Can't see the acronym making it to the mainstream, but we are
interested in Public Involvement with Science and Technology!
Actually, it should also include Engineering, making it PISTE, much
more acceptable and topical. Though I like the idea of lots of
meetings talking about getting PIST!
So maybe it's parts of the circle?
PUS = promoting science
PEST = promoting science plus listening to public feedback
PISTE = promoting science, plus listening and doing something
different with the science as a result and a feedback loop to maintain
dialogue and involvement
But then I am always worried about why the poor punter who doesn't
give stuff about science or technology should have take time out of
their busy lives to be involved at all, except for glorified sci-PR
and helping us with product development. Haven't squared that in my
mind yet.
Best regards
Hilary
Hilary Sutcliffe
Director
Responsible Nano Forum
7 Adam Street
London WC2H 6AA
Tel: +44 (0)207 520 9086
Mob: 07799 625064
Twitter: http://twitter.com/hilarysutcliffe
Email: [log in to unmask]
Blog: http://www.responsiblenanoforum.org/blog/
Website www.responsiblenanoforum.org
Everything you wanted to know about nano, but were afraid to ask - www.nanoandme.org
Take a look at Andrew Maynard's review of Nano&me on http://2020science.org/2009/09/28/so-you
’re-curious-about-nanotechnology…/
On 19 Feb 2010, at 21:49, Michael Kenward wrote:
Consumers, punters, customers, victims?
Those "scare quotes" are there for a purpose.
Of course, there are always people who will, by accident or design,
misunderstand or misinterpret anything.
Let's hear a simple alternative to describe the recipients of
PESTilence,
something that might engage folks without descending into academic
jargon.
PUS gave over to PEST at least five years ago, probably longer. Does
anyone
ever use the term now outside of academic journals? Outside the academic
literature, which is always slow to respond, I haven't seen PUS for a
long
long time.
Even in the early days, back in the 1980s, when COPUS was a shiny new
committee in the wake of the Bodmer report, there were always concerns
about
the PUS term, partly because it missed out the T bit. I failed to get
much
interest in PUSET.
I think the first person to use the PEST term privately was Laurence
Smaje
of the Wellcome Trust. I then started using it widely in places like
this
because the acronym appealed to me and because it had the essential T
bit.
The idea behind the change was that "understanding" carries a very
different
message from "engagement".
"If only they understood us..." People who write papers on this stuff in
journals like Public Understanding of Science call it, as you say, the
"deficit model".
You may consider it a cynical rebranding. I see it otherwise. Words
matter.
Engagement smacks more of a two-way process. You have to do more than
explain science to engage people.
Engagement can also happily encompass understanding. After all, if
people
don't understand what you are saying they aren't likely to become
engaged.
But understanding on its own does not engage.
MK
-----Original Message-----
From: psci-com: on public engagement with science
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chris Stokes
Sent: 19 February 2010 15:24
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PSCI-COM] Does PEST supplant or subsume PUS?
I've been impressed by the gradual move from PUS to PEST over the last
few
years. But a bit wary at the same time. For me, the name change
implies a
change in the perspective of SET communication. It nicely fits with
what a
recent (not yet published - OnlineFirst) paper for the Public
Understanding
of Science journal refers to as the 'dialogic turn'. For the
incorrigible
cynic, though, it's just an empty rebranding - an effort to wash off the
stink of the deficit model with which the critics lambasted PUS back
in the
80s without taking any of the criticism on board.
I don't mean to pick on Mike, but his referring to 'consumers' - even
with
the scare quotes - sounds a bit off-message in the brave new world of
PEST.
Or have I been misreading the name change? Is PEST, perhaps, just a
bigger
tent within which there's room for good old-fashioned PUS, or some of
it at
least - alongside other new dialogic things? I imagine, for example,
that
there may be plenty of SET communicators who happily do PUS for school
children just as it was being done 20-plus years ago, because school
children are, by definition, learning, are _understanding_ and are _not_
voting.
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: psci-com: on public engagement with science
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael Kenward
Sent: 19 February 2010 12:58
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] Joined-up working and information sharing
Absolutely, especially this bit:
"The first step is surely to have information sharing and joined-up
working
between activities of a common type or purpose, and a number of our
actions
and recommendations are aimed at that (e.g. in the training and
development
arena)."
One of my beefs has been the duplication that goes on. In the past too
many
engineering bodies, for example, have run similar schemes aimed at
schools.
Fortunately, I sense that there is progress on that front.
On gaps, one point worth pondering is the needs of the "consumers".
If PESTs here don't know about everything that goes on in their area -
which, as Roland's report points out, is not easy - what hope is there
for
the over worked school teacher? Where do they begin?
MK
**********************************************************************
1. To suspend yourself from the list, whilst on leave, for example,
send an email to mailto:[log in to unmask] with the following
message:
set psci-com nomail -- [include hyphens]
2. To resume email from the list, send an email to [log in to unmask]
with the message:
set psci-com mail -- [include hyphens]
3. To leave psci-com, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the
message:
leave psci-com -- [include hyphens]
4. Further information about the psci-com discussion list, including
list
archive, can be found at the list web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/psci-com.html
5. The psci-com gateway to internet resources on science communication
and
science and society can be found at http://psci-com.ac.uk
6. To contact the Psci-com list owner, please send an email to
mailto:[log in to unmask]
**********************************************************************
**********************************************************************
1. To suspend yourself from the list, whilst on leave, for example,
send an email to mailto:[log in to unmask] with the following
message:
set psci-com nomail -- [include hyphens]
2. To resume email from the list, send an email to [log in to unmask]
with the message:
set psci-com mail -- [include hyphens]
3. To leave psci-com, send an email to [log in to unmask] with
the message:
leave psci-com -- [include hyphens]
4. Further information about the psci-com discussion list, including
list archive, can be found at the list web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/psci-com.html
5. The psci-com gateway to internet resources on science communication
and science and society can be found at http://psci-com.ac.uk
6. To contact the Psci-com list owner, please send an email to mailto:[log in to unmask]
**********************************************************************
**********************************************************************
1. To suspend yourself from the list, whilst on leave, for example,
send an email to mailto:[log in to unmask] with the following message:
set psci-com nomail -- [include hyphens]
2. To resume email from the list, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the message:
set psci-com mail -- [include hyphens]
3. To leave psci-com, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the message:
leave psci-com -- [include hyphens]
4. Further information about the psci-com discussion list, including list archive, can be found at the list web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/psci-com.html
5. The psci-com gateway to internet resources on science communication and science and society can be found at http://psci-com.ac.uk
6. To contact the Psci-com list owner, please send an email to mailto:[log in to unmask]
**********************************************************************
|
