Science and society

Science and society is a field of study, policy and practice that focuses on the relationships between science and technology, and society, publics and the media in all their myriad forms (including public engagement). As such, scholars might understand science and society as a sub-discipline within science and technology studies (STS). Meanwhile, policy and practice people might understand Science and Society approaches as a way of moving on from the earlier - and much maligned - public understanding of science (PUS) or 'deficit model' approach to the same set of issues. 

I have been working on and thinking about science and society issues since the late-1990s. As with all of my work, I have particularly enjoyed contributing to discussions about policy and practice, as well as research.

Public Attitudes to Science
In 2018, I worked with Kantar Public on the latest round of UK Public attitudes to Science research (funded by BEIS). In particular, I wrote a major literature review on this topic and contributed in a more minor way to the development of the new research.

Factors affecting public engagement by researchers
Most recently (2015-2016), I worked with TNS-BMRB (now Kantar Public) on the Factors affecting public engagement by researchers project. This consultancy project (2015-6), funded by a consortium of UK research funders, led by Wellcome Trust, focused on the perspectives and experiences of researchers (across all academic disciplines) with respect to public engagement with research. There is more project information and links to the outputs here.

ScoPE: Scientists on public engagement - from communication to deliberation?
Some years earlier, I conducted one of the first projects that had examined researchers' perspectives on public engagement, in the Wellcome Trust-funded ScoPE project Scientists on public engagement: from communication to engagement (2006-2009). While acknowledging a 'sea change' in scientist's views, this report also noted a set of sometimes contradictory undercurrents in the emerging  field of public engagement.

The roles of social science in public dialogue on science and technology

In 2008, I was funded by the HEFCE Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) to conduct some exploratory research and hold a stakeholder workshop on the role of social science in public dialogue. From this work, I produced a workshop report and a paper. A key observation in both is that policy people tend to see a supporting role only for social science, but do not value its more critical potential. 
Workshop report 
Paper: A helping hand or a servant discipline?

Talking to crop geneticists about science, crop genetics, the public and the media (PhD: 1999-2005, part time)
In my PhD, I examined - qualitatively - the attitudes of scientists working on crop genetics towards: science itself, crop genetics, the public and the media. I published two journal articles from my PhD:

• Burchell, K. (2007) Empiricist selves and contingent ‘others’: the performative function of the discourse of scientists working in conditions of controversy, Public Understanding of Science, 16(2), 145-162.
• Burchell, K. (2007) Boundary work, associative argumentation and switching in the advocacy of agricultural biotechnology, Science as Culture, 16(1), 49-70.

Public attitudes towards risk
In my Masters dissertation (1998), I examined - using a questionnaire survey - public perceptions of a variety of environmental/technological risks. To reflect the extent to which perceptions vary and the conflict that this can cause, I coined the phrase 'fractured environments' (which the excellent Phil Mcnaghten termed 'contested natures'). I wrote a working paper on this, which is still on the LSE website!