To the Editor

This paper discusses how insights from constructivist studies on the place of context, reflexivity, and framing in studies of public understanding of science may be applied within a survey framework. By emphasizing the role that images or ideologies of science play in science policy discourse, surveys are conceptualized as a means to map the social pervasiveness of such ideologies. It is argued that survey results may contribute to a broadening of the framework of science policy, if questions that explicitly reflect civic perspectives on science are included in survey questionnaires. An experiment with three non-standard questions in a Norwegian survey in 1999 on public understanding of science is seen to provide some empirical support for the viability of this approach.

Context (archaeology) · Epistemology · Framing (construction) · Geography · Ideology · Norwegian · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Public awareness of science · Reflexivity · Science communication · Science education · Social science · Sociology · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Environmental Education and Sustainability · Risk Perception and Management