Abstract
This paper studies the role of science museums in Spain and their contribution to the public communication of science and technology (PCST). In particular, it analyzes the social and political contexts in which science museums have developed in Spain over recent decades and evaluates how sociopolitical circumstances have conditioned both the content of the museums and the way in which the museum projects have been executed. An analysis of the institutional context in which these museums have been created in Spain suggests that there is an interrelation between scientific dissemination and the institutional and sociopolitical context in which it took place. The proliferation of museums and science centers has brought about greater dissemination of science in Spain, but their existence is not simply a response to the desire for scientific communication, as the museums are not merely places for the transmission of scientific knowledge, or places where science is consumed. They are also scenarios and symbols, institutions used to construct new discourses of an identity based on the idea of modernity, and are used politically to locate the local, regional and national in a globalized context.
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Notes
- 1.
See, particularly, ‘Informe de la Ponencia sobre la situación de las enseñanzas científicas en la educación secundaria’, Boletín Oficial de las Cortes Generales Senado, 22 May 2003.
- 2.
The term ‘musealization’ is a neologism much used in French and Spanish museological literature to define the process by which a cultural element is converted into an element of heritage, and used in museums (Roigé and Frigolé 2011).
- 3.
Not only do we refer to the fact that the construction of new buildings generates new city symbols, but also to the fact that science is used to create new images of ‘modern cities’.
- 4.
This happens in all museums, but in some (such as history or ethnology) it is more obvious, while in others (such as art, technology or natural history) it is less explicit.
- 5.
Interesting questions are raised with regard to museums and science centers. How can we reconcile the universality of science with local characteristics? How can we avoid the risk of ‘cloning’ science centers and put more emphasis on local culture? (Renvillard 2005:7–8).
- 6.
Source: Spanish National Institute of Statistics, 2008.
- 7.
Foundation of the savings bank ‘La Caixa’, today the biggest bank in Catalonia and the third largest in Spain.
- 8.
La Vanguardia, 23 September 2004, pp. 40–41.
- 9.
Fundació La Caixa (2010). El nuevo plan estratégico de Divulgación Científica (2010–2016).
- 10.
Source: Eustat, 2009.
- 11.
‘KutxaEspacio cambia su nombre por “Eureka! Zientzia Museoa” e inicia nueva etapa’ (http://www.euskalmuseoak.com).
- 12.
La Vanguardia, 6 March 2005, p. 49.
- 13.
La Voz de Galicia, 25 May 2008.
- 14.
La Voz de Galicia, 5 June 2010.
- 15.
Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, Valencia (http://www.cac.es/).
- 16.
Casa de las Ciencias, Logroño (http://www.logro-o.org/casadelasciencias/).
- 17.
Eureka! Zientzia Museoa, San Sebastián (http://www.eurekamuseoa.es/).
- 18.
VI Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica 2008–2011 (http://www.micinn.es/portal/site/MICINN/menuitem).
- 19.
Castellanos based his 2008 work on studies carried out by the Sociedad General de Autores, by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology and by Eurobarometer: Europeans, science and technology.
- 20.
‘Suplemento Ciencia y tecnologia’, La Vanguardia, 8 May 1993.
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Roigé, X. (2012). Science Museums and Cultural Images of Modernity: Scientific Communication, New Identities and Sociopolitical Constraints on Science Museums in Spain. In: Schiele, B., Claessens, M., Shi, S. (eds) Science Communication in the World. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4279-6_14
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