Grasso V – PCST Network

Author: Valentina Grasso – Italian National Research Council, Institute of Bioeconomy; Consorzio LaMMA, Italy

Co-authors:

Alba L’Astorina – Italian National Research Council, Institute for Remote Sensing of Environment, Italy
Armida Torreggiani – Italian National Research Council, Institute of Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity, Italy

Many scientists carry out communication activities mainly addressed to school as a one-way approach in which they would transfer scientific knowledge to an uneducated public (deficit model). In the last decades, social sciences scholars have described the relationship between experts and not experts as a more complex process than just “filling empty boxes with scientific knowledge” and define it as a more collaborative relationship, where the public has an active role in sharing and creating new knowledge. This is particularly true when the “uneducated public” is made of pupils. We present some reflections from an initiative promoted since 2003 by some researchers of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) base in Bologna, addressed to pupils of different schools. The initial idea of school lessons aimed at spreading the scientific culture has been the basis for further projects, like “Il Linguaggio della Ricerca” funded by the Italian Ministry of Education (https://ldr-network.bo.cnr.it/), and European projects as “RM@Schools – Raw Matters Ambassador at Schools” (http://rmschools.eu) or “UrBIOfuture”.

The researchers involved belong to different scientific areas and the vast majority of them have no background in social sciences or communication and education studies. The idea of “transferring knowledge” to an “uneducated public” is always in the background and influences their communication approach. However, the active and constant engagement with the pupils has transformed the imaginaries of researchers participating, who start to recognize an impact on their work and not only on the knowledge of pupils. Through a questionnaire addressed to researchers who joined the projects, we explored which dimensions of research work have been affected by the interaction with the audiences and how their ideas of the relationship with pupils have been eventually transformed and reframed. The analysis showed how researchers’ motivations and outreach visions may vary along with scientific areas.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Insight talk
Theme: Transformation

Author: Valentina Grasso – Italian National Research Council, Institute of Bioeconomy; Consorzio LaMMA, Italy

Co-authors:

Alba L’Astorina – Italian National Research Council, Institute for Remote Sensing of Environment, Italy
Rita Rita Giuffredi – Italian National Research Council, Institute for Remote Sensing of Environment, Italy

A decade has passed since the first systematic survey about science communication practices – and the underlying visions of science-society interplay – was realized within the Italian National Research Council (CNR). In particular, the study investigated the aim of outreach activities and their organizational framework; the types of communication practices adopted and the imaginaries of scientists towards science. Results showed a scientific community scarcely involved in public communication activities, interested in “educating the public”, with low trust in non-experts when it came to making decisions about the future of science and society.

Ten years later, the reflections about science communication evolved and the media ecosystem dramatically changed, with the outburst of social networks and mobile applications, strongly impacting also on how science and society interact. Science communication practices and visions developed, oriented to the hybridisation of expert and non-expert knowledge (e.g. RRI, citizen science).

Against this background, in 2019 we promoted a survey to investigate if and how public communication of the scientific network of the Italian CNR has changed in response to technological transformations and to the increasing call for public engagement. The analysis explored the research Institutes’ websites as the primary interface of public communication, through quantitative and qualitative analysis. Even if online descriptions of communication activities may not strictly reflect their actual nature, the type of contents chosen to be published on websites and the frames employed to describe them can be considered as a sensitive litmus paper of the underlying science communication and science-society paradigms. As results showed, communication of science gained some spaces in the last decade, but opportunities opened up by digital technologies seem not to be fully embraced yet, with research institutes struggling between institutional communication and engaging the public, transferring knowledge, and educating the public.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Transformation

Scientist-public interaction: Who’s transforming whom? How many researchers are aware of the transformation process they go through when interacting with the students?

Between transmitting knowledge and rethinking science in society: Practices and visions emerging from Research Institutes’ online communication. A survey within the Italian National Research Council.

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