Public engagement with science : origins, motives and impact in academic literature and science policy
Date
2021-07-07
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Abstract
‘Public engagement with science’ has become a ‘buzzword’ reflecting a concern about the widening gap between science and society and efforts to bridge this gap. This study is a comprehensive analysis of the development of the ‘engagement’ rhetoric in the pertinent academic literature on science communication and in science policy documents. By way of a content analysis of articles published in three leading science communication journals and a selection of science policy documents from the United Kingdom (UK), the United States of America (USA), the European Union (EU), and South Africa (SA), the variety of motives underlying this rhetoric, as well as the impact it has on science policies, are analyzed. The analysis of the science communication journals reveals an increasingly vague and inclusive definition of ‘engagement’ as well as of the ‘public’ being addressed, and a diverse range of motives driving the rhetoric. Similar observations can be made about the science policy documents. This study corroborates an earlier diagnosis that rhetoric is running ahead of practice and suggests that communication and engagement with clearly defined stakeholder groups about specific problems and the pertinent scientific knowledge will be a more successful manner of ‘engagement’.
Description
CITATION: Weingart, P., Joubert, M. & Connoway, K. 2021. Public engagement with science : origins, motives and impact in academic literature and science policy. PLoS ONE, 16(7): e0254201, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0254201.
The original publication is available at https://journals.plos.org
The original publication is available at https://journals.plos.org
Keywords
Political participation, Science and society, Science -- Social aspects, Academic writing, Science policy, Science and state
Citation
Weingart, P., Joubert, M. & Connoway, K. 2021. Public engagement with science : origins, motives and impact in academic literature and science policy. PLoS ONE, 16(7): e0254201, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0254201.