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Biomedicine in museums

Is the notion of scientific citizenship elitist?

By November 8, 2011No Comments

“Wish I were in London!”. This is one of my recurrent phrases on this blog — because so much interesting intellectually in the field of science communication, material culture studies and museums studies happens in London these days.

Like on Wednesday 30th November, when Beverley Gibbs, a PhD-candidate from the Institute for Science and Society at the University of Nottingham, will speak on one of the most topical concepts in contemporary science communication studies, namely ‘scientific citizenship’:

In contrast to ‘deficit models’ of public understanding of science, the idea of deliberative dialogue heralding a new relationship between science and society is now firmly established. Such dialogue has been described as more democratic, helping ameliorate an alleged crisis of trust between publics and science, and facilitating a public exercise in ‘ scientific citizenship’. Drawing on literature on science and publics, public participation and citizenship theory this seminar explores the conceptualisation of scientific citizenship, asking how members of the public are constructed as citizens against a broad landscape of different engagement mechanisms. In doing so, I will reflect on the consequences of eliciting scientific citizens, and suggest that the notion is inherently entangled with co-optation and elitism.

If you happen to be in London, it’s at 4.15-6 pm in Clement House 3.02, London School of Economics.

Thomas Söderqvist

Author Thomas Söderqvist

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