The 2021 edition of the Science&You international colloquium was held at the Robert Schuman Conference Centre in Metz from 16 to 19 November 2021. An opportunity to “take a step back to move forward”, as its title suggests, and to bring together actors in technical and scientific culture around a variety of subjects, enabling thought to be given to popularisation practices, the general public’s reception of scientific data, and the new modes of scientific mediation enabled by digital tools and the media, whether social or traditional.
Actors in CSTI (Scientific, Technical and Industrial Culture) from almost 60 countries got together in Metz for four days in order to deliver their analyses of the post-Covid situation, “a great educational occasion”, as participants put it more than once, to present analyses of reception by different sectors of the public (schoolchildren, students, “isolated”, “general public”, etc.) and mediation actions (cultural actions, media, digital tools, gamification, etc.), and to discuss the “Les Français et la Science” survey’s figures revealed on the Science&You colloquium’s inaugural morning. This national study, which has been carried out since 1972, was conducted by the University of Lorraine in 2020 and 2021.
The guest speakers at plenary sessions gave their immediate reactions on video, to check out in this article.
The survey’s results were widely covered in the media and demonstrate ambivalence: 84% of the French put their trust in science, but there is a measure of “disenchantment” with it among the public nonetheless. A good reason to give further thought to tools and means of popularisation.
Twitter, a discussion forum used by a good many science popularisers, has plenty of information on the subjects broached; you can get the viewpoints expressed by colloquium attendees and mediators by following the hashtag #sciyou2021, and relive Science&You’s highlights here: https://twitter.com/i/events/ 1462015908277366789
With a view to providing a good example of science popularisation, Science&You treated Metz audiences to the scientific play Drone Control, followed by an encounter with the Les Sens des Mots company and Antoine Deleforge (INRIA researcher at LORIA), which resulted in a lively discussion demonstrating the audience’s curiosity about the play’s subject (sound processing and recognition).
Science&You held the Sciences & Cultures Forum on 18 November, bringing together a score of presenters. The PhD students trained during the colloquium provided attendees with a re-creation of their “Mediation Marathon”.
It took the Science&You team a full 3 years to organise this international event. The programme was developed with the help of the Scientific Committee chaired by Martin Bauer (London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom), with a call for papers finally launched in November 2020 and closed in February 2021.
The event was held in a hybrid format (in person/ streaming) appropriate to the health situation. It could not have taken place without the support of many of the University of Lorraine’s operational departments.
We invite you to view the 2021 edition’s key figures and very much hope to see you at the next edition!
Consult the Factuel magazine’s “Science & Société” special issue published on the occasion of the Science&You colloquium.