Esta pesquisa busca caracterizar as concepções de popularização da ciência e da tecnologia (C&T) que permearam o discurso e as ações do Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia (MCT) do Brasil, na gestão 2003-2006. Como parte do processo, foram exploradas as relações que, nesse discurso, são estabelecidas entre museus de ciências, popularização da ciência e divulgação científica, tomando como referência uma ação especificamente desenvolvida pelo MCT no âmbito dos museus de ciências: o Edital Seleção Pública de Propostas para Apoio a Museus e Centros de Ciências, formulado em 2003. Como referenciais teóricos, foram utilizados estudos desenvolvidos no âmbito da sociologia da ciência, da comunicação pública da ciência, da divulgação científica e da comunicação em museus. A pesquisa teve abordagem qualitativa, usando dados coletados em documentos e em entrevistas. Os documentos foram textos oficiais do MCT no período 2003-2006 e projetos apresentados ao Edital; as entrevistas consideraram consultores do Comitê Temático de Divulgação Científica do CNPq e profissionais de museus de ciências beneficiários do Edital. Os dados coletados mostram que a área de popularização da C&T está sendo legitimada politicamente pelo MCT por meio da consolidação do Departamento de Difusão e Popularização da C&T e por meio de financiamentos...

Este trabalho analisa como museus de ciências no Brasil exploram as relações e as interferências mútuas entre ciência, tecnologia e sociedade, utilizando como principais referenciais a educação com enfoque ciência, tecnologia e sociedade (CTS), e a comunicação pública da ciência. A escolha da educação com enfoque CTS está relacionada à discussão sobre a importância da formação de cidadãos críticos diante das questões de ciência e tecnologia (C&T), incluindo a abordagem ciência, tecnologia, sociedade e meio ambiente (CTSA). Já a escolha da comunicação pública da ciência se dá pelo seu debate sobre a mudança na forma de participação do público nas tomadas de decisão sobre C&T. Esses dois referenciais desafiam as instituições que atuam na interface ciência e público a repensar seus objetivos e propósitos. Um questionamento ainda mais relevante, se levados em consideração o crescimento e o fortalecimento dos museus de ciências no Brasil nos últimos anos. Para este projeto, foram selecionadas e analisadas três exposições de diferentes museus de ciências nacionais: Educação Ambiental, do Museu de Ciências e Tecnologia/PUC-RS; Reprodução e genética, do Espaço Biodescoberta do Museu da Vida/Fiocruz...

Over the last few decades public policy and public management methods have been very much concerned with the management of risk. Risk by definition is quantifiable, or if not quantifiable, something that can be ‘managed’. In contrast, the preparedness perspective places far more emphasis on the need to deal with uncertainty – challenges that cannot be easily quantified, accurately forecasted or managed. Although the distinction between risk and uncertainty is not clear-cut (and is often the troubled area where policy-makers find themselves working), a strong bias towards framing the challenge as ‘manageable’ risk can, in practice, be distinguished from the more important challenge of handling substantive uncertainty. The preparedness perspective stresses the key role of governments in managing the economic, social, environmental and national security consequences of this substantive uncertainty. Preparedness also clarifies why government funding for basic research is so important: basic research, in essence, translates ignorance into risk. We explore the unknown because we want to find out more about it – human beings prefer to face risks than uncertainties because we can (attempt at least) to act rationally in response to measurable risks. Consequently...

The need for policy makers to understand science and for scientists to understand policy processes is widely recognised. However, the science-policy relationship is sometimes difficult and occasionally dysfunctional; it is also increasingly visible, because it must deal with contentious issues, or itself becomes a matter of public controversy, or both. We suggest that identifying key unanswered questions on the relationship between science and policy will catalyse and focus research in this field. To identify these questions, a collaborative procedure was employed with 52 participants selected to cover a wide range of experience in both science and policy, including people from government, non-governmental organisations, academia and industry. These participants consulted with colleagues and submitted 239 questions. An initial round of voting was followed by a workshop in which 40 of the most important questions were identified by further discussion and voting. The resulting list includes questions about the effectiveness of science-based decision-making structures; the nature and legitimacy of expertise; the consequences of changes such as increasing transparency; choices among different sources of evidence; the implications of new means of characterising and representing uncertainties; and ways in which policy and political processes affect what counts as authoritative evidence. We expect this exercise to identify important theoretical questions and to help improve the mutual understanding and effectiveness of those working at the interface of science and policy.; William Sutherland is funded by Arcadia http://www.arcadiafund.org.uk.

Third Annual Acquisition Research Symposium; The following article is taken as an excerpt from the proceedings of the annual Acquisition Research Program. This annual event showcases the research projects funded through the Acquisition Research Program at the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School. Featuring keynote speakers, plenary panels, multiple panel sessions, a student research poster show and social events, the Annual Acquisition Research Symposium offers a candid environment where high-ranking Department of Defense (DoD) officials, industry officials, accomplished faculty and military students are encouraged to collaborate on finding applicable solutions to the challenges facing acquisition policies and processes within the DoD today. By jointly and publicly questioning the norms of industry and academia, the resulting research benefits from myriad perspectives and collaborations which can identify better solutions and practices in acquisition, contract, financial, logistics and program management. For further information regarding the Acquisition Research Program, electronic copies of additional research, or to learn more about becoming a sponsor, please visit our program website at: www.acquisitionresearch.org. For further information on or to register for the next Acquisition Research Symposium during the third week of May...

This thesis describes the communication activities and views of Australia's scientists around their communication with the general public. This exploratory research is based upon a national Internet survey of 1,521 Australian scientists who worked across public and private sectors for eight different types of employers and in seven science disciplines. The scientists were aged between 21 and 67+ years and the survey population was representative of the sex-age distribution of scientists in Australia in 2006. This study sought to find out if scientists in Australia agreed that they had a responsibility to communicate with the general public, how personally important it was to them, and if there were any benefits for them from doing so. A significant finding of this research is that a large number of scientists have positive feelings about themselves, their communication and their work, as a benefit of communicating with the general public. Whether communicating with the general public was a part of their job, or otherwise recognised or rewarded, and what scientists did to communicate with the general public is also explored. Hindrances to their communication and areas for improvement are identified. The influence of scientists' sex...

Science communication, over the last two decades, has shifted its onus from public understanding to public engagement. These efforts have been paralleled in science education, which strives to promote continued student engagement with science. Persistence with more traditional forms of pedagogy by teachers in middle school is a chief deterrent to this endeavour. Since many teachers' inadequate understanding about science is regarded as inhibiting their use of inquiry-based pedagogy, professional development based on constructivist principles has been identified to remedy this problem. This study investigates the constructivist basis for a model of short-term professional development, which has not been addressed in the literature. The one-day workshops offered to middle school science teachers in Australia and overseas by the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (ANU, Canberra) are investigated here. While the workshops did facilitate conceptual change in the teachers, it was found that the constructivist principles which were incorporated into the workshops' design and delivery were underpinned by science communication practices. The conclusions presented include: the possibility of a constructivist framework for short-term professional development; the need for greater involvement of science communication in science education reform; and the unique challenges which confront science teachers from non-Western cultures.; Yes

The Federal Government's goals for a better Australia rely on the creative capabilities of the constituent parts of the national innovation system, within which a scientifically aware Australian public needs to play a key role. The Inspiring Australia report, in particular Recommendation 15, recognizes that Australia requires a strategic capability to design, target and review effective science engagement activities to guide future investment, contributing to the building of science communication capacity, professionalism and excellence: Recommendation 15: Developing an Evidence Base. That the national initiative support a program of research in science engagement - such as baseline and longitudinal attitudinal and behavioural studies, activity audits, program evaluations and impact assessments - to inform future investment decisions by government and its partners. To this aim, a short-term Expert Working Group was commissioned by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research to offer a plan for identifying and sharing best practice for an evidence base for science engagement in Australia. The Expert Working Group finds that much needs to be done to create stronger links between the constituent parts of Australia's national innovation system. They propose ten recommendations divided into three main themes: The Australian Public...

Teaching creationism, also called creation science, intelligent design (ID), and evidence against evolution—a religious doctrine, holding that life and the universe were created by a supernatural actor out of nothing—contravenes the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and is illegal in U.S. public science classes. Nevertheless many U.S. high school science teachers continue to teach creationist doctrine as part of an undocumented, or hidden, curriculum. The arguments advanced in this study propose that creationism—as opposed to evolution—cannot be defined as science, and seeks to answer the following questions: (1) What arguments have been put forward by advocates of creationism, to make the case for creationist ideology in U.S. public school science classes? (2) What impact have the arguments of proponents of intelligent design creationism had, on American public education policy and the law? Data has been collected from precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court rulings and associated texts, e.g., expert witness testimony under oath, cross-examination, and published works referred to in the proceedings. Testimony was analysed for its content—content analytic—to address specific creationist arguments with regard to scientific rigour...

Les innovations médicales ont un impact considérable sur les pratiques cliniques, sur la formulation des politiques et sur les attentes du public envers le système de santé. Dans un contexte de système de santé public, les conséquences économiques importantes des innovations médicales freinent grandement leur adoption alors qu’elles sont souvent représentées dans les médias comme étant hautement désirables. Une telle définition de la problématique limite le débat sur ce qui rend les innovations sociales et technologiques en santé pertinentes d’un point de vue de santé des populations. Il apparaît donc intéressant de tirer profit d’une pratique communicationnelle innovante, le Café scientifique. Ce projet de recherche analyse un Café scientifique ayant mis en scène en mars 2007 un échange entre quatre experts et environ 80 membres du public autour des enjeux relatifs aux innovations en santé. Les objectifs sont : 1) analyser l’application d’une intervention de type Café scientifique; et 2) analyser ses retombées sur les participants. Cette étude de cas unique s’appuie sur des données qualitatives et quantitatives: 1) observation semi-participative; 2) enregistrement audiovisuel de l’activité; 3) questionnaires distribués à la fin de l’activité; et 4) entrevues semi-dirigées (n=11) avec des participants. L’analyse intégrée de ces données permet de mieux comprendre comment le contexte est structurant pour le débat...

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology has the potential to enable large reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions, but one of the unanswered questions about CCS is whether it will be accepted by the public. In the past, construction of large facilities such as nuclear power plants has been prevented or delayed by public opposition, and CCS proponents would like to know whether it will provoke similar public opposition. Since the Geologic Storage (GS) component of the CCS architecture has not been widely deployed, this thesis explores the characteristics of GS and how they might affect public perception and acceptance of the larger CCS architecture. To provide insight regarding public acceptance of CCS, this thesis addresses two questions; first asking how GS is likely to be perceived by the public and what can be done to improve that perception, and second asking whether financial compensation can be used to improve public acceptance of energy facilities. To address the first question about the public perception of GS, this thesis begins with a discussion of risk concepts and how it is used differently by experts, who use a realist perspective, and the general public, who use a social constructivist perspective.; (cont.) After discussing how this difference in perspective leads to risk disputes...

This dissertation uses the public career of Harvard evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould to examine the place of evolution in American culture from 1960 to 2002. Gould was a professional paleontologist and public science writer who rose to fame through his participation in a series of American controversies over biology and society. Prior to the 1980s, Gould publicly disagreed with other biologists over the relationship between liberalism and scientific research. As a New Left activist, Gould advocated caution over public pronouncements on evolutionary explanations of race and sex. His opponents believed that science could provide objective standards for understanding human difference. This thesis shows how the resurgence of creationism in the context of the New Right brought a new community into dialogue with these generally left-oriented academics. Evolutionary scientists and writers solidified a new evolutionary orthodoxy in their attempt to close ranks against the political, social and intellectual threat of creationism. Gould's intellectual and political struggles with the rise of this Darwinian orthodoxy demonstrate the impact that the American public had on the terms of debate within professional evolutionary biology. By studying the impact of public religious controversy on scientific knowledge production...

We trace the shifting definitions of the American public health profession's mission as a social reform and science-based endeavor. Its authority coalesced in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as public health identified itself with housing, sanitation, and labor reform efforts. The field ceded that authority to medicine and other professions as it jettisoned its social mission in favor of a science-based identity. Understanding the potential for achieving progressive social change as it moves forward will require careful consideration of the industrial, structural, and intellectual forces that oppose radical reform and the identification of constituencies with which professionals can align to bring science to bear on the most pressing challenges of the day.

The tobacco industry has attacked “junk science” to discredit the evidence that secondhand smoke—among other environmental toxins—causes disease. Philip Morris used public relations firms and lawyers to develop a “sound science” program in the United States and Europe that involved recruiting other industries and issues to obscure the tobacco industry's role. The European “sound science” plans included a version of “good epidemiological practices” that would make it impossible to conclude that secondhand smoke—and thus other environmental toxins—caused diseases.

A Tese de doutorado de Carlos Antonio Teixeira descreve e caracteriza concepções que coordenadores de programas de pós-graduação em saúde coletiva do Brasil têm acerca da divulgação científica enquanto expressão de comunicação pública da ciência. A partir de uma pesquisa exploratória, observacional, com abordagem qualitativa, o Autor chega e apresenta os resultados do estudo, contextualizando-os num mundo globalizado em que a informação circula sem fronteiras e a velocidade de sua renovação é exponencialmente aumentada com o uso das novas tecnologias de comunicação e informação.; Antônio Carlos Teixeira’s PhD1 thesis sets out concepts and characteristics that can be used to structure graduate programs in public health in Brazil in terms of the public communication of science. The author presents the results of his study within an exploratory, observational and qualitative perspective and contextualizes them within a globalized world where information circulates regardless of frontiers, the speed of their renewal increasing exponentially as a result of the use of new technologies of communication and information.

This paper uses a systematic literature review to suggest that three emerging critical approaches to the production of public authority are identifiable within the contemporary literature on conflict-affected and transitioning regions. The authors term these approaches the ‘public authority from below perspective’, the ‘hybrid political orders lens’, and ‘political settlements analysis’. Although hailing from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, the paper argues that these approaches share important traits. First, they suggest that to understand better the nature of public authority in transitioning and conflict-affected regions it is necessary to uncover how public authority actually works rather than departing from a theory of the state. This includes accounting for how power is legitimated and practiced within each context, and how claims to public authority are connected to the provision of public goods such as security and justice. Second, they view competition, conflict and contestation as enduring features of public authority in such contexts, and call for empirical examinations of these processes to inform understandings of social change. Third, these approaches argue that public authority is an emergent property...

Genetically modified organisms have been accompanied by hopes and concerns regarding the potential of this technology to reshape agricultural practices, our environment and the food we eat. The controversy surrounding GMOs raised questions regarding the present and future relationship between science and society. This thesis contributes to this debate by exploring GM scientists’ thoughts about public opinion and its influence on their work. I contend that how scientists listen to public opinion is mediated by national context, which I explore through a comparison of the United Kingdom and Italy. Within the public understanding of science, and social studies of science more generally, the listening capacity of scientists has largely been ignored. Asking if, how and under what conditions GM scientists listen to public opinion on GMOs, I address this gap in the literature. A mixed method approach is used to answer these questions. This combines descriptive statistics with a range of qualitative methods, including narrative analysis, case study and situational analysis. This methodological approach is meant to bridge qualitative and quantitative methodologies...

Following the opening three chapters, which survey the literature related to knowledge, economic growth and firm behavior, I focus on the biotechnology industry to understand how firms translate basic scientific ideas into profitable ventures. I find that this industry is characterized by two unique stylized facts: first, firms publish the results of their scientific research openly in peer reviewed journals, and two, they collaborate with universities quite intensively. I explore the private-public nature of biotechnology innovation in three separate papers. In my first paper, I find that collaborative research with academics improves research quality for biotechnology firms. My results indicated that biotechnology firms seek alliances with high status academics with established research reputations so as to gain publication in highly ranked journals which is one measure of research quality. One of the major policy implications of my paper was that support for public science should be strengthened and collaboration across the private-public divide should also be encouraged. However, collaboration should not be conflated with co-option or appropriation of roles, i.e., the public sector should not be encouraged to emulate private sector functions. A strong independent public science nexus is crucial for private biotech firms...

The 2003 to 2004 revolt against the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) in Nigeria provides a case study for investigating how a new scientific phenomenon becomes part of common sense in a culture with high levels of religiosity. Moscovici’s Social Representations Theory about how society familiarises itself with the unfamiliar provides a framework for the research which includes two media analyses, historical texts, online and paper administered surveys and interviews. The media analyses examine the OPV controversy and science in the media. Correspondence analysis provides a geometric tool for visualising how the variables in both media analyses position themselves for the construction of genres of science news. Factor analysis groups the attitude items in the survey while logistic regression predicts outcomes controlling for other variables. The media analyses found coverage of science in the period under review was generally positive and grew continually. The coverage of the OPV controversy was also generally positive but did not always mirror faithfully public opinion. Just as some Parisians in Moscovoci’s study likened psychoanalysis to a “symptom of an American invasion”, the initial description of the OPV by the people of northern Nigeria was a “western conspiracy against Muslims.” The survey found different levels of trust in public institutions with scientists and religious leaders similarly rated. Pessimism...

In a global environment characterised by the growing role of science and technology in our economic, social, and political lives, an international research agenda has arisen to measure and understand how science and technology are perceived and evaluated by the public. In 2010, the South African Social Attitudes Survey included 20 items to measure public attitudes towards science, knowledge about science, and sources of information about science. This household survey was administered to a representative, stratified, random sample of 3183 participants. The findings were analysed through a bivariate analysis, and here we report on South African attitudes towards science and technology, how these have changed between 1999 and 2010, and where South African science attitudes fit on the canvas of global science attitudes. The data reveal a complex and shifting relationship between attitudes of promise and reservation towards science in South Africa. In the international context, South Africa has a unique 'fingerprint' of public attitudes towards science. The strongest demographic variable impacting on attitude towards science was educational attainment, followed by age. Gender had no impact on science attitude. This broad overview also highlights some directions for further research to meet the growing academic and policy interest in the interface between the institutions of science and the public.