Science Communication as Emotion Work

Negotiating Curiosity and Wonder at a Science Festival

Bibliographic Data

ID12206249
AuthorsSarah R Davies (0000-0002-2113-9103, University of Copenhagen, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume28
Issue4
Pages538-561
Publication date2019-03-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience as Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0950-5431 • E-ISSN: 1470-1189
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09505431.2019.1597035
OpenAlexW2932366900
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited45

STS scholarship has long emphasised that science is emotional as well as cognitive and social. A 2014 science festival, Science in the City, held in Copenhagen, provides a case for thick description of emotion within the production and reception of public science communication. For organisers of science communication the overarching aim was to call forth a suite of emotions focused around curiosity and wonder; in contrast, visitor experiences were constituted through the emotions of reading and negotiating science communication. Negative emotions, in particular, were tied to a sense that navigating science communication and producing the ‘right’ emotions can be effortful. Visitors therefore found strategies to resist the behaviours required of them. Consumption of science communication may thus be framed as emotion work, for both producers and consumers: curiosity does not necessarily emerge naturally, while science communication products may themselves require work to negotiate

Aesthetics · Art · Curiosity · Media studies · Negotiation · Pedagogy · Political science · Scholarship · Science communication · Science education · Social science · Sociology · Visitor pattern · Wonder · Computer Science · Emotional Labor in Professions · Management and Organizational Studies · Psychology · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social Psychology