What is scientific and technological culture and how is it measured? A multidimensional model

Abstract

In the last decade, scientific culture has become a theme much discussed at all levels of public discourse. All scientific and technological policies developed in the last few years in OECD countries have included scientific culture as one of their aims, principles, or objectives. Despite the ubiquity of the term “scientific culture,” there is little agreement on its content. Definitions and understandings of what a scientific culture is vary across countries, groups, and individuals. There is also no consensus on how to measure scientific culture. The present paper addresses the question “what is a scientific culture?”. It presents a multidimensional model wherein scientific culture is defined as having two dimensions: individual and social. It then discusses how the model can be used to define indicators of scientific culture and to understand recent developments regarding the role of scientists in the diffusion of scientific culture.