Empirical studies on the science culture index – Comparison study among EU-China-Indian

Author: Xuan Liu – National Academy of Innovation Strategy CAST, China

Co-authors:
Martin Bauer – LSE, UK
Zhengfeng LI – Tsinghua University
Hui LUO – National Academy of Innovation Strategy, China
Rajesh Shukla – PRICE, India
Ahmet Suerdem – Bilgi University, Turkey

The process of modernisation is generally understood as to unleash the productive power of science and technology into society and to fuel economic growth for well-being. Science culture play a role in engaging citizens to STI and maintaining an environment for productivity. One must expect that the “gap” between culture and science may manifest itself differently in the various regions of the world. This is an eminently empirical question for the engagement of citizens into responsible research and innovation. We might happily admit that science is a global affair, but the culture of science remains bound by local morality (Bauer, 2015b).

In this roundtable discussion, we emphasize the need for extending FRASCATI and OSLO Manuals of defining performance indicators of science, technology and innovative capacity, and to include subjective indicators of culture of science and innovation. Indicators of science culture are part of the modern quest of harnessing economic productivity for the benefit of society. We demonstrate new procedures for constructing cultural indicators of STI based on subjective attitude data. For this purpose we rely on data mining of data sources accumulated in Eurobarometer databases since the 1980s. These databases cover information about cognitive, evaluative and affective dimensions on which individuals relate science in their everyday life. Our ongoing research concerns the General S&T surveys in the Eurobarometer series1989 to 2013 (EB 31; EB 38.1; EB 55.2; CCEB 2002.3; EB 63.1 and EB 78.1, EB79.2; N=1000 per country), the All India Science Report of 2004, and the China surveys of science literacy of 2010 and 2015. We will present analysis of science culture leading into a typology of different cultures from Europe, India and China.

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

Presentation type: Roundtable discussion
Theme: Science
Area of interest: Influencing policies through science communication