Tag: Science Communication

  • The little-known secret of “not-doing”

    The little-known secret of “not-doing”

    Guest post by our visiting fellow, Jeff Tamblyn, film maker and director of Kansas vs. Darwin. The campus itself might have been what drew me to the MayFest Grounds Tour at the University of Nottingham – it’s vast, sweeping, and dotted with stately buildings and huge trees, many of which are more than three centuries old.…

  • Science communication: From filling deficits to appreciating assets

    Science communication: From filling deficits to appreciating assets

    I recently read a blog post on science communication by John Timmer and a response to this post by Peter Broks, which made me think about (a) the public understanding of the ‘deficit model’ and (b) how one can get from saying science communication should be engaging in the ‘co-creation’ of meaning (Broks) to giving…

  • Making Science Public: A one-year anthology of blog posts

    Making Science Public: A one-year anthology of blog posts

    In spring 2012 we began work on a five-year research programme funded by the Leverhulme Trust entitled ‘Making Science Public: Challenges and Opportunities’ (2012-2017).  The programme deals with all aspects of ‘making science public’, but in particular with controversies around science, politics, publics and participation. As part of the programme, we began writing a blog…

  • What’s behind the battle of received wisdoms?

    What’s behind the battle of received wisdoms?

    This is a guest essay by Ben Pile, a writer for Spiked Online and his own blog Climate Resistance. There is a response by Dana Nuccitelli from the Guardian’s Climate Consensus blog here. Andrew Neil’s interview with Ed Davey on the Sunday Politics show last week caused an eruption of comment. For sceptics, it was a refreshing…

  • Bring on the Yawns: Time to Expose Science’s “Dirty Little Secret”

    Bring on the Yawns: Time to Expose Science’s “Dirty Little Secret”

    Guest post by visiting fellow, Jeff Tamblyn, film maker and director of Kansas vs. Darwin. As a visiting fellow in the “Making Science Public” project, I’ve had a great first week at the University of Nottingham, filled by conversations with social science scholars and capped off with the events of May Fest – a day in…

  • Science communication: Bridging theory and practice

    Science communication: Bridging theory and practice

    On Friday 17 May 2013 I was at the Science Communication Conference 2013, organised by the British Science Association. I participated in a session on ‘Bridging theory and practice’ coordinated by Paul Manners, Director of the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement and Helen Featherstone, Project Manager (Public Engagement) for the CATALYST project at Exeter…

  • Debating empty chairs: creationism, climate and public engagement

    Debating empty chairs: creationism, climate and public engagement

    This week, Making Science Public has been very proud to welcome US film director Jeff Tamblyn during his UK visit. On Wednesday we screened his amazing film, Kansas vs Darwin, a documentary charting the attempts by members of the Kansas School Board to introduce creationism and intelligent design into high school science teaching. The film…

  • Gabriel Tarde and science communication – some reflections

    Gabriel Tarde and science communication – some reflections

    More than a century ago the French sociologist Gabriel Tarde began to think seriously about knowledge, influence, politics and publics (Tarde, 1895, 1898, 1903; see here). Most importantly, he wanted to study the dynamics of interaction between various actors in networks of ‘conversation’ (Nerlich, 1992, 1996) (Clark, 1969, Katz, 1993, Katz, 2006). Communication, opinion, power…

  • Public Worth of STS: Drawing on STS Sensibilities to Inform the Design of an Ethical Surveillance System

    Here at Nottingham we are busy preparing to host the Science in Public conference in July. It is all very exciting and looks like it is shaping up to be a busy event with around 90 papers – the draft programme will be announced and registration opened very soon .. perhaps even this week. In…