Public Understanding of Science is an area constituted by those scholars who essentially acquired expertise in various established academic disciplines and shifted their attention towards a few specifi c issues related to the science-society interface. The discipline though recognised as a legitimate area of research has not come out of all its teething problems associated with the formation of any new area.The mainstay, during the fi rst phase of its development was the attitudinal surveys conducted in various countries. The objectives of these surveys were to measure the extent of scientifi c knowledge, probe public attitude towards science or scientists, and at times simply to explore the level of confi dence or lack of confi dence that a common citizen had in science. These surveys gradually turned into an important and regular activity in many countries.The debate that followed the fi rst phase resulted in refi nement of methodology, tools and the models of assessment of Public Understanding of Science. The PAUS group at NISTADS, India, has since 1989 worked on methodology suitable for carrying out surveys
This article attempts to define cultural distance and proposes a method to empirically measure it. Using the survey data on perceptions of common citizens, the authors measure this distance in this article by the number of years spent in formal schooling. Cultural distances based on people's explanations of various natural phenomena have been mapped to demonstrate efficacy of the proposed method. The authors argue that the determinants of the magnitude of the cultural distance are (1) the complexity involved in explaining a phenomenon, (2) its life cycle, (3) individual or a collective control that can be exercised to alter the life cycle, and (4) the intensity with which a phenomenon intervenes in the daily life of common citizens.
In September 1994 a plague epidemic hit a number of cities in India. Though the spread of the disease was controlled within a short period of about one month, its influences on various channels of information, on the functioning of government departments (especially health and sanitation), on the scientific community and on people's scientific information level were remarkable. This paper analyzes the responses of 1127 individuals interviewed in December 1994. The data indicates high levels of informedness about health, hygiene and plague, with little reference to extra-scientific explanations of the causes of the epidemic. Respondents expressed a high degree of confidence in the modern system of medicine. From this analysis we also infer that the public could not be described as 'superstitious', 'unscientific' or 'unhygienic': only when denied access to information and civic amenities did they show extra-scientific thinking or 'unhygienic' behaviour.
The objective of the present paper is an attempt to measure the public understanding of science in the area of health and hygiene and test the efficacy of "cultural distance model". A pre-tested open-ended questionnaire was used for administering cross-sectional surveys at a religio-cultural festival in India. 3484 individuals were interviewed and responses were coded and entered to construct computer database. The data was used for determining the cultural distance of five scientific concepts from the quotidian life of the target population. In developing countries, the formal system of modern education operates as a strong determinant in shaping cultural structures of thoughts prevalent among the citizens. There exists a cultural distance between the scientific structure of configuring natural occurrences and peoples' complexity of thoughts. The distance varies significantly across the concepts that were subjected to the inspection and is a function of the nature of scientific information.
There exists a distinct disconnect between scientists’ perception of nature and people’s worldview. This ‘disconnect’ though has dialectical relationship with science communication processes which, causes impediments in the propagation of scientific ideas. Those ideas, which are placed at large cultural distance, do not easily become a part of cognitive structure of a common citizen or peoples thought complex. Low level of public understanding of bio-energy technologies is one such sphere of understanding. The present study is based on assumption that public debate on bio-energy is part of the larger human concern about climate change. In this paper we present meta-analyses from published literature and take a look at the surveys that have been carried out at national and international level. In the second section of the article we also present analysis of the survey study carried out in India and locate the shifts in public understanding of science.
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