Send message to Author

Short abstract:

Through a questionnaire based on a series of fictional crisis stories, the paper focuses on listening to citizens' expectations of scientific expertise as an element at the core of a trust-based relationship between science and citizens.

Long abstract:

Science encountering citizens is a relationship for a long time interpreted through what is defined as the deficit model (Bucchi, 2005) characterized by a paternalistic, pedagogical view of science and by the passive role of citizens. From this perspective, there is a shift to an approach based on listening to citizens and their needs, who demand to take part in a responsible debate with scientific institutions about science trajectory (Wynne, 2006) that should respond to their expectations and needs. Establishing such a relationship can be fundamental especially in times of crisis when different scientific expertise are called by decision-makers to design resolution strategies to respond to the citizens' needs. In this direction, the first step is to know individuals’ expectations toward science. To achieve this aim, an online questionnaire was administered to university students to surface their expectations of different scientific expertise in crisis contexts. The questionnaire features several fictional stories narrating different kinds of crises such as economic, geopolitical or health crises and respondents were asked to select, in their opinion, the most adequate expertise to solve these crises, motivating their choices. Through the analysis of the 331 received responses, it is possible to know respondents' expectations of different scientific expertise in crisis contexts, comparing those towards the humanities and natural sciences. What are respondents' expectations toward natural science expertise compared with those towards social science expertise? Knowing such expectations can constitute the basis for a trust-based relationship between individuals with different scientific institutions and science domains.