Different pathways to modern science communication: an international comparison

  Toss GASCOIGNE, Centre for Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University, Australia
  Luisa MASSARANI, Brazilian National Institute of Public Communication of Science and Technology, Brazil
  Jenni METCALFE, Econnect Communication, Australia
  Xuan LIU, China Research Institute for Science Popularization (CRISP), China
  Bernard SCHIELE, Interuniversity Research Centre on Science and Technology, University of Quebec, Canada
  Bernard SCHIELE, Interuniversity Research Centre on Science and Technology, University of Quebec, Canada
  Joan LEACH, Centre for Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University, Australia

In September 2020, a new book on the evolution of science communication was published.  Communicating Science. A Global Perspective has collected accounts of how modern science communication has developed in 39 countries. 
 
The collection charts the emergence of modern science communication internationally.  It is the first volume to map investment around the globe in science centres, university courses and research, publications and conferences as well as tell the national stories of science communication. 
 
All cultures and regions are represented.  Eleven rank outside the top hundred in per capita wealth, and five are Muslim-majority countries. Five are from Africa, seven from the Americas, 11 from Asia and the rest from Europe and Australasia.  For some countries, this is the first time that their science communication story has been told.
 
How did it all begin?  How has development varied from one country to another? What motivated governments, institutions and people to see science communication as an answer to questions of the social place of science?
 
Authors were asked to complete a timeline, to indicate when key events occurred in their country.  Examples are:

1. when the first courses to train students in science communication were established
2. when the first masters and PhD students in science communication graduated
3. when the government announced the first policies on science communication
4. when the first interactive science museums were established

The discussants are editors and authors of the chapters. They will comment on the different pathways different countries took, and draw out similarities and differences. They will use the summaries and graphs of the national timelines as evidence, a base from which the implications of the book can be examined.
 
The book is full of stories which illustrate how different countries responded to the situations they faced. Russia describes how science was a central part of the communist philosophy but it all collapsed when the USSR disintegrated in 1991, and the country retreated into mysticism and obscurantism, still evident in modern Russia.
 
Other countries were affected by totalitarian governments - Italy, Germany, Argentina, Portugal, Estonia and others – where science was adversely affected. How did science communicators respond to the restrictions, and later when the shackles were lifted.  Is this reflected in the graphs tracing events across the 39 participating countries?
 
The book includes five chapters from Muslim-majority countries.  How have Muslim concepts of halal (permitted) and haram (forbidden) determined the acceptability of, say, biotechnology according to the principles of Islamic law. Does science pose any threat to the five purposes of maslahah (public interest): religion, life and health, progeny, intellect and property? How does this compare to Western ethical considerations of controversial science?
 
The panel will explore these and other issues.