Science communication Herstories: Diversity and inclusiveness. Some reflections on the Greek case between 1970s-1980s.
Author: Evangelia Chordaki – Hellenic Open University, Greece
Co-authors:
- Andrea Geipel – Technical University of Munich and Deutsches Museum Munich, Germany
- Lê Nguyên Hoang – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
- Craig Rosa – KQED, United States
- Gianna Savoie – University of Otago, New Zealand
During the AAAS Annual Meeting 2019, Lewenstein B.C. moderated the panel “A feminist agenda for science communication?” that later led to the publication of the JCOM Special Issue under the title “The need for feminist approaches to science communication”. The main concern of Lewenstein and his colleagues was to stress the aforementioned need by highlighting questions regarding the effects of social discrimination in science communication and thus in the production and circulation of knowledge.
Sharing the same concerns and especially that of the sociopolitical aspects of appearance and disappearance of knowledge, the current research will present the case of Greek feminist birth control movements between 1970s-1980s.
The second half of the 20th century was marked by major social movements and political events throughout Europe and the US, while within the Greek context, the fall of the Junta of the Colonels in 1974 was a crucial historical moment for the wider political landscape. The transition from the dictatorial regime to the following democratic period allowed feminists to gain visibility, reclaim their bodies and communicate scientific ideas regarding abortion and contraception.
In that sense we will argue that feminists’ engagement with the circulation of knowledge transformed science communication and stressed its inclusive and diverse character that was apparent in their identities, practices, spaces, medias and materialities. Moreover we will show that women developed an experience based expertise through communication, that co existed for almost two decades with the dominant scientific knowledge within the Greek public sphere.
Our analysis aims to point out that feminism is not only a perspective of science communication through history but has also been an internal part of it that reveals the intersection of complex realms of circulation and production of knowledge and requires multidisciplinary approaches.
The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.
Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Time