Issue No. 48, August 1994 (ISSN 0158 9040)

Edited by Tim Sherratt on behalf of AAHPSSS.

QUAND LA SCIENCE SE FAIT CULTURE

Montréal, 10-13 April 1994, Melbourne, 1996

When the words 'science' and 'culture' are placed together in a French phrase, they apparently generate a meaning which is very different to, and also more precise than, the result of their combination in English. Thus the English title of this conference, "When Science Becomes Culture" has no clear-cut connotations. Perhaps it is a reference to the old C.P. Snow line? Perhaps it refers to some alleged defect in science itself, some lack of culture which needs to be corrected?

Yet the conference itself was narrowly focused, and there was no doubt about its subject matter. Organised by the Université de Québec on behalf of an informal and mainly European network of professionals concerned with the Public Communication of Science and Technology, it dealt with scientific literacy, and the communication of science to the public en masse. So the typical participant was a science journalist, or a curator from some museum of science and technology, 'ExploraWorld'. Behind much of the discussion was a presumption that we live in an era in which the public understanding of science is especially poor, either by comparison with what it once was (witness the growing popularity of astrology over the past 20 years, for example), or by comparison with what it should be (only 18% of the population believes that the earth is in orbit about the sun, or whatever the percentage is). This is a serious problem, we were often told, because it has a big impact on technology, and through that on the economy - because our industries are starved of the skilled personnel needed to produce commodities and their surrogates at ever lower prices. Furthermore, in an illiterate community, scientists have difficulty persuading governments to give them the grants they need to keep up the flow of pure and applied research which ultimately fuels the economy, and makes countries individually competitive in the global market place.

There was thus an element of self-serving in some of the talk, and there was in fact little close or sceptical analysis of the economic significance of communicating science - though it is hard for me to be sure of this, as much of the meeting ran in small parallel sessions. But there was also much enthusiastic swapping-of-notes among busy people who have an important job to do, and who have managed to find some time to rub shoulders with colleagues with the same day-to-day problems. How do you get senior newspaper editors to take an interest in science? How do you get scientists to talk intelligibly and convincingly to the press? How do you get staff for science museums? What sort of training do they need?

As will be seen from these remarks, there was little academic HPS/STS preached at us from the rostrum, though there was the occasional burst of enthusiasm for it from the floor, generally from members of the audience who felt that speakers displayed too simplistic a view of the nature and benefits of science. Perhaps there is something in the nature of science that discourages the public from being too enthusiastic? Perhaps many are alienated by it, or by some embedded cultural elitism, that effectively limits public participation? Perhaps its reasoning processes are far more complex than the communicators realise?

What do you think? This is an important question, because the reason I attended the whole show was that Melbourne HPS had been invited to join in what proved to be a successful bid to host the organisation's next conference, in Melbourne in Spring 1996 - in conjunction with some big 'Science Fair' that someone is putting on here then. Though the meeting will certainly be dominated by science communicators and the likes, Rod Home and I will be involved in the organising, and naturally hope to schedule some contributions from the HPS/STS community. So we want some expressions of interest. What themes should we aim at including? Anyone interested in joining the organising committee,(1) perhaps as a member, perhaps as a consultant, perhaps as local organiser of a self-contained session? Anyone got a paper on the way they would like to offer? Do let me know.(2)

(1) This is not an invitation to join, just an invitation to express interest. The European originators of the working group will be exercising much control over the composition of the committee, as they are nervous what we Antipodeans might do to them!

(2) Remember that the focus will be on communication, and we must be careful to avoid the obscuration that so often passes for academic analysis these days. A number of the Montréal participants were rightly suspicious of inwardly obsessive academic controversies of the PostScholarly genre! Though the organisational structures are not yet in place, there is definitely going to be some strenuous vetting of all offers.

Keith Hutchison
HPS Department, University of Melbourne
PARKVILLE VIC 3052
AUSTRALIA
Fax: +61 3 9344 7959
Email: k.hutchison@hps.unimelb.edu.au