Investigations on the relationships between science and society see some of their most fruitful and significant spheres in the themes of health and medicine. The concepts and the problems linked to health issues inscribe within themselves practices, competences and choices that refer to science – in fact, as it has emerged, Italians judge medicine a…
During these latest years, a series of dramatic events, last in chronological order Eluana Englaro’s case, and even numerous films (from Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby to Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions Barbares) have focussed public debate on the issues of euthanasia and of the so called “biological will”. In the light of the most recent…
For the last ten years UNESCO and L’Oréal have been promoting an international partnership project, “L’Oreal UNESCO for Women in Science”, that has the finality to support the role of women in science and to foster their full participation in scientific research world-wide. Thanks to this project, over 350 female researchers around the world have…
Recently the public debate has been focussed on the reform of the Italian university system and on the cuts in the funds dedicated to research. But what are the public opinion orientations about the role of research and of researchers in the Italian society? The data from the Science and Society Monitor offer a rich…
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…