Next edition of Science & You, international event on science culture organized by the Université de Lorraine, will take place November 15th to 19th 2021 in Metz, Robert Schuman Conference Center. Martin W. Bauer, Chair of the scientific Committee, answers our questions.
Science & You is an international event which gathers both researchers and practitioners in science communication and culture. According to you, in which ways creating such an opportunity to meet, cross points of views and exchange good practices is important?
Martin W. Bauer: "Science Communication is a booming field of activities. Universities and research institutions, funding agencies, NGOs and philanthropic foundation are professionalising and getting better at letting the world know about their research and its importance for the development of a modern society. This creates historical job opportunities for science communicators all over the world, while at the same time science journalists, the traditional science communicators of newsprint, radio and television, find themselves in a more difficult place. This growing field of communicative practice is in constant need of networking among the professionals, to compare experience and to critically reflect on its formats, challenges, and purposes. With Science & You 2021 we want to contribute to this critical reflection, invite practitioners from all over Europe and beyond to come to Metz to confront pressing issues of effective public communication and the unintended consequences of good intentions. We will be asking: are we identifying and slaying the ‘right dragons’, or ‘Graoullys [see image], as they are called in Metz?"
What are your ambitions and goals as Chair of the Scientific Committee?
Martin W. Bauer: "The conference hosts, Universite Lorraine, can call upon an international Scientific Committee, which have the honour to convene and chair. Science communication experts from France, Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America will conspire to realise the main ambition for this the Science & Vous 2021 conference: to create a meeting place for science communicators to report and to reflect critically on their practice in the 21st century, both under conditions of emergency like this global Covid-19 pandemic and under conditions of normality."
Could you tell us about the theme of the event? Which topics would you like to be discussed?
Martin W. Bauer: "We do not restrict the scope of topics for Science & Vous 2021. The conference will cover science communication at all frontiers of scientific research and development, ranging from energy to nano materials, space exploration, robotics & autonomous vehicles, novel food, medicines & vaccinations, genetic engineering and climate change and others. However, we would like to stimulate discussions across these themes on formats of digital media and the challenges that arise from these, many of which are identified as ‘dragons-Graoullys’ to beat such as fake-news, echo chambers, filter bubbles, misinformation, rumours, biases, conspiracy theories, polarisation of opinions, anti-science propaganda, motivated reasoning etc. One overarching topic will preoccupy the conference: Artificial Intelligence. AI is a theme of science communication, but it also composes news text by ‘robot’, and algorithms curate the audiences for science communication. These developments are in friction with common sense, threaten the common ground of society, and we would like to raise the stakes on this issue for science communication."
Martin W. Bauer's biography:
Martin W. Bauer read Psychology and Economic History (Bern, Zurich, London), and is Professor of Social Psychology (LSE). He was Editor-in-Chief of Public Understanding of Science (2009-2016), and he currently investigating ‘common sense’ in comparative perspective and in relation to novel techno-scientific developments. Recent books include: (2015) Atom, Bytes & Genes – Public Resistance and Techno-Scientific Responses, NY, Routledge; (2019) The Cultural Authority of Science – Comparing across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, London, Routledge.