WHAT ARE PUBLIC IDEAS (original) (raw)

PUBLIC IDEAS: THEIR VARIETIES AND CAREERS

American Sociological Review, 2019

In light of ongoing concerns about the relevance of scholarly activities, we ask, what are public ideas and how do they come to be? More specifically, how do journalists and other mediators between the academy and the public use social science ideas? How do the various uses of these ideas develop over time and shape the public careers of these ideas? How do these processes help us to understand public ideas and to identify their various types? In addressing these questions, we make the case for a sociology of public social science. Using data from newspaper articles that engage with seven of the most publicly prominent social science ideas over the last 30 years, we make three contributions. First, we advance a pragmatic, cultural approach to understanding public ideas, one that emphasizes fit-making processes and applicative flexibility. Second, we define public ideas: social science ideas become public ideas when they are used as objects of interest (being the news), are used as interpretants (making sense of the news), and ebb and flow between these uses as part of an unfolding career. Third, we construct a typology of public ideas that provides an architecture for future research on public social science. * This article has a long and winding history-in the language of this paper, it is a "coaster"-and each author made essential contributions to the project. Acknowledgments: This project was made possible through the generosity of the Indiana University Institute for Advanced Study. We thank the anonymous reviewers and editors of the American Sociological Review for their comments and support. We also thank

Communicating the Social Sciences: A Specific Challenge? (revised and updated, 2014)

Bucchi, M. and Trench, B. (2014) (eds) Routledge Handbook of Public Communication of Science and Technology, 2nd Edition, 2014

This chapter reviews developing debates around the public communication of the social sciences and humanities (PCSS). While drawing valid comparisons between PCSS and natural scientific communication is problematic, existing studies suggest that that these disciplines receive extensive media coverage, which differs markedly in how research findings and expert sources are discussed. This may be due to overlaps between the human subject matter of these disciplines, and the experiential knowledge of everyday life. PCST researchers need to address reflexively the public communication of their own work, in order to improve the advice given to others about how scientific communication works.

Social Science As Communication

ISRF Bulletin, 2015

Following the third annual ISRF workshop, this year held in Edinburgh, it seemed only correct that the Bulletin should reflect the wide range of discussions and comments raised in response to the workshop theme, ‘social science as communication’. The interdisciplinary mix represented by Fellows made for diverse conceptions of both ‘social science’ and ‘communication’, while the active, multi-media approach to presentations stimulated a tantalising array of questions and comments from audience members. Is all social science communication? With whom are we communicating when we do social science? Why limit communication solely to that between humans? How does perception affect the potential for miscommunication? Are new technologies and mass-communication tools a help or a hindrance in conducting social research? These questions and more are ruminated upon by workshop organisers and ISRF Fellows in a number of ways in this workshop edition of the Bulletin.