Light

This paper relates to a special case of science-society mediation set up during the Science et Cité festival 2005. This national event took place in about twenty cities in Switzerland to promote a closer cooperation between science and society via art (theatre, music, dance, exhibitions, cinema, etc.), in order to reach the population at large. Results on the profile of the public, the role played by the cultural institutions involved, the motives of the visitors and the role of art in the science-society dialogue show that the goals aimed at by the festival's organisers were only partially reached. Moreover, the analyses shed light on the complex relation between art, science and society in public understanding of science activities.

Hillsborough and the Church of England

Theology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 120 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
James Jones
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
The Public ◽  
Independent Panel ◽  
The Government ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Church ◽  
British Football

In 1989, 96 Liverpool Football Club supporters were killed at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. It was the biggest sporting disaster in British football. The original inquests returned a verdict of ‘accidental death’. For over 20 years the families of the 96 and the survivors campaigned against this verdict. In 2010 the government set up an Independent Panel with myself as its Chair. Its remit after consultation with the families and survivors was to access and analyse all the documents related to the disaster and its aftermath and to write a report to add to public understanding. The Panel’s Report was published in 2012 and led to the quashing of the original verdicts and the setting up of fresh inquests. After two years and the longest inquests in British legal history, the jury gave its determination of ‘unlawful killing’. Here I reflect theologically on the public and pastoral role of the Church of England and its mission to wider society.

scholarly journals The Croonian Lecture 2004 Risk: food, fact and fantasy

2005 ◽  
Vol 360 (1458) ◽  
pp. 1133-1144 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R Krebs
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Food Poisoning ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Spongiform Encephalopathy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
The Individual

We all take risks, but most of the time we do not notice them. We are generally bad at judging the risks we take, and in the end, for some of us, this will prove fatal. Eating, like everything else in life, is not risk free. Is that next mouthful pure pleasure, or will it give you food poisoning? Will it clog your arteries as well as filling your stomach? This lecture weaves together three strands—the public understanding of science, the perception of risk and the role of science in informing government policy—as it explains how food risks are assessed and managed by government and explores the boundaries between the responsibilities of the individual and the regulator. In doing so, it draws upon the science of risk assessment as well as our attitudes to risk in relation to issues such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, dioxins in salmon and diet and obesity.

What do we know about “don't knows”? Or, contexts of “ignorance”

1996 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Turner ◽  
Mike Michael
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Statement ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Don't Know Responses

This paper addresses the meanings of “ignorance” in the context of “don't know” responses to questionnaires. First, we consider some of the broader functions of questionnaires, suggesting that they reflect and mediate between particular types of institutions, respondents and society. We then unpack some of the meanings of “don't know” responses. Specifically, we argue that the “don't know” response is not merely a sign of deficit but, potentially, a potent political statement. Moreover, in relation to studies of the public understanding of science, it can be employed as a resource by people reflexively to express their identity through their relationship with science. Next we consider ignorance in the more expansive contexts of late modernity, which include concerns about the ambivalent role of science in general, the transgressive quality of biotechnology in particular and the impetus to narrate the self. Consideration of these factors, we argue, may be useful for further interrogation of the meanings of “don't know” responses.

The public understanding of science or the scientific understanding of the public? A review of the social context of the `new genetics'

1995 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Macintyre
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Scientific Understanding ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Understanding Of Science

The `new genetics' have great potential for improving human health. In order for this potential to be realized, attempts to improve the public understanding of science should be complemented by attempts to improve our scientific understanding of the public. It is important to investigate existing popular understandings and practices, in relation to the role of heredity in human disease, chance and calculation of cost benefit ratios in situations of uncertainty, the management of the role of being `at risk' for particular diseases, and the ways in which individual and collective interests are balanced in a variety of health and welfare fields. Above all, we need to study what individuals, families and social institutions actually know, feel and do in relation to the `new genetics', rather than basing policy on assumptions about what they might know, feel or do.

‘Nullius in verba’ and ‘nihil in verbis’: public understanding of the role of language in science

1994 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
School Science ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Traditional View ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Scientific Language ◽  
The Public ◽  
Understanding Of Science

This paper is about how the motto of the Royal Society has sometimes been misread, but it is also about how such a misreading could arise at all, and why it persists. I argue that the error is intimately associated with a traditional view of scientific language as a medium for descriptive reporting, a view which has been very influential in schools, and is consequently perpetuated in the public understanding of science. Much new scholarship confirms that this ‘straightforward’ view of what scientists do can no longer be accepted at face value, and that the role of language in science is more intimate and subtle in its interpretive and persuasive qualities. A renewed study of the motto is interesting in itself, but it will also serve to introduce these wider matters. Perhaps it may help some more teachers to escape from those received ideas about language which have restricted the range of learning activities in school science, and discouraged a full attention to the words in which scientists choose to express their ideas.

Understanding 'science and the public'

10.5912/jcb73 ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Gregory
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Public Acceptance ◽  
Ongoing Task ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Public ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
The Public Sphere

Public acceptance of the products of biotechnology is an important issue for the industry. This paper looks at relevant academic and policy developments in the field of public understanding of science, which considers the role of science in the public sphere. It traces the interaction of scientists, social scientists and the public in the move from early 'deficit' conceptions of public understanding to more recent positions in which the public are seen as active participants in a variety of contexts for science. These newer conceptualisations could usefully contribute to the biotechnology industry's ongoing task of establishing constructive relations with its various publics.

Science for imperial efficiency and social change: reflections on the British Science Guild, 1905-1936

1994 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy MacLeod
Keyword(s):  
Public Understanding ◽  
Inaugural Meeting ◽  
The Public ◽  
British Science ◽  
History Of ◽  
Public Interest Groups ◽  
Scientific Expertise ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
British People

On 30 October 1905, the Lord Mayor of London blessed the inaugural meeting of a society created for the purpose of winning the British people to `the necessity of applying the methods of science to all branches of endeavour, and thus to further the progress and increase the welfare of the Empire'. Now nearly forgotten, the British Science Guild he opened that day was to be among the most visible `ginger groups' in British science during the first half of the century. Foreshadowing a world of parliamentary lobbies, public interest groups, and `think tanks', the Guild was created to `foster public appreciation of the role of science and the advantage of applying the methods of scientific enquiry, the study of cause and effect, in affairs of every kind'. For just twenty years, under the banner of `imperial efficiency', it campaigned for the application of scientific expertise to national and imperial policy, before it was ultimately forced to wind up its affairs, and combine with the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Its tempestuous history was not without achievements. Yet, those achievements were insufficient to change public opinion on the scale it attempted. Today, the history of the Guild holds important lessons for the `public understanding of science'. This essay reconstructs that history, and shows how the Guild's irenic vision of science blossomed, withered and failed. In retrospect, it may be argued, the Guild and its programme reflected the limited success won by the public advocacy of certain scientistic values, and the limits within which the British public was willing to accept those values as public authority.

Should You Be a Public Scientist?

2021 ◽  
pp. 375-380
Author(s):  
Dennis Meredith
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
The Public ◽  
It Impacts ◽  
Global Problems ◽  
The Media ◽  
Understanding Of Science

Deciding whether to be a “public scientist”—using the media spotlight to highlight important issues—means deciding whether one is a natural explainer. Also, it must be decided how much time and effort can be committed to such outreach and how it impacts research and other activities. Explaining research does offer satisfactions, in that the researcher is contributing to public understanding of science. One problem is that the coverage of science and technology is small and shrinking. That said, opportunities to reach the public directly through websites and social media are considerable. The role of public scientists and the importance of explaining research in general are becoming ever more critical because failure to bridge the information gulf between researchers and the public will hamper, perhaps tragically, our ability to solve the massive global problems we face—climate change, resource depletion, ecological damage, food security, and disease.

Vivent les differences: identifying audiences for a museum exhibition

1994 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Fitzgerald ◽  
Pauline Webb
Keyword(s):  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Civil Aviation ◽  
Audience Research ◽  
Museum Visitors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Visitor Survey

This paper describes the methodology and presents the main findings of a front-end exhibition evaluation carried out by staff at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, UK, in 1991. A visitor survey was used to evaluate ideas for a forthcoming exhibition on civil aviation and air travel. This research is placed in the context of the role of museums in the public understanding of science and of audience research in museums. The survey findings demonstrate the existence of divisions of interests among museum visitors, particularly according to gender. These differences must be recognized and accommodated by the definition of target audiences if exhibitions are to function as effective channels for developing public understanding of science and technology.

Industrial Influences on the Development of the Communication of Science in the UK

1998 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 178-180
Author(s):  
Lynne Gornall ◽  
Brychan Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Science Communication ◽  
Technology Policy ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
The Public ◽  
Strategic Review ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Contemporary Context

The paper traces the role of industrial influences on the development of the ‘public understanding of science’, showing the initiatives as aspects of wider debates, articulated by key figures and groups in the field. In the contemporary context, this is related to the 1993 national strategic review of UK science and technology policy and the development in universities of the new field of ‘science communication’.

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