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Paper short abstract

The paper discusses “scientific populism” in the Covid-19 pandemic and argues that if we are to see a legitimate democratisation of science, two obstacles must be overcome: the conspiracy theory charge and the international technocratic offensive.

Paper long abstract

In Western democracies, a significant proportion of the population no longer takes at face value politicians’ justifications of public policies, nor the pronouncements of scientific experts. This social evolution is dubbed populist, far-right, or fascist by mainstream media, academics, and political personnel alike. But whether we like it or not, it is here to stay and can even give rise to institutionalised forms such as MAHA in the US. A better way to make sense of this orientation towards science is to draw upon the findings accumulated in STS for the past forty years. Thus, “scientific populism” signals the blatant failure of the PUS strategy despite sustained efforts since the Bodmer report. True, following the wrong risk assessment of BSE, PUS was questioned and much was made of the House of Lords “Science in Society” report. Yet PUS was replaced by the Public Engagement in Science approach that rested on the same deficit model.

The proposed paper has three aims. First, I will show that we have known since the 1960s that laypeople can grasp and mobilise scientific knowledge in an independent and fruitful manner. Second, looking at the (mis)management of the Covid-19 pandemic, I will discuss the extent to which “scientific populism” is a figure of the lay appropriation of science. Third, I will argue that if we are to see a legitimate democratisation of science, two major obstacles must be overcome: the conspiracy theory charge on the one hand, the international technocratic offensive on the other.