engleski

Public understanding of science in Croatia

If we divide public engagement in science and technology into three spheres: (1) the scientific community, (2) the public, and (3) scientific policy, it is rather clear that in Croatia there are substantial differences in self-definitions and positions. Scientific community is still locked in the traditional top-down concept of educating and informing the public. The public is inert and generally shows passive interest in science and technology, with very low level of participation. The scientific policy is burdened by the lack of financial resources, but also by politics. Nevertheless, there are several successful but isolated cases of science in the public activities. In this presentation, based on the data from national and international surveys, and on the data from our previous research, I will discuss the situation in Croatia. Empirical analysis of few cases will be presented, i.e. the Technical Museum in Zagreb, the Neanderthal Museum in Krapina, as well as the popularization and communication of natural sciences through organizations and individuals, members of Croatian Natural Science Association. My conclusions are the following: There is a complete lack of articulated policy of public understanding of science or science and society in Croatia. Going public is not rewarded and is not supporting the individual careers of scientists or overall performance of scientific institutions in the evaluation processes. Communicating science to the broader audiences is depending on individual or on the enthusiasm of several citizens’ organizations. Despite of that, there is a lot of positive energy present and communication of scientific ideas and achievements has a long tradition. In some cases this energy is transformed into actions, in other cases it is simply wasted. Finally, I will offer few suggestions which might improve the existing situation and diminish the gap between scientific community, audiences for science in the public, and scientific policy. The analysis of Croatia’s example can be useful to the similar countries – those with similar GDP share in R&D expenditure, similar policy values of science communication, or in the countries with similar socio-political or cultural background, particularly from the South Eastern Europe, where the existing lack of science and society and science communication research prevents certain possible improvements.

Public understanding of science; Croatia; outreach events; evaluation

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