Twenty years of research in science communication Challenges and transformations

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Twenty years of research in science communication Challenges and transformations

Author: Susana Herrera – Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO), Mexico

This paper presents an overview of the transformations and trends in the topics and problems of research in public communication of science addressed by students and academics of the Master in Communication of Science and Culture of ITESO, in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, Mexico, throughout its twenty years of its operation.

The distinctive aspect of this postgraduate program is the sociocultural approach for researching and questioning the practice of science communication. This approach considers both, structural and subjective dimensions of communication in society. In this work I identify changes in topics, contents and ways of addressing research problems in public communication of science through time.

I also review the challenges that a postgraduate program of this nature, which studies communication from a sociocultural perspective, has faced to identify, define and rigorously address the research problems that fall within this area, with its consequent turns, transformations and emergencies. That is, how it has been part of the formation of an academic field that is developing, and what contributions it has made from this space of training and research, especially within the Latin American context.

The corpus for the review was integrated with the thesis of the students and the research works of the professors of the Masters, in the line of Public Communication of Science. The emphasis has been on the issues and problems that over the course of these twenty years have attracted the interest of students and academics, or those that have emerged and demanded their attention from CPC research.

The continuities and emergencies in the theoretical and methodological proposals with which the research problems in the projects have been addressed are also analyzed. I expect to contribute to show the panorama of the transformations in a space of professional formation of researchers in CPC in Latin America.

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

Presentation type: Insight talk
Theme: Time

Science communication and socio-environmental problems: The case of water and forests

Author: Susana Herrera – Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO), Mexico

Co-authors:
James G. Cantrill – Department Head, Communication and Performance Studies Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI
Alexander Gerber – Chair, International Science Communication, Rhine-Waal University (RWU)
Jennifer Metcalfe – Director, Econnect Communication, Brisbane
Ana Claudia Nepote – Associated Professor/National School of Higher Education National Autonomous University of Mexico

The main purpose of this roundtable is to raise concern about the challenge science communication faces when the object of communication is contemporary socio-environmental problems, specifically those related to water and forests. Forests have a close relationship with water, they are very valuable water reservoirs and therefore humans depend on them. Socio-environmental issues demand interdisciplinary approaches and the articulation between global, regional and local scales. They acquire different forms and manifestations in different geographical areas with specific biophysical configurations and social contexts.

The evidence of the transformations in the balance of planetary ecosystems derived from human interventions situate the social-environmental problems as a central subject in public space. These demands not only the articulation of scientific knowledge coming from diverse disciplines, both natural and social, but also the need to relate it to specific cultural, economic and political contexts. The links between forest, water, and social life are complex. They are related to phenomena, projects and actions that affect the ecosystem’s balance, the hydrological and geohydrologic cycle, and that have an impact on social life, human health, food sufficiency, and production processes, both in rural and urban context. However, they are presented worldwide in different ways in each region, and the communicators of science face different kinds of challenges.

Our aim is to give an account of these challenges faced by the communicators of different regions and latitudes involved in these problems. How to identify and define the “communicable” to non-specialized social groups? How to articulate scientific knowledge from different disciplines to account for complex socio-environmental phenomena? How to incorporate the biophysical and socio-cultural particularities of phenomena and problems?

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

Presentation type: Roundtable discussion
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices

Science and socioenvironmental problems: Discourses in the urban context of Guadalajara, Mexico

Author: Susana Herrera – Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO), Mexico

This work, situated in the intersection between public communication of science and environmental communication, approaches the contested discourses about science in urban contexts related with socioenvironmental problems. The goal is to show the challenges presented to the science communicator due the diversity of narratives about the role of science set out by different involved social actors. The case of study has been the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara, in Jalisco, México.

The understanding of particularities of socioenvironmental problems in urban contexts demands knowledge from very diverse sources: specialized scientific knowledge, from both natural and social sciences, as well as the knowledge associated with the experience of the city residents and other social actors. As it will be shown, science is perceived, valuated and represented differently and in diverse forms across discourses which come from actors situated in different specific social contexts, and hence it acquires diverse connotations and attributions.

Critical discourse analysis has been applied as theoretical and methodological perspective for analyzing workshops, meetings and interviews with scientists, citizen organizations, museographers and journalists, all of them involved in science communication activities or projects related with socioenvironmental problems. It has been possible to identify the way these actors discursively construct science and scientific knowledge, as well as the role they play in comprehension, explanation and possible solutions of socioenvironmental urban problematics. Main challenges, obstacles and problems about “what” and “how” to communicate, from the specific field of science communication have also been identified.

The analysis has shown some coincidences among social actors’ discourses: demanding a mediator role from science communicators, considering they should question science communication models that place knowledge in the center of communication, placing instead socioenvironmental problematic in the first place, and promoting dialogue between multiple disciplinary perspectives as well as interlocution between specialized knowledge and knowledge built from experience.

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

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices

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