Science Technology & Society current issue

Introduction: Mapping Public Understanding of Science

Raza, G. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:56:21 PST

The Evolution of Public Understanding of Science--Discourse and Comparative Evidence

Bauer, M. W. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:56:21 PST

Public Understanding of Science (PUS) is a field of activity and an area of social research. The evolution of this field comprises both the changing discourse and the substantive evidence of a changing public understanding.1 In the first part, I will present a short account on how the discourse of PUS moved from Literacy, via PUS, to Science-in-Society. This is less a story of progress, but one of false polemics and the multiplication of concerns. In the second part, I will show some empirical evidence on how PUS has changed by drawing on mass media data and large scale comparative survey evidence. I conclude by stressing that the Science-Society relationship is variable both in distance between science and the wider society and in the quality of this relationship.

Identifying and Testing Engagement and Public Literacy Indicators for River Health

Metcalfe, J., Riedlinger, M. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:56:21 PST

Natural resource management (NRM) organisations in Australia are increasingly recognising the need for complement studies of biophysical condition of the environment with studies of social condition, such as values, understanding, and participation related to the environment. Relevant and reliable social indicators that can be scaled and measured on a regular basis are essential to meet this need. In this study, we identified four indicators to test the social condition of the public in the State of Victoria in Australia with regard to river health. These indicators were river use, river knowledge and literacy, values and aspirations, and river health behaviours.

We tested the four indicators through telephone and web-based surveys with over 1000 people in three areas of Victoria. We analysed the survey data statistically and gathered baseline data on the social condition of river health in the three regions. We made recommendations for how this data could be interpreted and used in community engagement and science communication programmes about river health. We also examined the limitations of the methodology and recommended modifications to the survey design and application for an anticipated roll-out of the survey across the entire State of Victoria. The Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) will use this survey instrument to test social indicators on a regular basis.

Relative Cultural Distance and Public Understanding of Science

Raza, G., Singh, S., Shukla, R. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:56:21 PST

Public Understanding of Science is an area constituted by those scholars who essentially acquired expertise in various established academic disciplines and shifted their attention towards a few specific issues related to the science–society interface. The discipline though recognised as a legitimate area of research has not come out of all its teething problems associated with the formation of any new area.

The mainstay, during the first phase of its development was the attitudinal surveys conducted in various countries. The objectives of these surveys were to measure the extent of scientific knowledge, probe public attitude towards science or scientists, and at times simply to explore the level of confidence or lack of confidence that a common citizen had in science. These surveys gradually turned into an important and regular activity in many countries.

The debate that followed the first phase resulted in refinement of methodology, tools and the models of assessment of Public Understanding of Science. The PAUS group at NISTADS, India, has since 1989 worked on methodology suitable for carrying out surveys in developing countries. Subsequently, a culturally sensitive model for analysing the survey data was proposed by the group.

The present article in the first section gives details of the model designated here as the ‘cultural model of Public Understanding of Science’. The following sections, in detail, deal with the application of the model on data sets collected by two different organisations in India. The conclusions drawn confirm that the method of measuring cultural distance could be successfully applied to various data sets to draw meaningful inferences.

Using Latent Class Models to Explore Cross-national Typologies of Public Engagement with Science and Technology in Europe

Stares, S. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:56:21 PST

Public engagement with science and technology is a central theme in the field of Public Understanding of Science (PUS), particularly in Europe. Alongside public consultation exercises and similar activities aimed at generating engagement, there is a need for good survey indicators of the general climate for engagement with science and technology among the public. With internationally focused PUS studies increasing in prominence, such survey indicators should ideally characterise engagement in approximately the same way across a range of countries, to facilitate sensible cross-national analyses involving this construct.

This article presents cross-national analyses of two sets of questions posed in the Eurobarometer survey on public perceptions of biotechnology, conducted in 2002 in fifteen European countries. The items analysed capture a range of elements of the concept of engagement, both with science and technology, in general, and with biotechnology, in particular. Latent class models are used to explore typologies of types of engagement: substantively, to understand their content, and methodologically, to identify items which do not work well in these classifications. The analyses are also used to assess the statistical cross-national comparability of such typologies, and consequently to describe variations in levels of engagement across countries.

In Search of the Universal Dimensions of Public Perception of Science

Todorov, V., Petkova, K., Bauer, M. W. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:56:21 PST

One possible way of solving the problem with the cross-cultural validity of the indicators of public understanding of science is analysis of the latent structure of sets of statements used in previous surveys. The factor analysis of eighteen statements from Eurobarometer 224 (2005) reveals three stable replicable latent dimensions—Evaluation, Efficacy and Control. The Efficacy dimension was replicated in the data of thirty-four countries participating in the survey. This dimension was not replicated only in Northern Ireland. The Control dimension was not replicated only in East Germany, Turkey and Norway. It is shown that the Evaluation and Efficacy dimension correlate and form new second-order dimension ‘Science is for others’ vs ‘Science is for us’.

European Attitudes Towards Animal Research: Overview and Consequences for Science

von Roten, F. C. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:56:21 PST

The goal of this article is to map out attitudes towards animal experimentation in Europe (EU15 plus Switzerland), more specifically, to document the current attitudes, perform cross-national comparison of the trends of attitudes towards animal experimentation and of the explanatory factors of these attitudes. We assume that the conception of nature and science influences the perception of animal research. This study analyses a series of surveys that measure European public attitudes towards science and technology, the Eurobarometer (EB) 2001 and 2005. The majority of European countries refused animal experimentation in 2005 and we observe downward trend in every country, except Belgium and Spain. If the trend is similar among the countries the patterns of explanation of these attitudes are quite heterogeneous. Attitudes towards animal testing are explained in every country by attitudes towards science and nature, and by sociodemographic variables (except in Spain and Austria), and in very few countries by scientific knowledge (Belgium) or by values (Sweden and Switzerland). These results may have consequences for science and contribute therefore to the public understanding of science (PUS) research.

An Empirical Cohort Analysis of the Relationship between National Science Curriculum and Public Understanding of Science and Technology: A Case Study of Japan

Shimizu, K. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:56:21 PST

Study of the Gender Difference in Scientific Literacy of Chinese Public

Chao, Z., Wei, H. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:56:21 PST

This article analyses the data of public scientific literacy survey conducted in China during 2005. Using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 13.0, the author establishes four regression models. The result reveals that the scores of male respondents are higher than that of female in the items relating to scientific knowledge. It also shows that scientific literacy is closely related to the socio-demographic variables. However, the impact of educational degree on public understanding of scientific method is not so evident.