The Evolution of Public Understanding of Science—Discourse and Comparative Evidence

Abstract

Public Understanding of Science (PUS) is a field of activity and an area of social research. The evolution of this field comprises both the changing discourse and the substantive evidence of a changing public understanding.1 In the first part, I will present a short account on how the discourse of PUS moved from Literacy, via PUS, to Science-in-Society. This is less a story of progress, but one of false polemics and the multiplication of concerns. In the second part, I will show some empirical evidence on how PUS has changed by drawing on mass media data and large scale comparative survey evidence. I conclude by stressing that the Science-Society relationship is variable both in distance between science and the wider society and in the quality of this relationship.