From: "Gaffney, Owen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tue, 12 October, 2010 12:23:27
Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] The state of science communication in the UK

Hi Justin,

Very briefly (imagine this is a tweet), how do you perceive the state of science communication in the UK? (In a one-sentence sound bite, please. I no longer deal with complex arguments.)


Owen

Owen Gaffney
Director of communications
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) Secretariat
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Box 50005, SE-104 05 Stockholm
Sweden

Email: [log in to unmask]
Tel: +46 86739556
Mob: +46 730208418
Skype: owengaffneyigbp
Website: www.igbp.net



-----Original Message-----
From: psci-com: on public engagement with science on behalf of Dominic McDonald
Sent: Tue 10/12/2010 10:36 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] The state of science communication in the UK

[Nervously pokes head above parapet... Considers whether he has a spare half an hour...]

Now I think the most interesting thing about Justin's question is the lack of responses that it has generated... and I ask myself, Why is that?

It may be because people are frightened of getting "flamed" by some of the other users of PSCI Com, but as we are all such a friendly and welcoming bunch that can't possibly be the explanation...

So I think it must be because it's not a question that most of us have a ready made answer to, i.e. one that we can just jot down and send off to the group. And that makes it a most interesting question. I agree with Michael Kenward that the state of the field is "Interesting", although that feels a bit like the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy calling Earth "Harmless".

My take on things is that "science communication" has developed piecemeal, with different traditions and different motivations. The Science For All Group did some nice work outlining this diversity, and I think it's the key aspect of the "field" (I'll keep using that word). There's very little that connects what I do with what Justin does, except that it has Science/STEM/the sciences/insert-name-here at its heart.

[Listens carefully for the sound of cracking as he skates out onto the thin ice of his historical knowledge]

I think we may be a bit like mediaeval artisans, who have developed our craft skills separately. Maybe we're all making (for example) things out of wood, but some of us mostly make church pews, some of us mostly make chairs, some of us mostly stools; some do it with one type of wood, some with another; some make chairs with three legs, some with four; etc etc. Now they're all things-you-sit-on, and we could all turn our hand to making each others kinds of chairs, but there's definitely one type of chair that I'm best at making, and one that you're best at, and that's great, and healthy, and there's room for us all.

What I think is happening at the moment is that there is a drive to start formalising and codifying what it is that we do. Part of that is financial, as we are all driven to make our chairs to the specification of a small number of funders. But there is also a growing realisation that there are loads of us who are all making similar sorts of things, or at least things that have a similar purpose, and maybe we should start to, y'know, club together, and share what works well and what doesn't, and maybe start making each other's types of chairs a bit more. This is great because everyone will be able to sit more comfortably and one day we might all earn more for the chairs that we make. But there are costs to this - we lose diversity, and we end up with everything looking a bit same-y. And one day someone comes along and invents plastic and we're all out of a job.

Right, my 30 minutes is up.

Love
Sweetness
& Light

Dom


From: psci-com: on public engagement with science [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dillon, Justin
Sent: 10 October 2010 19:53
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PSCI-COM] The state of science communication in the UK

Dear All

As part of the preparations for the launch of Part B: Communication and Public Engagement of the International Journal of Science Education (see http://tandf.co.uk/journals/rsed), I've been asked to write a short piece on how I perceive the state of science communication in the UK. I thought that such a question might be an interesting topic for discussion on the PSCI-COM list-serve...

Justin

-----------------
Professor Justin Dillon
Professor of Science and Environmental Education
Head, Science & Technology Education Group (STEG)

President, European Science Education Research Association (ESERA)
Co-editor, International Journal of Science Education

Department of Education & Professional Studies
King's College London
Waterloo Bridge Wing (Room 1/7)
Franklin-Wilkins Building
150 Stamford Street
London SE1 9NH
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 20 7848 3096
Fax: +44 20 7848 3182
Mob: +44 7785 330536

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