Attitudes to Science in 144 countries – re-examining the Wellcome Global Monitor of 2018
Author: Martin W Bauer – London School of Economics and Politital science, United Kingdom
Co-authors:
- Bankole Falade – Stellenbosch, South Africa
- Luke Yuh-Yuh Li – National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan
- Petra Pansegrau – Bielefeld University, Germany
- Carmelo Polino – Centro Redes (Argentina) and University of Oviedo (Spain), Argentina
- Ahmet Suerdem – Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey
Science is universal, but science culture remains local. The cultural authority of science is globally variable. Within this complex of research, a perennial question concerns the relationship of general attitudes as a horizon for specific issues, often controversial at least in some world regions, such as vaccination. The Wellcome Trust’s Global Monitor offers a unique platform to assess this issue on a global scale of 144 countries (n=144,000 interviews, conducted 2018). This symposium will re-examine this data using the PREK model [promise, reserve, engagement and knowledge) of science attitudes with focus on different world regions (Bauer & Suerdem, 2016 and 2019). Knowledge indicators include ‘self-confidence’ and ‘image of science’, engagement indicators are ‘information seeking’ and ‘polyphasia science & religion’; promise is assessed by utility assessments of science, and the key reserve index is ‘vaccination hesitancy’. The five speakers will each assess the complex of these four indicators in a world region and examine the specifics of the culture of science in that world region. Geography is not destiny, so socio-economic indicators will be coming into the frame of analysis. The symposium will be commented on by Petra Pansegrau (Uni Bielefeld) and Rajesh Shukla (Price, Delhi).
Introduction: Cultures of Science and the Wellcome Global Monitor: a conceptual re-analysis
Martin W Bauer (LSE)
Communicating risk of vaccination in East and Southeast Asia: society, science, and cognitive polyphasia
Luke Yuh-Yuh Li (Taiwan)
Trust in science and religion as indicators of polyphasia across sub Saharan Africa
Bankole Falade (Stellenbosch)
Attitudes to science across South and North America- Alaska to Tierra del Fuego
Carmelo Polino (Oviedo, Spain)
Linking subjective and objective indicators of science culture on the Silk Road: A multilevel analysis
Ahmet Suerdem (Bilgi Istanbul)
Discussants: Petra Pansegrau (Bielefeld, Germany) & Rajesh Shukla (Delhi, India)
The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.
Presentation type: Linked papers
Theme: Transformation