Communicating Science and Technology: Education and Empowerment

1. Communicating Science and Technology: Education and Empowerment Bernhard Wieser IFF/IFZ Schlögelgasse 2 A-8010 Graz wieser@ifz.tugraz.at www.ifz.tugraz.at Presentation Education as Critical Reflection: On Opportunities of Participation in Genetic Engineering Technologies, Publics and Power Akaroa/New Zealand, 1.-5. Februar 2004 wieser@ifz.tugraz.at

2. Overview • Starting point • Framing • Alternative approaches • Continuing Education • Alternative Framing wieser@ifz.tugraz.at

3. Main Thesis Starting point Framing Alternative approaches Continuing Education Alternative Framing • Socially sound Science through participation: • Participation in shaping processes • Participation in decisions making processes • Science communication is not sufficient, but necessary for participation wieser@ifz.tugraz.at

4. Central Question Starting point Framing Alternative approaches Continuing Education Alternative Framing • How can science communication be organized in such a way that more participation is possible? • Concrete: how to encounter the deficit-model in science communication? wieser@ifz.tugraz.at

5. GMO Controversyas a refence point Starting point Framing Alternative approaches Continuing Education Alternative Framing • Causes a wave of science communication activities • Science communication as conflict resolution • Communication with a focus on acceptance problems wieser@ifz.tugraz.at

6. Framingof the science – public relation Starting point Framing Alternative approaches Continuing Education Alternative Framing • A lack of public acceptance is explained as a result of an information and knowledge deficit „Many information campaigns implicitly assume that reservations against genetic engineering are a result of knowledge deficits. According to this assumption there would be no rejection if all people knew what genetic engineers know” (Hampel/Renn 1999, S. 387). wieser@ifz.tugraz.at

7. Knowledge and Acceptancea controversial relation Starting point Framing Alternative approaches Continuing Education Alternative Framing • Knowledge and acceptance correlate • Eurobarometer 46.1 • Kelley 1995 • Knowledge and acceptance don’t correlate • Hampel/Renn 1999 • Weingart 2001 • Wynne 1995 wieser@ifz.tugraz.at

8. Deficit-Modelcritiques based on epistemological or democratic arguments (Durant 1999) Starting point Framing Alternative approaches Continuing Education Alternative Framing • Science is unproblematic: provides safe, certain and conclusive knowledge • The public is perceived negatively: lay persons lack expert knowledge • Disturbances: the relation to the public is characterized by ignorance and misunderstandings • Undemocratic hierarchy between those who know and those who don’t know: exclusion from participation in decision making processes • One-way-communication wieser@ifz.tugraz.at

9. Alternative ApproachesStarting point for an improved science communication Starting point Framing Alternative approaches Continuing Education Alternative Framing • Significant life experiences • Meaning in everyday context • Obvious relevance for action • Interactive communication wieser@ifz.tugraz.at

10. Challangesfor a practical implementation Starting point Framing Alternative approaches Continuing Education Alternative Framing • In which contexts can a relationship to everyday life, orientation towards experience, relevance for action and interactivity be ensured? • Which situations of communication? • Which learning processes? • Which settings? wieser@ifz.tugraz.at

11. Approachcontinuing education (vocational training) Starting point Framing Alternative approaches Continuing Education Alternative Framing • Work • has a quality of everyday experience • is action oriented • Continuing education • seminars in small and medium settings allow interactive communication • Target groups • groups from professions that are confronted with genetic engineering wieser@ifz.tugraz.at

12. Action-relevant Knowledgecountering the deficit-model and moving beyond it Starting point Framing Alternative approaches Continuing Education Alternative Framing • Referring to job-related action contexts • Upgrading and acknowledging practice knowledge, local knowledge, extending communication to non-scientific aspects • Broadening the notion of Knowledge • Alternative understandings of science (scientific knowledge is provisional, controversial, local and context dependant, too) • No hierarchy between scientific and action related knowledge wieser@ifz.tugraz.at

13. Alternative Framingof the science – public relationship Starting point Framing Alternative approaches Continuing Education AlternativeFraming • A relationship is necessary and helpful • to allow an assessment of the non-scientific aspects of scientific knowledge • to develop strategies for a socially sound practice in applying scientific knowledge (democratisation instead of expertocracy); knowledge and acceptance don’t correlate • Significance of interactive communication processes wieser@ifz.tugraz.at

14. Literatur Bernhard Wieser IFF/IFZ Schlögelgasse 2 A-8010 Graz wieser@ifz.tugraz.at www.ifz.tugraz.at • Durant, John: Public understanding. Participatory technology assessment and the democratic model of the public understanding of science. In: Science and Public Policy. October 1999, pp. 313-319 • Eurobarometer 46.1: The Europeans and Modern Biotechnology. European Commission, Brussels – Luxembourg 1997 • Hampel, Jürgen and Ortwin Renn (Eds.): Gentechnik in der Öffentlichkeit. Wahrnehmung und Bewertung einer umstrittenen Technologie, Frankfurt/New York, Campus 1999 • Kelley, Jonathan:Public Perceptions of Genetic Engineering: Australia, 1994. International Social Science Survey. Department of Industrie, Science and Technology 1995, pp. 7-12 • Nowotny, Helga: Vorwort. In: Heintz, Bettina/Nievergelt, Bernhard; Wissenschaftsforschung und Technikforschung in der Schweiz. Sondierung einer neuen Disziplin. Zürich, Seismo Verlag 1998 • Nelkin, Dorothy: Science Controversies. The Dynamics of Public Disputes in the United States. In: Jasanoff, Sheila et al. [Ed‘s.]: Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. Thousand Oaks/London/New Delhi, Sage Publications 1995, pp. 444-456 • Weingart, Peter: Die Stunde der Wahrheit. Zum Verhältnis der Wissenschaft zu Politik, Wirtschaft und Medien in der Wissensgesellschaft. Weilerswist, Velbrück Wissenschaft 2001 • Wynne, Bryan: Public Understanding of Science. In: Jasanoff, Sheila et al. [Ed‘s.]: Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. Thousand Oaks/London/New Delhi, Sage Publications 1995, pp.361-388 wieser@ifz.tugraz.at