STEPS: Science, TEchnology and the Public Sphere

Staff members

• Dr MW Bauer [coordinator]
• Professor G Gaskell

Social psychology contributes significantly to the development of public debates over new science and technology. The public has and continues to take views on such developments as nuclear power, space technology, computing and information technology, genetic engineering & biotechnology, and recently nanotechnology. Thus the formation, dynamics and functions of public opinion in the path of things is a significant field of enquiry. At the LSE, the STEPS group has worked on this topic since 1995 with teaching, PhDs supervision and the co-ordination of nationally and internationally funded projects (EC, Wellcome Trust, Leverhulm Trust, ESRC, Royal Society, WHO, British Council).

Where we take a stance

Academic research has two purposes: innovation and to call the bluffs of innovation. Social psychology traditionally contributes to technological development within the diffusion and risk perception paradigms. Both pertain to acceptance research and suggest (a) quantitative and qualitative studies of adoption gaps and the psychometric profiling of early and late adopters and laggards, and (b) the design of strategic communication to accelerate the diffusion process. This approach dominates the literature and is a major job opportunity for social psychologists. However, this paradigm has serious intellectual and practical limitations. It’s technocratic outlook is unrealistic. The linear model – scientist invent, engineers innovate, and social psychologist market - is a myth that attributes deficits exclusively to the public and resorts to opinion management as the key solution to adoption problems. Although this approach seems of the past, it clearly is not. However, our vision is of a broader remit for Social Psychology than sitting on the shoulders of technocratic monsters.

We actively contribute to an academic discipline of social psychology and to the interdisciplinary field of STS (Science and Technology Studies) through research, scholarly publications and conference papers. Both STS and social psychology have a common ancestry in the sociology of knowledge of Marx, Weber, Scheler, Mannheim, Durkheim, Bartlett, Levy-Bruhl, Fleck and others, Our social psychological analysis widens field of STS with studies of public communication, emotion, motivation, perception, attitudes, beliefs, imagination and values, as these representations all contribute to the process of continuous innovation. As the analysis of innovation moves up-stream, social psychology contributes a distinct approach. Our research topics include:

• Public understanding of science: international comparisons
• Construction of indicators of ‘scientific culture’
• Representations of science: salience, anchoring and objectification
• Mass media monitoring, continuous observations
• Controversies, framing & mobilisation
• Risk perceptions, attitudes, public opinion
• Myths, hype and the dynamics of expectations
• Science communication & public relations for science
• 'technologies of humility': modes of public participation and deliberation
• the history of popular science on the long run
• Learning by resistance

A focus of our work is the analysis of public opinion over time. For this purposes we have constructed several longitudinal databases, which are open for research within and outside the LSE. One our foci is the analysis of public opinion over time.

• Science in the British Press 1946-1994: Britain, Bulgaria
• Biotechnology and the Public, coded press database, 1973-2002; 18 countries
• Biotechnology and the Public: tri-annual survey 1991 – 2005; EU, US, Canada, Japan
• Public understanding of science; various surveys, 1977- present; Europe, US, India; Brazil

We host the London Public Understanding of Science Seminars in collaboration with UCL’s STS department (every last Wed of the month during term time).

We have close collaborations at the LSE with CARR, the BIOS Centre and the Methodology Institute.

We are linked and active in the global network on ‘social representations’.

We are located within a global network through collaborations with: Royal Society of London, WHO, WELLCOME TRUST, the European Commission, Eurobarometer, the US NSF, STS Centre Bielefeld, Trento University in Italy, FAPESP, UniCamp and UFRGS in Brazil, NISTED and NACAER in India, NISTEP in Japan, and CAST in China. The project ‘Biotechnology and the Public’ included teams of social researchers in 18 countries across North and South America, Europe and Japan.  Click here for more information.

Some of us serve on the scientific board of OBSERVA – SCIENZA E SOCIETA, an independent foundation dedicated to monitoring and stimulating debates and policy on matters of science and technology.

Some of us serve on the editorial board of one of the leading journals in the field: Public Understanding of Science.

Some of us have served as advisors to: European Commission, Royal Society of London, the Canadian committee on Xenotransplantation, Eurobarometer, Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology.

Events

5-6 Nov 2007: organization of Royal Society workshop on ‘international indicators of science and the public’ (with 30 participants from 25 countries).

Academic Visitors

We welcome academic visitors who pursue their own project, or who spend time at LSE to work on the various data resources of the STEPS group.

2006/07

• Dr Laura Illia (University of Lugano, Switzerland)
• Dr Rajesh Shukla (NCAER, Delhi)
2005/06
• Dr Carlos Elias (University Carlos III, Madrid, Spain)
• Dr Rajesh Shukla (NCAER, Delhi)

PhD students:

The group provides a lively research environment within the Institute of Social Psychology, closely linked to the PUS seminar, the Methodology Institute and the activities of the BIOS centre.

Current:

• Alexandra Kolka (Greece), 2002. The public among experts: The human cloning debate in the UK.
• Giuseppe Veltri (Italy), 2003. The making sense of Nanotechnology: the process of anchoring a new technology in the Media and in the Public.
• Carola Nuernberg (Germany), 2004. Social Representations/Organisation/Newcomers.
• Dimitri Thomopoulos (Greece), 2004. Nanotechnology as a quasi-social movement.
• Valentina Amorese (Italy) BIOS, 2006. Analysis of the influences of public resistance to GMOs pm the path of science.
• Leo Kim Dhohoon (South Korea) BIOS, 2007, A comparative study of Government Policy and its effects on Biotechnological Discourse: Korea and the U.K.

Completed:

• Raimund Schmolze, (Germany), 1999, Resistance to change and flexible responses: Conducting action research with management consultants.
• Miltos Liakopoulos (Greece), 2000, The debate on biotechnology in Britain: A social psychological analysis of arguments, images and public perceptions.
• Carlos Parales, (Columbia), 2000, Social Representations of Healthy Eating: An empirical study in Columbia.
• Rebecca Newton, (Australia), 2005, Resistance to Change: A Functional Analysis during Corporate Mergers.
• Gregor Jost, (Germany), 2005, Organizational learning and resistance to change: A case study of learning by resistance.
• Nick Allum, (UK), 2005, Risk attitudes, social trust and knowledge: public perceptions of gene technology in Britain.
• Anne-Katrin Schlag, (Germany), 2007, Expert and Lay Representations of GM Food: Implications for Risk Communication.
• Sue Guerrier, (UK), 2007, Farmers, farming and change.
• Sue Howard, (UK), 2007, Images of Scientists in Postwar Britain
• Kavita Abraham, (Indian), 2007 (pending), Change and Communities in Public Private Partnerships.Raimund Schmolze
• Sally Stares, (UK), 2007 (pending), Latent class and latent trait models in survey research: case studies in public opinion on biotechnology.

^