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Science Communication in the World pp 3–17Cite as

The ‘Communicative Turn’ in Contemporary Techno-science: Latin American Approaches and Global Tendencies

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Abstract

Between the Second World War and the end of the Cold War, dramatic changes have occurred both in the mode of production of scientific knowledge and in the relationships between knowledge, innovation, the economy and civil society. We hypothesize that the reconfigurations in science made possible by a closer relationship with capitalism stimulated a ‘communicative turn’ in science communication. Public communication of science and technology (S&T) has transformed into a structural value within the core axiological pluralism of contemporary technoscience: journalistic values, persuasion, publicity, opinion etc. converge within the axiological core of techno-science. Therefore, science communication is today not only a ‘right’ for the publics and a ‘moral duty’ for scientists, but a need for society and an unavoidable, intrinsic process in the metabolism of contemporary capitalist democracies. We map the present forms of techno-scientific practices and discourses, and show how public communication of S&T has a central role (within fluid, conflictive, global and mediatized scenarios) in understanding both the production of knowledge and the governance of contemporary techno-science. We describe three different aspects of communication: in research institutions, in global mass media, and in civil society and ‘participatory movements’. We show how new mediators and communicators (or no mediators at all), new stakeholders in science communication and new ‘sources’ of scientific knowledge emerge today in this interesting scenario. Finally, in a preliminary analysis to be completed in further work, we present examples and possible case studies from Latin America. The region is exposed to global pressures and trends similar to those in the developed countries (S&T policies; intellectual property rights; relationships between government, university and market; public participation, inclusion and engagement in S&T etc.) but, at the same time, is subject to very diverse and very specific boundary conditions and historical trajectories.

In the case of Yurij Castelfranchi, part of his research was funded through a grant of the Federal University of Minas Gerais: ‘Programa Institucional de Auxílio à Pesquisa de Doutores Recém- Contratados- PRPq/UFMG’.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Castelfranchi (2008) for an analysis and sources of this and following claims.

  2. 2.

    See also the analysis and theoretical explanation by Jacobi and Schiele (1988).

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Acknowledgement

We would like to thank the referees for their very careful work on our text and for several important questions they raised, which generated insights both for this chapter and for future research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Associated to the National Council of Science and Technology, Centro REDES, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Carmelo Polino

  2. Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil

    Yurij Castelfranchi

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  1. Carmelo Polino
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  2. Yurij Castelfranchi
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Correspondence to Carmelo Polino .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fac. Communication, École des Médias, Université du Québec à Montréal, rue Sainte-Catherine Est 405, Montreal, H3C 3P8, Québec, Canada

    Bernard Schiele

  2. , Office of the Director General, ITER, Route de Vinon sur Verdon, St Paul Les Durance, 13115, France

    Michel Claessens

  3. Science Popularization (CRISP), China Research Institute for, Xueyuan Nanlu 86, Beijing, 100081, China, People's Republic

    Shunke Shi

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Polino, C., Castelfranchi, Y. (2012). The ‘Communicative Turn’ in Contemporary Techno-science: Latin American Approaches and Global Tendencies. 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_1

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