![]() ![]() The contemporary figurative meaning is of a place of unworldly isolation. Thy neck is as a tower of ivory thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus. The first mention of ivory towers is in the Bible, Song of Solomon 7:4 (King James Version): "He needs to get out of his ivory tower and put his feet on the ground." 2.Ī state of sheltered and unworldly intellectual isolation. Let those scholars criticize our beliefs from their ivory tower we all know how the world really works. Thanks to all for an educational, unusual semester.A disparaging term that refers to elitist detachment from, and especially criticism of the everyday world, or of common sense and beliefs. Here’s the link to my presentation slides and here’s the paper itself. Civic science needs to leave participants with something more. Civic science needs a low and level barrier to entry.ĥ. Civic science needs to maintain a connection to a larger purpose.Ĥ. Civic science needs to involve real discussion of scientific concepts.ģ. ![]() Civic science needs to pull people from diverse backgrounds.Ģ. I distilled these traits into five ‘principles of civic science’:ġ. ![]() * SMART, a student-run program that emerged from a larger initiative to combat teen pregnancy rates in Minnesota high schools LINK * Safecast, an independent organization that puts Geiger detectors in the hands of ordinary citizens to create better maps of radiation levels (and first brought to my attention by our TA, Becky!) * Seafloor Explorer, a citizen science project in which ordinary people can help categorize animal life on the bottom of the northeast continental shelf Based on recommendations of successful projects through formal interviews with civic science thinkers, as well as my own research, I set out to explore three examples that might provide insight into the common features of genuine, effective civic science. From all this, I realized that before we can have a discussion on civic science, we should have a better idea of what it is and what makes it good. And we know that civic science is meant to serve as some kind of peace treaty in the so-called knowledge war. We know it necessarily involves some component of citizen engagement. We know that civic science must relate somehow to scientific knowledge, as well as the far-flung expert community that produces it. This is kind of like the problem we had in the first week of class when we attempted to define civic media without appealing to the ideal. Unfortunately, it seems that we don’t know exactly how to define civic science outside of the lofty goals that we’ve set for it. In this perspective, citizens and the public have a stake in the science-politics interface, which can no longer be viewed as an exclusive domain for scientiªc experts and policy-makers only.” Civic science alludes to a changing relationship between science, expert knowledge and citizens in democratic societies. “The notion of civic science, which is rather vague and elusive, serves as an umbrella for various attempts to increase public participation in the production and use of scientiªc knowledge. So what’s the solution? According to some, it’s civic science, defined here by political theorist Karin Backstrand: And without knowledge of basic scientific facts, or an appreciation for how scientific ideas are analyzed, people will have trouble (1) keeping up with important science-related issues, (2) assessing the validity of new information, and of course (3) participating meaningfully in the political process. This state is what some call the ‘knowledge war’ – a stark battle between scientists, whose community tends to be somewhat removed from general public and the rest of the population, which has a uneven connection to and understanding of the scientific process. Many modern policy issues explicitly involve science, but we increasingly find that debate focusing on the facts of the science itself, rather than finding policy solutions to our science-related problems. However, the more I researched this subject, the more I realized that I needed to back up quite a bit before I could attempt such an undertaking.įirst, a little background. Initially, I planned to combine my science background with the class curriculum and my ostensible status as a journalist to write a news series on civic science projects. ![]()
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