Socio-demographic correlates of DK-responses in knowledge surveys: self-attributed ignorance of science

1996 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Regression Model ◽  
Knowledge Society ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Demographic Correlates ◽  
The Status ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Don't Know Responses

With the increasing specialization of the knowledge society, knowledge in some areas means ignorance in others, which amounts to the knowledge-ignorance paradox. In the debate on public understanding of science the status of “ignorance” is controversial. How is scientific ignorance distributed by age, education, religion, social category or gender? We attempt to answer this and other questions by analysing “Don't Know”-responses in a European-wide survey as a measure of self-attributed ignorance, using a regression model, and explore how different variables explain self-attributed ignorance in different countries. A pattern emerges which shows that various EU countries differ in their distribution of ignorance of science. The polysemy of ignorance of science across social settings remains a problem for future research.

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.

Analyzing acceptance politics: Towards an epistemological shift in the public understanding of science and technology

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Barben
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Main Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Analytical Perspective ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Understanding Of Science

Reviewing the main research approaches on the acceptance of science and technology (S&T) developed in the last decades, I will (1) summarize advances achieved and persisting problems concerning the understanding of both the public and S&T. I will show that the acceptance-centered framework has, at least implicitly, been linked to practical efforts in acceptance politics, i.e., attempts to improve a lack of acceptance. In order to investigate conflicts relating to S&T in a more reflective way, I will (2) suggest an epistemological shift towards the analysis of acceptance politics. Building on the distinction between the relevance and resonance of S&T, the ways in which S&T are valuated and gain legitimacy are investigated from a regime analytical perspective. I will (3) exemplify the advantages of this approach by comparatively analyzing the acceptance politics of three biotechnology applications in the USA and Germany. I will (4) conclude with an outlook on future research.

Mapping variety in public understanding of science

1993 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Bauer ◽  
Ingrid Schoon
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Survey Question ◽  
Five Dimensions ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Understanding Of Science

We analyse around 15 000 responses from 11 countries to the open survey question `please tell me in your own words, what does it mean to study something scientifically' in order to show cultural diversity in public representations of science. In past studies this question has been coded on a five-point rating scale that is used to rank scientific literacy across different countries. We develop, apply and evaluate an alternative coding frame. We show that our coding is more adequate, more reliable and produces less noise than the frame used by others to analyse responses to the same question. Multiple coding on five dimensions allows us to characterize people's understanding of science in terms of methods, institutions, effects, examples and level of differentiation of the response. We use correspondence analysis to characterize distinct response patterns in ten European countries and the USA. The data shows that no simple cultural division such as Protestant versus Catholic, or north-south divide, or Latin versus Anglo-Saxon fits the variance in the data. The paper closes with an agenda for future research in the area of public understanding of science and technology.

Between citizen and consumer: multiplying the meanings of the “public understanding of science”

1998 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Michael
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Status ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Sociological Studies

This paper explores how the “public understanding of science” might be reconceptualized in light of the recent sociological treatments of consumption. I consider the implications that the rise of consumer culture and the increasing aesthetisization of everyday life have for micro-and macro-sociological studies in the public understanding of science. In particular, I examine how consumer culture impacts upon the status of the “lay local” and the nature of citizenship as they relate to the public understanding of science and scientific literacy. Further, I explore how the discourses and techniques of public understanding of science studies might contribute to the formulation of the lay person as consumer. Finally; in light of these points, I formulate a number of research questions that might enable the development of the “public understanding of science.”

Understanding understanding: a model for the public learning of radioactivity

1999 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 267-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Alsop
Keyword(s):  
Informal Learning ◽  
Background Radiation ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Change Model ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
The Public ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Conceptual Change Model

While much of the work in the public understanding of science has focused on the public's appreciation of science and their familiarity with key scientific concepts, understanding the processes involved in learning science has largely been ignored. This article documents a study of how particular members of the public learn about radiation and radioactivity, and proposes a model to describe their learning—the Informal Conceptual Change Model [ICCM]. ICCM is a multidimensional framework that incorporates three theoretical dimensions—the cognitive, conative, and affective. The paper documents each of these dimensions, and then illustrates the model by drawing upon data collected in a case study. The emphasis of the analysis is on understanding how the members of the public living in an area with high levels of background radiation learn about the science of this potential health threat. The summarizing comments examine the need for a greater awareness of the complexities of informal learning.

The roles of rhetoric in the public understanding of science

1994 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan G. Gross
Keyword(s):  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Contextual Model ◽  
Deficit Model ◽  
The Public ◽  
Science Rhetoric ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Social Scientific

In the public understanding of science, rhetoric has two distinct roles: it is both a theory capable of analysing public understanding and an activity capable of creating it. In its analytical role, rhetoric reveals two dominant models of public understanding: the deficit model and the contextual model. In the deficit model, rhetoric acts in the minor role of creating public understanding by accommodating the facts and methods of science to public needs and limitations. In the contextual model, rhetoric and rhetorical analysis play major roles. Rhetorical analysis provides an independent source of evidence to secure social scientific claims; in addition, it supplies the grounds for a rhetoric of reconstruction, one that reconstitutes the fact and facts of science in the public interest.

scholarly journals Training in Astronomy

1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 910-911
Author(s):  
M. Gerbaldi
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Primary Science ◽  
University Colleges ◽  
University Level ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Physical Laws ◽  
The University

Astronomy offers a unique opportunity for promoting the science teaching in its present crisis. Astronomy can be introduced at various levels and become the medium by which both primary science education and public understanding of science are stimulated.At the University level, astronomy can be introduced in the curricula of university colleges and be a subject for M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees. Astronomy, can give students the opportunity to work scientifically from observations and known physical laws in order to derive knowledge in another field of science. Astronomy can be taught with less formalism and more experimentation, giving students a feel for the link between a phenomenon and its theoretical representation, and how and why a given observation can be represented by different theoretical models.

scholarly journals Diez años de investigación de la comunicación pública de la ciencia en y desde América Latina. Un estudio en tres revistas académicas (2008–2017)

2018 ◽  
Vol 01 (01) ◽  
pp. A02
Author(s):  
Carlos Enrique Orozco
Keyword(s):  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
America Latina ◽  
Medios De Comunicacion

Las revistas académicas son uno de los principales medios que utilizan los científicos para dar a conocer los resultados de sus investigaciones, por lo que también pueden usarse como un registro de lo que se está investigando en un campo de conocimiento en particular como lo es la comunicación pública de la ciencia. En este trabajo presentamos las tendencias de la investigación académica en la comunicación de la ciencia en y desde América Latina tomando como corpus los reportes de investigación publicados en las tres principales revistas académicas internacionales en el campo: “Science Communiation”, “Public Understanding of Science” y “Journal of Science Communicaton” entre 2008 y 2017. Los hallazgos muestran un incremento de la producción, una clara hegemonía de Brasil, México y Argentina, los países económicamente más importantes de la región y una fuerte tendencia a la investigación que relaciona la comunicación de la ciencia con los medios de comunicación, en particular con la comunicación del riesgo medio ambiental en la región.

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