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Why is public engagement important?
26 July 2010
By Emma Gillaspy
The second in our series of questions is:
Why do you think public engagement is important?
This follows on nicely from What does public engagement mean to you? As always, we would love to hear your thoughts on this. Answers so far include:
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To try and give a public appreciation for research and its applications
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Without science communication, talented students may pass science and engineering because it is perceived to be tedious or full or boring maths. The reality is very different; science and engineering is exhilarating, innovative and essential.
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It’s one of the most rewarding aspects of my (academic) job.
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Simon Smith27 July 2010 at 12:57 AM
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This one's a no-brainer to me. It's simply a moral responsibility. I like to quote the French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu: It’s essential to escape from a number of oppositions that are fixed in our heads and which effectively legitimise some lapses: to begin with, the retreat of the scholar into their ivory tower. The dichotomy between scholarship and commitment reassures the researcher in their good conscience because it receives the approbation of the scientific community. It’s as if scholars felt doubly scholarly because they do nothing with their science. But in the case of biologists, that could be criminal. And it is just as grave for criminologists. This reservation, this flight into purity, has very serious social consequences… It is absolutely fundamental to first subject one’s findings to the critique of one’s colleagues, but why then reserve the knowledge that has been collectively acquired and controlled to this circle? Bourdieu, P. (2001) 'Les chercheurs et le mouvement social', address to a conference of Greek trade unionists and researchers organised by Raisons d'agir-Grèce, Athens, 3-6 May 2001, reprinted in Bourdieu, P. (2002) Interventions, 1961-2001. Science sociale et action politique, Marseille: Agone: 465-9; my translation)
Emma Gillaspy30 July 2010 at 04:29 PM
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I have now uploaded audio soundbites from our engaging researcher event where the workshop facilitators were asked this question. Audio can be found in the post event resources at www.vitae.ac.uk/engagingresearcher