Science Communication - II: Making Science in Public

Abstract

Public communication of science is a key mechanism by which scientific knowledge is mediated, negotiated, and transformed. Over the past decades, STS research has outlined the ways in which science and society are coproduced through communication activities, catalysed a shift towards dialogue and engagement in science communication practice, and itself been opened up to public audiences through experimental forms of making and doing.

This open stream invites paper proposals that analyse or reflect upon public science communication. We understand this broadly, as “organized, explicit, and intended actions that aim to communicate scientific knowledge, methodology, processes, or practices in settings where non-scientists are a recognized part of the audiences” (Horst et al 2016, 883). Science communication therefore includes, for instance, science in museums, science fairs, events, and festivals, popular science writing, science blogging, sci­art activities, university and lab open days, news media, digital and social media, and science comedy. We invite critical analysis of these activities. For example, papers might offer reflections on the role science communication plays in the democratisation of science, analyses of the constitution of publics and knowledges within particular science communication activities, discussion of the affective regimes of science in public, or accounts of experimental practice. In particular, any analysis that showcases how science communication is innovated, interrupted, and regenerated is welcomed. The panel will thus use the methodologies and concerns of STS to reflect upon the problems, potential and practice of contemporary science communication.

Chair

• Noriko Hara, Indiana University

Individual Presentations

• A Risky Object? The Politics of Ascribing Health and Environmental Risks to Microplastics in Media and Scientific Discourse - Sarah Maria Schönbauer, Technical University of Munich; Ruth Müller, MCTS TU München

• Hidden Value: Investigating the Physics Demonstration as Aesthetic Experience - Sydney Ozellah Seese, Michigan State University; Megan Halpern, Michigan State University; Kathleen Hinko, Michigan State University

• Science Communication through Popular Culture: Transmediality in the Case of Two Popular Physics Books - Mircea Sava, University of Bucharest

• Scientists’ Bestsellers: Alternative Spaces for Doing Science by Communicating - Kaya Akyuz, University of Vienna, Department of Science and Technology Studies

• Public Expertise Challenged: Scientists’ Views on Hidden Forms of Censorship - Esa Tapani Väliverronen, University of Helsinki; Sampsa Saikkonen, University of Helsinki, Department of Social Research

Session Organizer

• Sarah Davies, University of Copenhagen