Almost a quarter of century has elapsed since the Royal Society launched signals of alert in the Bodmer report on the Public Understanding of Science (1985). The study warned against a potential downturn in the relationship between science and public opinion and supported the necessity to boost “a better comprehension of science as a significant…
Massimo Mazzotti has just edited a collections of essays, devoted to Barry Barns’s sociology and his contribution to STS studies (Ashgate, 2008) Investigating a theme first pioneered by Barry Barnes in the early 1970s, this volume explores the relationship between social order and legitimate knowledge and is intended as a tribute to Barnes’ seminal role…
Food price increase and periodic alarms for food scarcity at global scale have caught Italian public opinion attention. 60% of European believe that food (low) quality is a major threat for health, more risky that pollution or dumbing of waste. Italian worries about food mainly concern the use of pesticides in cultivations: over one third…
90% of Italians are convinced that the earth climate is warming up because summers are more and more hot and winters are less and less cold. Italian public opinion is not much affected neither by scientific evidence nor by environmentalist campaigns. Citizens give prominence to natural observation and direct experience of seasons changing. These and…