Science in the Public Sphere

Nieto‐Galan, Agustí

doi:10.4324/9781315640747

Cited by 50 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…The relationship between verified knowledge, citizen science, and science is an important issue, not least because successful citizen engagement illustrates how citizens must learn the language and culture of a given science if they are to become competent (Epstein, 1996). Amateur naturalists also make crucial discoveries, as in the case of the German amateurs who discovered “insect Armageddon.” Consequently, the relationship between amateur communities and professional science remains in flux after 200 years of development (Barton, 2003), and I concur with Nieto-Galan (2016) that “a firm distinction between experts, amateurs or dilettantes and the general public seems dubious” (p. 91), not least because professional scientists also “became ‘amateur’ popularizers” (p. 101). One important development that may have distanced natural history research museums from amateur naturalists is the study of natural history from a field science to one that increasingly takes place in laboratories (Hine, 2008; Latour, 1987).…”

Section: Constructing Publicsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Constructing publics in museums’ science communication

Hetland

2019

Public Underst Sci

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This article investigates how scientists at natural history museums construct publics in science communication and identifies four major constructions based on Braun and Schultz’s categories: the general public, the pure public, the affected public, and the partisan public. This study draws on data from 17 research scientists at two natural history research museums in Norway who were interviewed about their public outreach activities focusing on practices, settings, designated outcomes, scientists’ incentives to communicate science, and, finally, the speaking positions available for the different publics; the aim was to provide an understanding of the four constructed publics in museums’ science communication. When scientists construct different publics, they emphasize relevance as an important quality assurance device.

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Section: Constructing Publicsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Constructing publics in museums’ science communication

Hetland

2019

Public Underst Sci

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“…This framework is highly compatible with a top-down process of circulation of scientific knowledge that has a strong epistemological gap between experts and lay people. 71 In addition, it fitted very well with the totalitarian values of the dictatorship. The fascist elites -scientists and science popularizers among them, including censorship agents -had the last word on the way in which scientific knowledge had to be spread to the public, that is, in a vertical, top-down process.…”

Section: Science On Displaymentioning

confidence: 81%

A puzzling marriage? UNESCO and the Madrid Festival of Science (1955)

Nieto‐Galan

2021

Hist Sci

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From 17 to 22 October 1955, Madrid hosted the UNESCO Festival of Science. In the early years of the Cold War, in a dictatorial country that had recently been admitted into the international community, the festival aimed to spread science to the public through displays of scientific instruments, public lectures, book exhibitions, science writers professional associations, and debates about the use of different media. In this context, foreign visitors, many of whom came from liberal democracies, seemed comfortable in the capital of a country ruled by a dictatorship that had survived after the defeat of fascism in the Second World War and was struggling to gain foreign recognition after years of isolation. This article analyzes the political role of science popularization in Madrid at that time. It approaches the apparently puzzling marriage between UNESCO’s international agenda for peace and democracy and the interests of the Francoist elites. Shared views of technocratic modernity, the fight against communism, and a diplomacy that served Spanish nationalism, paved the way for the alliance.

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“…For scholars like Berbenni scientific films were not necessarily films that talked about science, but films that engaged with a broader set of topics and communicative practices within the cultural realm. This case study shows how diverse the scenario of public understanding of science has been historically, beyond the so-called “deficit model” and the quest for “scientific literacy” (Nieto-Galan, 2016; Vidal, 2018). As attested by the MIFS programs, in the hands of Berbenni and his collaborators, the concept of scientific film expanded, including the arts as well as encouraging “media literacy” in the general public.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%