The intrinsinc polysemy of the field of PCST

Author: Bernard Schiele – UQAM Montreal. Canada

This communication will present the results of a discourse analysis of the notions and expressions used by various actors in the PCST field to describe, explain and conceptualize “science communication” practices (in their generic sense), i.e., as they mobilized them as symbolic operators, as a means to position themselves within this specific field and as a means to distinguish this field from all others which also have for object the circulation of scientific knowledges. These expressions have been analyzed at a synchronic level and, when possible, at a diachronic level in order to grasp as much the “transformation” of practices in view of changing circumstances as the reformulations of the discursive device in which these transformations take place (and which they often mobilize as justification). The research underlying this communication rests upon the chapters on the development of “science communication” in forty or so countries invited by Toss Gascoigne to contribute to the book The Emergence of Modern Science Communication (Gascoigne 2020, forthcoming). This research remains largely exploratory, because the authors who answered the call for chapters all interpreted the writing instructions that were given to them. Nevertheless, we can delimit with some certitude the extent of the semantic universe of “science communication”, and this constitutes the object of this communication.

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

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Time