Science in Society; from Monologue to Dialogue

The goal of this paper is to show that, as in other fields of humanities and social studies, there has been a shift from monologue to dialogue in the course of the history of “science, technology, and society” studies. The paper discusses the topic by reconsideration of key paradigms of science and society studies, such as scientific literacy, public understanding of science and technology etc. During this paradigm evolution, it has been gradually accepted that up-down models of Science Communication, which assume public as suffering from knowledge deficit, do not work even to improve the public support of science. The outcome of related debates in the recent half-century, according to the paper, was that science and society should participate in a proper, immediate, and equivalent dialogue. The paper supports this conclusion by review of studies that documented and analyzed the history of studies and initiatives of “science, technology, and society”