Cardiff University, UK.
University of York, UK.
Public Underst Sci. 2023 Jul;32(5):658-672. doi: 10.1177/09636625221141862. Epub 2023 Jan 12.
Who is licensed to make knowledge claims about society? A more diffuse group of individuals are afforded the status of legitimate speakers on society in the public sphere than is the case when the questions relate to the expertise of the natural sciences. We draw on the concept of the 'locus of legitimate interpretation' and the sensibilities of Collins and Evans' Studies of Expertise and Experience programme to help make sense of these issues. The social sciences are the natural sciences, and one key difference is their relationship with publics. The social sciences are intrinsically entangled, at both the level of the research question and the research subject/object, with public knowledge, the knowledges of publics and public interests. We therefore outline what these differences might mean for a serious, distinct and purposive Public Understanding of Social Science programme and how this differs from current work in the Public Understanding of Science.
谁有权对社会发表知识性言论？与自然科学领域的专业性问题相比，能够在公共领域对社会问题发表权威性言论的群体要更为多样化。为了更好地理解这些问题，我们借鉴了“合法解释的场所”这一概念以及柯林斯和埃文斯的专长和经验研究计划的敏感性。社会科学不是自然科学，两者的一个关键区别在于它们与公众的关系。社会科学在研究问题和研究主体/对象两个层面上都与公共知识、公众知识和公共利益内在地纠缠在一起。因此，我们概述了这些差异对于一个严肃、独特和有目的的社会科学公众理解计划意味着什么，以及它与当前科学公众理解工作的不同之处。
