scholarly journals Knowledge◦Room exploring social justice by going beyond ‘traditional’ spaces and activities of science centres

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (01) ◽  
pp. C03
Author(s):  
Hessam Habibi Doroh ◽  
Barbara Streicher
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Disadvantaged Groups ◽  
Science Centre ◽  
Science Engagement ◽  
Science Centres ◽  
Diverse Groups

This article describes an example of science engagement striving for social justice by invigorating neglected spaces. The pop-up science centre “Knowledge◦Room“ in Vienna encourages learning, participation and engagement and provides accessibility to different groups regardless of their background. Based on a case-study of a bottom-up event at the Knowledge◦Room, we show how science communication can create a trust-based connection with disadvantaged groups in society and inspire their curiosity in science. We argue that science communication can be used as a tool for advancing social justice in the wider sense and facilitate encounters between diverse groups within society.

scholarly journals Contributions from Visitor Research to CI and ICT4D Theory and Research Methodology

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia M Alexander ◽  
Helene Gelderblom Gelderblom ◽  
Estelle De Kock
Keyword(s):  
Research Process ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Science Centre ◽  
Visitor Research ◽  
Science Centres ◽  
Free Choice Learning ◽  
Ict For Development ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract The case study involved the evaluation of a single science centre exhibit in a number of different science centres in a developing country. This illustrates the lessons that Community Informatics and ICT for Development researchers can learn from “Visitor Research” theory and methods. The three contexts identified in The Contextual Model of Learning are seen to shed light on the research process as well as to its original purpose, free-choice learning. A multi-methodological research approach was used and each science centre was described separately so that the different levels of context could be taken into account.

scholarly journals Birth of a science centre. Italian phenomenology

2006 ◽  
Vol 05 (02) ◽  
pp. F
Author(s):  
Paola Rodari
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Science Museum ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
The Public ◽  
European Science ◽  
Science Centre ◽  
Total Investment ◽  
Science Centres ◽  
The Cost

In May 2004 the Balì Museum, Planetarium and interactive science museum, was opened to the public in Italy: 35 hands-on exhibits designed according to the interactive tradition of the Exploratorium in San Francisco, an astronomic observatory for educational activities, a Planetarium with 70 places. With a total investment of about three million euros, about two thirds of which were spent on restructuring the splendid eighteenth-century villa in which it is housed, the undertaking may be considered a small one in comparison with other European science centres. Three million euros: perhaps enough to cover the cost of only the splendid circular access ramp to the brand-new Cosmocaixa in Barcelona, an investment of one hundred million euros. But the interesting aspect of the story of the Balì Museum (but also of other Italian stories, as we shall see) lies in the fact that this lively and advanced science centre stands in the bucolic region of the Marches, next to a small town of only 800 inhabitants (Saltara, in the Province of Pesaro and Urbino), in a municipal territory that has a total of 5000. Whereas in Italy the projects for science centres comparable with the Catalan one, for example projects for Rome and Turin, never get off the ground, smaller ones are opening in small and medium-sized towns: why is this? And what does the unusual location of the centres entail for science communication in Italy? This Focus does not claim to tell the whole truth about Italian interactive museums, but it does offer some phenomenological cues to open a debate on the cultural, economic and political premises that favour their lives.

Creating Utopia through Real Struggle: A Case Study of the Rialto Community Housing Campaign

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rory Hearne
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Housing Conditions ◽  
Disadvantaged Groups ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Substandard Housing ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Structural Inequalities

The article examines the potential of a symbiotic strategy to transform capitalism in a more socialist direction through a case study of a community campaign to address substandard housing conditions resulting from neoliberal property-based regeneration policies and austerity. The case study contrasts the empowerment of disadvantaged groups with dominant partnership approaches to achieving social justice in Ireland. It concludes that while such human rights approaches offer the potential to achieve improvements in people's living conditions, their prospect for symbiotic transformation is limited, unless they link to wider social and political forces challenging structural inequalities, including class and gender.

scholarly journals Science centres and science engagement activities as research facilities: blurring the frontiers between knowledge production and knowledge sharing

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (02) ◽  
pp. E
Author(s):  
Matteo Merzagora
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Science Culture ◽  
Research Institutes ◽  
Science Engagement ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Special Places ◽  
Science Centres ◽  
Research Facilities

The future challenges within science communication lie in a 'grey area' where the frontiers between production and sharing of knowledge are blurred. An area in which we can satisfy at the same time and within the same activity the autonomous interests of researchers and those of other stakeholders, including lay publics. Settings are emerging, where we can provide real contribution to scientific research and at the same time facilitate the publics in their process of hacking scientific knowledge to serve autonomously defined and often unpredictable functions. Some are linked to research institutes, others to science centres, others are precisely inbetween. This editorial explores why these special places are needed, and present some case studies, leading to the need of interpreting science culture centres as research facilities.

scholarly journals STEM escape rooms for public engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Mathieson ◽  
Edward Duca
Keyword(s):  
Science Communication ◽  
Informal Science ◽  
Educational Context ◽  
Scientific Content ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Puzzle Solving ◽  
Science Centre ◽  
Science Engagement

Escape rooms are a relatively new cultural phenomenon, attracting a wide range of audiences to test their puzzle-solving skills. While this format has been trialled in an educational context, there has been little exploration of it as a tool for engagement. We ran a STEM-based escape room, open to the public, over five days at a science centre in Malta. This was an exploratory exercise to determine whether escape rooms could be successful in an informal science engagement context. Over seventy players attempted the game and completed our evaluation. Our results suggest that escape rooms can be used in engagement contexts as they provide a positive experience that encourages future interactions with science. They may also draw audiences not normally interested in science and help them engage with scientific content in a more accessible manner. Interestingly, players were able to persist in engaging with content they found difficult while still finding it enjoyable, which has implications for the science communication of complex topics. Finally, players perceived that they were able to learn science through the escape room, which may increase their self-efficacy.

ICT-ENABLED BOTTOM-UP ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burak Pak
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Ict Tools

This paper aims at discussing the potentials of bottom-up design practices in relation to the latest developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by making an in-depth review of inaugural cases. The first part of the study involves a literature study and the elaboration of basic strategies from the case study. The second part reframes the existing ICT tools and strategies and elaborates on their potentials to support the modes of participation performed in these cases. As a result, by distilling the created knowledge, the study reveals the potentials of novel modes of ICT-enabled design participation which exploit a set of collective action tools to support sustainable ways of self-organization and bottom-up design. The final part explains the relevance of these with solid examples and presents a hypothetical case for future implementation. The paper concludes with a brief reflection on the implications of the findings for the future of architectural design education.

scholarly journals Attrition as a bottom-up pathway to subnational democratization

2021 ◽  
pp. 019251212110192
Author(s):  
Trix van Mierlo
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Causal Process ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
System A ◽  
Extensive Field ◽  
Democratic System

Oftentimes, democracy is not spread out evenly over the territory of a country. Instead, pockets of authoritarianism can persist within a democratic system. A growing body of literature questions how such subnational authoritarian enclaves can be democratized. Despite fascinating insights, all existing pathways rely on the actions of elites and are therefore top-down. This article seeks to kick-start the discussion on a bottom-up pathway to subnational democratization, by proposing the attrition mechanism. This mechanism consists of four parts and is the product of abductive inference through theory-building causal process tracing. The building blocks consist of subnational democratization literature, social movement theory, and original empirical data gathered during extensive field research. This case study focuses on the ‘Dynasty Slayer’ in the province of Isabela, the Philippines, where civil society actors used the attrition mechanism to facilitate subnational democratization. This study implies that civil society actors in subnational authoritarian enclaves have agency.

Political technical communication and ideographic communication design in a pre-digital congressional campaign

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Ryan Cheek
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Electoral Politics ◽  
Communication Design

Building on the work of technical communication scholars concerned with social justice and electoral politics, this article examines the Coray for Congress (1994) campaign as a case study to argue in support of a more formal disciplinary commitment to political technical communication (PxTC). Specifically, I closely analyze the ideographic communication design of pre-digital PxTC artifacts from the campaign archive. The type of pre-digital political communication design products analyzed in this article are ubiquitous even today. The implications of four dominant ideographs are analyzed in this case study: <jobs>, <communities>, <families>, and <"see PDF">. Key takeaways for PxTC practitioners, educators, and scholars are discussed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document