The order of discourse in surveys of public understanding of science

7 nov 2011

This paper discusses how insights from constructivist studies on the place of context, reflexivity, and framing in studies of public understanding of science may be applied within a survey framework. By emphasizing the role that images or ideologies of science play in science policy discourse, surveys are conceptualized as a means to map the social pervasiveness of such ideologies. It is argued that survey results may contribute to a broadening of the framework of science policy, if questions that explicitly reflect civic perspectives on science are included in survey questionnaires. An experiment with three non-standard questions in a Norwegian survey in 1999 on public understanding of science is seen to provide some empirical support for the viability of this approach