Scenario

Science Communication and Science in

Society: A Conceptual Review in Ten
Keywords
Massimiano Bucchi Brian Trench
Trento University (IT) Dublin City University (IR)

Abstract: Originating in science outreach and influenced by social studies of

science, science communication is now an established field of graduate edu-
cation, of empirical and applied studies and of theoretical reflection. The es-
tablishment of this field has been marked inter alia by the publication of dedi-
cated journals, reference books and handbooks, and the organisation of
regular international conferences and professional networks. The process re-
flects developments in science-society relations as expressed, for example, in
notions of post-academic, post-normal, or mode-2 science, all of which posit
the permeability of the previously conceived boundaries, leading to more
communication between institutions and between the cultures of science and
of institutions and the culture of the wider society. In this article we have se-
lected ten terms that are frequently used in the public, professional and poli-
cy discussions about questions of science in society.

Keywords: science communication; science in society; lexicon; trends and

challenges; conceptual review; keywords

Corresponding author: Massimiano Bucchi, Trento University,

Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale, Via Verdi, 26 - 38122 Trento,
Italy. E-mail: [email protected].

Over the past three decades, government and institutional pro-

grammes and professional and voluntary practices in public communica-
tion of science have multiplied and diversified. With their proliferation
and their spread around the world, an associated educational and re-
search endeavour has also grown. Originating in science outreach and in-
fluenced by social studies of science, science communication is now an es-
tablished field of graduate education, of empirical and applied studies
and of theoretical reflection. The establishment of this field has been
marked inter alia by the publication of dedicated journals, reference
books and handbooks, and the organisation of regular international con-
ferences and professional networks. The process reflects developments in

TECNOSCIENZA
Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
7 (2) pp. 151-168 - ISSN 2038-3460 2016
www.tecnoscienza.net
152 Tecnoscienza - 7 (2)

science-society relations as expressed, for example, in notions of post-

academic, post-normal, or mode-2 science, all of which posit the permea-
bility of the previously conceived boundaries, leading to more communi-
cation between institutions and between the cultures of science and of in-
stitutions and the culture of the wider society.
The term ‘science communication’ has stabilised in the past two dec-
ades as the preferred descriptor for this field of practice and theory. Out
of 79 papers, essays and chapters published over seventy years that we se-
lected for an anthology of writings on public communication of science
(Bucchi and Trench 2016), 21 referred to ‘science communication’; just
two of those were published before 1995, and the rest were published in
that year or later. Recently, ‘science in society’ has come to be used as a
near-synonym, though sometimes intending to make explicit the dimen-
sions beyond talking, exhibiting or writing science, such as policies and
practices in public consultation on science-based issues, science policy or
research agendas.
This possible ambiguity reflects the nature of the developing field, as
does the shifting terminology for some central phenomena. In this article
we have selected ten terms that are frequently used in the public, profes-
sional and policy discussions about questions of science in society. We set
out in lexicon-like form how these terms have acquired a range of mean-
ings, including distinctly different ones, some of which co-exist in current
usage. With a firm grasp of these terms, and an appreciation of how they
may be deployed normatively, descriptively or analytically, the reader
should be better placed to navigate the field of science communication
research and policy-making.
The following glossary does not propose stabilized or final definitions
of the selected terms, but rather aims to make their variable usage more
transparent.1 A lexical exercise of this type is clearly limited when it is
based on terms that are prevalent in the English-language literature. Both
authors of this article work in multi-lingual contexts and are keenly aware
of this limitation. However, it is also the case that English-language terms
in this field have been widely used in international discussions, either in
direct translation or in their original form. We offer this conceptual re-
view based on our knowledge of the literature and our participation in
relevant discussions. We have included references to sources for some ar-
guments and illustrations but we considered it would have made for diffi-
cult reading if we attached references at all possible points. We open the
review with one of the longest-established (and still-used) key terms and,
beyond that, the sequence of the review aims to link each section with the
next or previous one by broadening the argument.

1
This article draws on the work done by the authors for the Annuario Scienza
Tecnologia e Società 2014 and the Handbook of Public Communication of
Science and Technology (Bucchi and Trench 2014a; 2014b).
Bucchi and Trench 153

Popularisation

This is the term with the longest tradition among those used to de-
scribe a wide range of practices in making scientific information accessi-
ble to general, non-expert audiences. The near-equivalent terms in other
languages, including vulgarisation (French), divulgazione (Italian), divul-
gación (Spanish), also have long and continuing histories and carry simi-
lar connotations. Early examples of popularisation – though not named as
such at the time – include Fontenelle’s Entretiens sur la pluralité des
mondes (1686), a series of conversations between a philosopher and a
marquise. During the 18th century, science popularisation gradually de-
fined itself as a distinctive narrative genre, often targeting in particular
female readers as supposedly ignorant and curious – “symbols of igno-
rance, goodwill and curiosity” (Raichvarg and Jacques 1991) – as in Alga-
rotti’s classic Newtonianism for Ladies (1739) or de Lalande’s
L’Astronomie des Dames (1785).
Further channels of popularisation emerged later, with scientific dis-
coveries frequently featured in the daily press, science museums, public
lectures and the great exhibitions and fairs that showed visitors the latest
marvels of science and technology. Particularly during the second half of
the 19th century, popularisation and popularisers profited from changes
in the publishing business and the increasing reading audience to become
influential voices, but their success also testified to the increasing rele-
vance of science as a cultural force. The sales figures of Brewer’s Guide to
the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar – 195,000 copies up to 1892
(Lightman 2007) – are impressive even by contemporary standards.
Through their books and public lectures, popularisers (“showmen of sci-
ence”) like J.H. Pepper and J.G. Wood in England or Paolo Mantegazza
in Italy became public celebrities of their time (Lightman 2007).
In the following century and particularly after World War II, the new
global and policy landscape redefined popularisation in conceptual and
even ideological terms, particularly in the US and Western Europe. With
science’s social and political role significantly captured by the metaphor
of the “goose laying golden eggs” – e.g. delivering economic wealth, so-
cial progress and military power if appropriately fed – popularisation was
expected to “sell science” to the broader public to strengthen social sup-
port and legitimation (Lewenstein 2008). The goose metaphor was coined
by Vannevar Bush, scientific advisor to the US government during World
War II, and author of an influential report (Bush 1945). The approach he,
among others, proposed fueled the development of popularisation strate-
gies and channels, including interactive science centres and partnerships
between science institutions and Hollywood studios.
When a new phase of critical reflection on the role of science in de-
velopment and (more broadly) in society opened, spurred by environ-
mentalist, anti-war and anti-nuclear movements, the concept of populari-
sation also came under criticism as embodying a paternalistic, diffusionist
154 Tecnoscienza - 7 (2)

conception of science communication (Hilgartner 1990). More recent

conceptualizations have reappraised the term, considering it suitable to
describe specific types and contexts of communicative interactions among
science and the public, for example, situations characterised by low pub-
lic sensitivity or mobilisation, moderate perception of controversy among
experts, and great visibility of science actors and institutions involved
(Bucchi 2008). In China, “popularisation” has long been, and remains,
the preferred term to refer to a wide range of science-in-society activities.

Model of communication

This is one of the key theoretical concepts in science communication.

Despite this, only a few explicit models of science communication have
been designed and proposed. Over twenty years ago, sociologists and
communication identified theoretical and conceptual problems in the
dominant practices in popularizing science (e.g. Dornan 1990; Wynne
1991). They referred in this context to the model of communication un-
derlying such practices, meaning the hypothetical construction, by the ini-
tiators of communication processes, of the relations between the actors
involved. These critiques identified the dominant model in terms such as
‘top-down’ and ‘hierarchical’ and pointed to the assumption that the tar-
get public was defined by a deficit (see Deficit below) of some kind.
Over the past two decades, science communication communities in
research and practice have sustained a discussion about the limits of in-
herited models and about the characteristics of models that are more ap-
propriate for the present day. Part of that discussion and research has
been explicitly prescriptive and binary: it labels some models of commu-
nication, specifically, the deficit model, as old and discredited and others,
such as dialogue models, as new and appropriate. In this context, the shift
in preferences from one model to another is represented as evolutionary
and irreversible.
However, another side of that discussion and research, more descrip-
tive and analytical, has been aimed at understanding better the range of
possible models, how different models are applied, how the language
used to describe a practice may disguise the model that effectively shapes
the practice (Wynne 2006), how different models can co-exist (Miller
2001; Sturgis and Allum 2005), and what governs the choices made. Some
attempts have been made to set out a wide spectrum of models, incorpo-
rating more tightly defined options that might apply in specific and
changing circumstances (Trench 2008).

Deficit

This is a central concept in identifying the intellectual (or ideological)

foundations of some science-in-society ideas and practices and enabling
their critique. Two assumptions often underlie this concept: public opin-
Bucchi and Trench 155
ion and political decision-makers are misinformed about science and the
issues raised by its development; this misinformation is fuelled by inade-
quate and sensationalist media coverage of technoscientific topics. This
situation is seen as being exacerbated by poor training in basic science
and a general lack of interest among the institutions and the cultural intel-
ligentsia in scientific research – in this last case, most famously by British
scientist-author, C.P. Snow (1959) in his treatise on “two cultures”. Con-
sequently, citizens and political decision-makers are seen to fall prey to
‘irrational’ fears which fuel their hostility and suspicion towards entire
sectors of research and technological innovation (e.g. nuclear energy, ge-
netically modified foods, stem cells).
From this perception arises the need for initiatives bridging the gap
between experts and the general public, reversing public attitudes to-
wards science and technology or at least attenuating their hostility. Such
emphasis on the public’s inability to understand the achievements of sci-
ence – according to a model of linear, pedagogical and paternalistic
communication – has warranted the label of ‘deficit model’ for this view
of the public understanding of science (e.g. Wynne 1991; Ziman 1991).
From the early 1990s, scholars such as those just named have criti-
cised the deficit approach by highlighting the weak empirical foundations
of its assumptions and the limited results achieved by the communicative
actions it has inspired. Critics of the deficit-based approach do not deny
that relevant awareness problems may exist across publics (see Publics
below) on issues related to science, but suggest that this is not the best
starting point: researchers should focus instead, they say, on what the au-
diences do know, and on their questions and concerns.
Discussion has continued over many years on what kinds of
knowledge about science the public generally lacks and needs to have:
knowledge of scientific fact, of scientific theory, of scientific methods, of
the organisation and governance of science, or, more colloquially, of how
science works and how science really works (see Durant 1994). However,
the notion of absent knowledge of facts, expressed as a low level of scien-
tific literacy, or scientific illiteracy, remains widely assumed in contempo-
rary science-in-society practice, notably in contexts where there are per-
ceived problems of anti-science, pseudo-science and superstition, as, for
example, in Indian programmes of science awareness (Raza and Singh
2013).

Dialogue

Dialogue came to be presented as the acceptable alternative to the

deficit model from the late 1990s. As public concern over specific science
and technology issues became evident – sometimes despite significant
promotional efforts – the demand for scientists to become involved in
public discussion of such issues increased. Multiplying examples of non-
experts or alternative experts actively contributing to shape the agenda of
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research in fields like biomedicine have led to rethinking the very mean-
ing of science communication in several arenas. A frequently cited report
of the House of Lords (2000) in Britain acknowledged the limits of sci-
ence communication based on a top-down science-public relationship,
and detected a “new mood for dialogue”. In many countries and at the
European level, funding schemes and policy documents shifted their
keywords from “public awareness of science” to “citizen engagement,”
from “communication” to “dialogue,” from “science and society” to “sci-
ence in society”.
The claimed shift from deficit to dialogue remains a powerful narra-
tive in public communication of science. The two approaches are widely
seen as distinct and one as inherently superior to the other. The shift is
often stated as an irrefutable fact: commentaries speak of the “dialogical
turn” as a historical change that has taken effect across Europe, and more
widely (e.g. Phillips et al. 2012). Dialogue and related approaches are
now much more frequently proposed and enacted than those that might
be defined as deficit-based, at least in Europe, Australasia and North
America. However, closer examination reveals a complex picture; for ex-
ample, the striking case of Denmark – for decades very strongly associat-
ed with pioneering dialogical initiatives – where there is an apparent re-
versal of the trend (Horst 2012).
The study of this case links to a thread running through the research
and reflection of the last decade of skepticism about the scale, or even the
reality, of the claimed shift to dialogue. It has been suggested, for exam-
ple, that dialogical approaches may be used in order to more effectively
remedy public deficits. It has been argued that some dialogue methods
are not genuinely two-way or symmetrical, in that the original sponsors of
the communication (generally scientific or policy institutions) stay in con-
trol and the citizens taking part have no significant influence on the final
outcomes (Davies et al. 2008; Bucchi 2009). There is yet another strand to
the discussion and to the communication and cultural practices; this
draws attention to the possibilities and pleasures of dialogical events
which are not oriented to specific political or informational end-goals, but
rather to the process of “taking part” (e.g. Davies et al. 2008). In science
cafés, a spreading form of science communication (see Einsiedel 2014;
Trench et al. 2014), for example, the satisfaction of those involved may
reside in the exchange itself rather than anything beyond it, such as ac-
quiring and processing formal scientific knowledge.

Engagement

In the context described under Dialogue, Engagement has become in

many countries, particularly English-language countries, a prevalent and
inclusive term to describe a wide range of science-in-society practices in
policy, educational, information or entertainment contexts. ‘Public en-
gagement’ has become a label for organisational units and individual roles
Bucchi and Trench 157
within organisations; it can refer to the actions and attitudes both of
knowledge producers and of various sectors of the public. When re-
searchers, for example, go to the streets to talk about their work, this may
be called “public engagement”. Equally, the attention and interest shown
by their audiences may also be called “public engagement”. Especially in
Britain, public engagement is as comprehensive a term as public commu-
nication; the acronym PEST (public engagement with science and tech-
nology) is used as the catch-all term in preference to PCST (public com-
munication of science and technology) or PUS (public understanding of
science). The change of vocabulary carries with it, at least implicitly, a
shift to an understanding of relations between the partners in the process
as more equal and more active.
Different levels and modes of engagement are envisaged, for example,
by reference to downstream and upstream engagement (Wilsdon and
Willis 2004). The latter has been proposed for priority attention, on the
basis that early involvement of the public in discussion and eventually ne-
gotiation of new developments in science and technology will likely lead
to more satisfactory outcomes for all involved, and specifically to
knowledge that has earned public trust. The case of genetically modified
foods and crops is cited as an example of late, or downstream, public en-
gagement; citizens in many countries across the world were presented
with products ready for use and, in many cases, they reacted in a hostile
manner. In Europe, in particular, governments, researchers and business-
es applied what they saw as the lessons of that experience when they
sought to ensure earlier (upstream) engagement with nanotechnology.
Public engagement activities are nowadays regarded in several coun-
tries as a relevant dimension of the mandate – as well as a responsibility –
of research and higher education institutions in the context of the so-
called “third mission”, where “engaged research” or “engaged universi-
ties” are frequently referenced. This development has been further rein-
forced by the European Commission’s adoption and advocacy of the con-
cept of responsible research and innovation (RRI). On this basis, scholars
and policy-makers are discussing the most appropriate indicators to iden-
tify and analyse the range and impact of such activities (Bauer and Jensen
2011; Bucchi and Neresini 2011).

Participation

Through association with ideas of participatory democracy and partic-

ipatory communication, Participation has come to be used in science-in-
society to represent a stronger form of engagement by the public both
with scientific ideas and with the governance of science. In these con-
texts, participation implies strongly active citizens, who can take part in
many ways and at many levels, including in deliberation on the very top-
ics for negotiation and communication. Thus, participation tends to be
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used in science-in-society to refer to a third option that goes beyond the

deficit-dialogue binary split and overcomes the need to refer, for exam-
ple, to “real dialogue” in order to insist on the authenticity of the process
(e.g. Riise 2008). If deficit and related modes of communication can be
considered one-way, and dialogue two-way, then participation can be
represented as three-way, because it implies publics or citizens talking
with each other as well as talking back to science and its institutions.
In the European Commission’s latest framework programme of re-
search, Horizon 2020, valid for 2014-2020, support is being given to ex-
ploration of participatory mechanisms for deliberating on science, includ-
ing on agendas for science, where the main agents of public participation
are civil society organisations. Some contemporary science centres seek to
facilitate similar participation through articulation of relations between
arts and sciences, offering cultural representations of science as open-
ended and available for interpretation and critique (Schiele 2014). In this
context public participation in science is equivalent to that of critical au-
diences at the theatre or in the concert hall.
Yet other forms of public participation in science are represented by
“citizen science” and “open science” (Bonney et al. 2009; Delfanti 2013).
In the first, citizens may contribute to scientific research as collectors or
contributors of data, for example adding observations of certain animal
species to an online database to be later analysed by researchers; in the
second, researchers make all protocols, data, analyses and publications
available online for public scrutiny, allowing the interested public to ac-
cess not only “ready-made science” (as was typically the case in populari-
sation) but also “science-in-the-making”. In some cases, this accessibility
paves the way for an actual contribution in terms of scientific content –
historically and currently in amateur astronomy, more recently in ornitho-
logical or biodiversity field observations, and in various applications of
‘hacking’ (Einsiedel 2014; Delfanti 2013).

Publics

This plural form has become common in discussion and study of sci-
ence-in-society, indicating in shorthand that “the public” is multi-faceted,
even fragmented. Because it is not a common, much less everyday, word,
“publics” often carries quote marks around it that draw attention to its
deliberate use. Adopting the plural form was an important part of recog-
nising that generalisations about the public – specifically in terms of its
deficits – are very rarely valid, and often seriously misleading (Einsiedel
2000). Referring to publics has been associated with the proposal of a
contextual model of communication (e.g. Miller 2001), according to
which the communicators inform themselves about, and are attentive to,
the various understandings, beliefs and attitudes within the public.
Beyond the demographically-based differentiation of publics as young
or old, male or female, and scientifically educated or not, the plural-
Bucchi and Trench 159
publics approach has been supported by the accumulation of evidence on
the widely varying interest, attention and disposition towards scientific
matters by the populations of individual countries and, comparatively,
across countries and continents. From surveys of public knowledge of
scientific facts initiated over fifty years ago, these studies of publics have
become increasingly sophisticated and nuanced. They measure fine dis-
tinctions within and between national populations on, for example, levels
of trust towards scientists and scientific institutions and attitudes to
emerging technologies. They allow such attitudes to be correlated with
educational experiences and world-views. On the basis of cross-country
analysis of survey findings, the patterns of national cultures of science (see
Scientific Culture below) can be sketched (e.g. Allum et al. 2008; Bauer et
al. 2012). A strong focus on publics is almost standard now in the training
of scientists for public communication; short courses offered to research-
ers by research councils, universities, professional organisations and oth-
ers very often start by asking: who are the publics you want to communi-
cate with, and why (Miller et al. 2009)?

Expertise

One of the most common forms through which scientific knowledge

and actors enter the public domain is as “expertise”, when scientists take
on public roles validating, interpreting, and commenting on develop-
ments in science, and advising governments and other social institutions
on their implications. As producers of knowledge, scientists tend to oper-
ate in tightly circumscribed and increasingly specialised spaces. When
scientists are called on to be experts in public arenas, they are expected to
take a broader view and answer media questions or offer policy advice on
themes in which they may not be strictly competent (see Peters 2014).
Studies of science in society have often focused on how scientific ex-
pertise is expressed and becomes a recognized authority in public. In-
creasingly, expertise of several kinds is involved when complex scientific
issues are played out in public arenas. Contemporary developments in
science, such as those in the nano-, bio- and neurosciences, typically hap-
pen at the interfaces of several scientific and technological specialist prac-
tices. Sometimes they also have political, economic or ethical implications
which invoke contributions from experts in those fields. Scientists active
in public communication are increasingly required to relate their own ex-
pertise to that of scholars and practitioners in topics that were previously
considered remote, sometimes even antagonistic. When complex envi-
ronmental and medical matters are negotiated through legal or parliamen-
tary systems, perhaps with a view to establishing constitutional ground
rules or setting down regulations, scientific expertise may be scrutinised
in contexts and by criteria very different from those of the natural-
scientific communities.
160 Tecnoscienza - 7 (2)

Scientific expertise has come to be further problematised by reference

to the tacit, less formal, knowledge that various social groups possess
through their experience or culture. In case studies in health and agricul-
ture in the 1980s and 1990s, the term “lay expertise” (or “lay
knowledge”) was coined to refer to the knowledge that, in these cases, pa-
tients and farmers brought to a particular issue and that qualified the def-
inition of that topic given by scientific experts (Wynne 1992; Epstein
1995). On the other hand, ripostes to that approach have insisted on the
attribution of expertise only to those with formal qualifications (e.g. Du-
rodié 2003). Scientific expertise in contemporary societies is being chal-
lenged by factors like expanded accessibility of specialist information to
non-experts, increasing questioning of the choice and competence of ex-
perts, and public exposure to controversial specialist debates and com-
peting expertise. Technological developments, specifically the prolifera-
tion of Internet forums and platforms, are making the “extended peer re-
view”, that was envisaged two decades ago, more real.

Visible Scientists

Public or visible scientists have been present in every generation since

modern science emerged in the 17th century. Some of the founders of
modern science were visible public figures, and some of the earliest insti-
tutions of modern science such as professional societies and academies
dedicated themselves, at least in part, to making the achievements of sci-
ence visible and public. However, those who did science were not de-
fined as “scientists” until the 19th century and, up to then, the potential
public for science was restricted to a shallow layer of the highly educated.
With the professionalisation of science, the rapid growth in the number
of scientists and the development of a mass public, a particular concern
grew about the relative invisibility of science: the vast majority of science
and scientists were invisible to the vast majority of society. A classic
American study (Goodell 1977) coined the term “visible scientists” when
it drew attention to selected scientists in psychology, anthropology, mo-
lecular biology, and other fields who had achieved public visibility as in-
formers and explainers of contemporary science. But it also highlighted
institutional constraints, which meant that scientists might be punished as
often as rewarded for seeking such visibility.
From the 1950s, developments in society required scientific expertise
to be more accessible. The space race engaging the two major geo-
political blocks drove efforts to increase public investment and interest in
the new scientific and technological discoveries and conquests. Rapid de-
velopments in medical science and in information technologies needed
explainers. The most successful popularisers exploited the opportunities
of the rapidly spreading medium of television to become household
names. In astronomy, new technologies and natural history, in particular,
photogenic or otherwise charismatic scientists developed highly visible
Bucchi and Trench 161
careers as TV presenters. Some others, called on to be expert sources for
the political and media systems, became public scientists in myriad ways,
as newspaper contributors, TV show panellists, advisory committee or
expert group members, and as politicians.
From the 1970s, governments around the world created ministries of
science, technology or research and individual scientists were drawn into
the political systems as ministers or advisers. The strength of presence of
such public scientists – whether in media, politics or public affairs more
generally – and the features of their visibility may be taken as a relevant
dimension to analyse a country’s scientific culture (see Scientific Culture
below). Fueled by further developments of mass media, the celebrity cul-
ture that grew up around entertainment and sport has affected many oth-
er sectors; many societies have their celebrity scientists, just as there are
celebrity actors, authors and economists (see Fahy and Lewenstein 2014;
Fahy 2015). Their views are sought and broadcast on topics well beyond
their areas of recognised expertise and their private lives become public
affairs: it is also through such dynamics that the deepening interpenetra-
tion of science and society that characterises contemporary scenarios
takes place.

Scientific Culture, Culture of Science

Several variations of these terms are used to refer to the standing of

science in the general culture of a country or other cultural context. Two
interconnected uses of the term have largely dominated debate in the past
few decades. One use, significantly influenced by Snow’s concept of “two
cultures”, contrasts scientific culture with that of the humanities and the
arts, and it deprecates their separation and the lack of public attention for
scientific culture (Snow 1959). The second use has been almost inter-
changeable with “public understanding of science” in its more traditional
and limited meaning. This equates scientific culture with public attention
to and interest in scientific topics and levels of scientific literacy and thus,
through a deficit and diffusionist perspective, to public acceptance and
support of different science and technology developments. Such usage
has been extended to encompass technology explicitly, as in the French
term culture scientifique, technique et industrielle, generally shortened to
CSTI, or the European Commission’s chosen term for a short period,
“RTD culture”, referring to research and technological development
(Miller et al. 2002).
The narrow, diffusionist interpretation of scientific culture takes for
granted, in a similar vein to Snow, that scientific culture can be defined as
a distinct, coherent and monolithic object that can be infused or injected
into general culture and society through appropriate communications.
This view has been widely criticised as limited and unfounded on several
grounds (see Deficit, Models above). Empirical studies have shown that
concern for and skepticism about certain scientific developments may ac-
162 Tecnoscienza - 7 (2)

tually be associated with higher levels of literacy and information (thus, in

one usage, stronger scientific culture) and vice versa, that blind trust –
and in some cases even expectations of ‘miracles’ – with regard to science
can be largely disconnected from actual knowledge and understanding
(e.g. Bucchi 2009; Bauer and Falade 2014).
A more comprehensive view underscores increasing diversity and
fragmentation within science practice; significant permeability of the
boundaries between contemporary science and society; cross-fertilisation
between images and narratives in general culture and scientific concepts
and ideas; significant visibility and presence of scientific figures and con-
cepts in the public sphere as well as in contemporary arts. This culture of
science in society encompasses not just understanding of specific scien-
tific content, but also an awareness and social intelligence of science as
part of society and culture, and an ability to discuss and evaluate science’s
role, priorities and implications in an open, balanced and critical fashion.
Also more recently, but in a more technically-oriented fashion, a discus-
sion has started on defining indicators to “measure” scientific culture as a
combination of traditional indicators (e.g. R&D investments and output),
indicators of science communication activities (e.g. media coverage inten-
sity, science museum visitors) and of public attitudes to science.

Recent Trends, Future Challenges

Contemporary changes require new approaches and possibly new

concepts, models and research strategies: it is crucial to think about the
reshaping of communicative relationships and, above all, to resist concep-
tualisations of science and society as separate and distinct from each oth-
er. This remains perhaps the central challenge for contemporary research
on science in society but there are related challenges that arise from the
co-evolution of science, society and communication media.
For example, permeability and heterogeneous networking between
science and society intersect with the increasing fragmentation of publics,
of media and of their social uses. Science institutions and actors are diver-
sifying their attitudes and practices, also in the domain of communica-
tion, which makes it problematic to continue using traditional expres-
sions like “scientific community”, implying internal homogeneity and a
shared commitment to specific norms and values (Bucchi 2009, 2015).
But it is no less important to reflect on and investigate the diversity and
articulation of the ‘publics’ of science communication. The traditional us-
age of ‘public’ evoked a notion of passive and target-like readers and
spectators, often addressed and defined in marketing terms. But around
public science events and technoscientific controversies there is much ev-
idence of audiences as active participants, just as there is evidence that
significant portions of the public may remain disenfranchised or alienated
from interactions and participatory processes with regard to science. So-
cial transformations, which are represented in characterisations of con-
Bucchi and Trench 163
temporary society as pervaded by uncertainty, risk or distrust, along with
changes in media technology and use, are playing relevant roles in rede-
fining and multiplying public spaces for science communication. These
changes require research to develop more complex maps of the relations
between sciences and publics.
Moreover, the traditional sequence of the communicative process
(specialist discussion/didactic exposition/public communication or
“popularisation”) is increasingly disrupted. The didactic and public ex-
position of science is no longer, as in Kuhn’s theory, a mere static and
carved-in-stone page written by the winners in the struggle to establish a
new scientific paradigm (Kuhn 1962). Even science museums, the places
par excellence of ‘fossilised’ science, increasingly hold exhibitions on cur-
rent and controversial science issues. Users of scientific information in-
creasingly have access to science in its making and highly controversial
debates among specialists. Some of the implications of this new scenario
have been dramatically highlighted by cases like Climategate in 2009,
when email exchanges among climate change researchers became availa-
ble on the web, exposing internal communication dynamics traditionally
confined to the ‘backstage’ of knowledge production processes: increas-
ingly frequently, expert controversies unfold in real time and in public
view. Research is required, more and more, to consider how and by
whom the substance and the mode of such communication are shaped in
exchanges within and between sciences.
Understanding these situations may benefit from renaming the object
of science communication research as ‘How Society Talks About Sci-
ence’. This implies researching the cultural contexts – scientific, artistic,
every day, and other – of such talk. The increasingly blurred boundaries
of communication contexts should also encourage researchers to explore
with more courage conceptual affinities and potential inspiration in the
humanities, arts and culture, largely neglected by science communication
scholars, despite the growing science/art practice. For example, concepts
such as style may be relevant to understanding variety in science commu-
nication as well as addressing the challenge of quality (Bucchi 2013). This
resonates with long-standing invitations to “put science into culture” (e.g.
Lévy-Leblond 1996), emphasising its connections with other domains ra-
ther than its separation from society and culture, as expressed in models
and visions of knowledge translation and transfer. It also invites us to
recognise the importance of a broader culture of science in society that
goes beyond familiarity with technical contents to include an awareness of
its role, implications, aims, potential and limits. It eventually demands
that not only society, the public and culture are problematised in their re-
lationship with science, but that science problematises its own cultural
premises. In this way, research on science in society can contribute to in-
creased reflexivity within society and within science.
Research and reflection on science communication and science in so-
ciety have traditionally suffered from disconnection with the broader area
164 Tecnoscienza - 7 (2)

of science and technology studies. Over the past few decades, however,
concepts and approaches from STS have become more present and influ-
ential. Indeed, some of the works now regarded as ‘classics’ are works
that have challenged longstanding stereotypes of the public, the media,
and scientific actors from STS perspectives (see Bucchi and Trench
2016). At the same time, revisiting classical concepts (e.g. trust, commu-
nity, authority, norms, gatekeepers) could provide new insights, in an STS
or even broader social sciences perspective, on themes that were tradi-
tionally seen as limited to a specific, practical interest in communicating
science to the public.
Building on and reappraising classical concepts by highlighting their
relevance and transformation to face future challenges is an opportunity
to look at science communication not only as a means to achieve certain
objectives but as a central space to understand (and participate in) the in-
teracting transformations of both science and public discourse. In this
perspective, communication is not simply a technical tool functioning
within a certain ideology of science and its role in economic development
and social progress, but has to be recognised as a key dynamic at the core
of those co-evolutionary processes (Nowotny et al. 2001; Jasanoff 2004,
2005), redefining the meanings of science and public, knowledge and citi-
zenship, expertise and democracy.

Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Francesca Musiani and Annalisa Pelizza for their
comments on a previous version of this paper.

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