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• Date of publication Mar 28, 2022 Category: Article

  The Christmas Lectures: extending the experience outside the lecture theatre

  by Hannah Little , Laura Fogg-Rogers , Ana Margarida Sardo

  Traditionally, the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures have always adopted a deficit model for communication, with one or two invited scientists giving lectures to an audience present at the Royal Institution (Ri) and, since 1936, an audience watching the lectures on television at home. As trends in public engagement have tended towards more dialogue or participatory models, the Ri has made efforts to create a programme of events around the lectures: extending the experience outside of the lecture theatre and giving audiences more opportunities to experience live events and participate in discourse. In this paper, we explore data collected as part of an 18 month evaluation of the Christmas Lectures and their associated events. We focus on data collected at events designed to create live and interactive experiences beyond the lectures and evaluate these participatory approaches. The paper shares this learning to enhance the extension of traditional science communication towards science participation.

  Volume 21 • Issue 02 • 2022 • Special Issue Participatory science communication for transformation (PCST2020+1) (PCST2020+1)

• Date of publication Mar 28, 2022 Category: Practice Insight

  Look before you leap: assessing community readiness for action on science and health policy issues

  by Christina Standerfer , Emily Loker , Jason Lochmann

  This practice insight focuses on lessons learned while completing a research project designed to compare the relative effectiveness of three communication strategies in rural communities relative to motivating citizens to take action on a public health issue, specifically Type 2 diabetes. Our main arguments are: 1) Engaging citizens in any type of communication related to public health or science action requires first assessing a community's readiness for that action; and 2) Community readiness — rather than communication methodology — is the better predictor of citizens' participation in collective or individual actions on public health and science issues.

  Volume 21 • Issue 02 • 2022 • Special Issue Participatory science communication for transformation (PCST2020+1) (PCST2020+1)

• Date of publication Mar 28, 2022 Category: Article

  Comparing science communication theory with participatory practice: case study of the Australian Climate Champion Program

  by Jennifer Metcalfe

  While short-term participatory science communication activities have been well researched, long-term programs have received scant attention. Analysing survey data and participant discussions, I investigated interactions between Australian farmers and scientists engaged in the Climate Champion Program (2009–2016). I compared their interactions to three theorised science communication models: deficit, dialogue and participatory. I found their interactions illustrated a mix of the characteristics of all three models. While farmers and scientists appeared to be motivated to interact by deficit and dialogue objectives, respectful and trusting relationships emerged from long-term participation, which was key to making deficit- and dialogue-style communication more effective.

  Volume 21 • Issue 02 • 2022 • Special Issue Participatory science communication for transformation (PCST2020+1) (PCST2020+1)

• Date of publication Mar 28, 2022 Category: Practice Insight

  Participatory citizen science in solar energy research: going beyond data collection to promote the energy transition

  by Luisa Barbosa , Carlos del Cañizo , Gema Revuelta

  Despite the societal relevance of energy research, there is a distinct lack of citizen science initiatives in the field. This paper reports the experience of a participatory and innovative strategy to develop a citizen science initiative for solar energy research. A number of stakeholders participated in the definition and implementation of the initiative, and tools such as surveys and a hackathon were employed. The process described aims to provide a blueprint for transforming the relationship between citizens and research into societal challenges. Here we describe the collaborative process and analyse the main opportunities, limitations and future perspectives.

  Volume 21 • Issue 02 • 2022 • Special Issue Participatory science communication for transformation (PCST2020+1) (PCST2020+1)

• Date of publication Mar 28, 2022 Category: Practice Insight

  For real-world outcomes you need real-world training: participatory capacity building in science communication

  by Graham J. Walker

  Concepts underpinning participatory science communication have much to offer science communication training and capacity building. This paper investigates a capacity building program with 15 science communicators from nine African countries involved in a six-week program in Australia. Data was collected via surveys, observations, informal interactions and ongoing relationships tracking program outcomes. Key features with a participatory nature included: holistic programs giving participants diverse skills and entry points; ensuring participant's freedom, agency, autonomy and self-efficacy; real-world networking as a self-directed participatory process; participant-led design processes to build skills for creating programs; and, embedding training in real-world contexts with deliberately selected publics.

  Volume 21 • Issue 02 • 2022 • Special Issue Participatory science communication for transformation (PCST2020+1) (PCST2020+1)

• Date of publication Mar 28, 2022 Category: Article

  Foot and mouth disease ready? How co-creation of and participation in knowledge development and sharing can transform relationships between livestock producers and other animal health stakeholders — an Australian case study

  by Jennifer Manyweathers , Yiheyis Maru , Lynne Hayes , Barton Loechel , Jennifer Kelly , Simone Felton , Marwan El Hassan , Heleen Kruger , Rob Woodgate , Marta Hernandez-Jover

  Building a strong and trustworthy communication network to report unusual signs of disease will facilitate Australia's response to a foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak. In a four-year study, the FMD Ready Farmer-led surveillance project adopted the Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) framework, modelling transformation of how knowledge is co-created, valued, and communicated. The FMD Ready project has highlighted the need for multiple stakeholders' voices to be heard, and the importance of regulatory bodies to listen. Relationships take time and need to be valued as a necessary tool in a participatory, innovative approach to animal health and disease management.

  Volume 21 • Issue 02 • 2022 • Special Issue Participatory science communication for transformation (PCST2020+1) (PCST2020+1)

• Date of publication Mar 28, 2022 Category: Article

  Emergence of perceptions of smart agriculture at a community/campus farm: a participatory experience

  by Chi-I Lin

  This study provides a practice insight into campus/community co-farming as a communication experience connecting civic participants and experts in exploring the potential applications of smart agriculture. The observation focuses on participants' perceptions of smart-agri practices. The objectives of smart-agri practices have been identified to reduce negative environmental impact and meet local challenges; their development corresponds to the civic value-driven experience of promoting sustainable agriculture with low-risk, trackable information. Relatively few studies on smart-agri communication have engaged with the non-expert level. The findings highlight a viable participatory communication form of problem-solving, the public's trust of expertise, and a vision for inclusive socio-economic applications of smart agriculture.

  Volume 21 • Issue 02 • 2022 • Special Issue Participatory science communication for transformation (PCST2020+1) (PCST2020+1)

• Date of publication Mar 28, 2022 Category: Essay

  The Group Provisory Conclusion, a powerful tool for science debut

  by Marima Hvass-Faivre d'Arcier

  This article will take you through the evolution of our approach in presenting and communicating science. For twenty years ‘1, 2, 3, sciences’ has run participatory live workshops for adults. A special tool, the Group Provisory Conclusion or GPC, involving each participant, contributes to the success. Our expectation was to rekindle the public’s interest through participatory methods, supported by the emergence of collective intelligence. It describes our actions to help people reduce their apprehension towards science.

  Volume 21 • Issue 02 • 2022 • Special Issue Participatory science communication for transformation (PCST2020+1) (PCST2020+1)

• Date of publication Mar 28, 2022 Category: Editorial

  Participatory science communication for transformation

  by Jennifer Metcalfe , Toss Gascoigne , Fabien Medvecky , Ana Claudia Nepote

  Participatory science communication featured in several sessions and individual papers at the 2021 online conference of the Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) Network. This coverage recognises the drive away from linear communication to more participatory forms of science communication. In this special edition we present practice insights, papers and essays that explore participatory science communication. These contributions explore definitions, processes and describe case-studies of participatory science communication which involve a variety of publics, from young school students to Indigenous groups to farmers. In this introductory editorial we reflect on the papers, describe the growth of a participatory approach as part of the continuing evolution of science communication; explore a definition for participatory science communication; and consider some of the key concepts and issues that emerged.

  Volume 21 • Issue 02 • 2022 • Special Issue Participatory science communication for transformation (PCST2020+1) (PCST2020+1)

• Date of publication Mar 28, 2022 Category: Practice Insight

  #finaltrashtination. An art-based intervention to collaboratively generate conversations about climate change

  by Franzisca Weder

  In this practice insight, an art-based, participatory intervention (#finaltrashtination) is presented as higher education assignment in environmental and climate change communication. The project #finaltrashtination made dominant environmentally destructive ways of wasting visible and stimulated students to take responsibility, advocacy and authorship for transformation. Beyond the one-day eco-culture jam, the project engaged the wider public through conversations about a specific environmental problem. Thus, the project shows how conversational problematization and sensemaking around scientific facts can be initiated by using eco-culture jams promoting very unsettling moments of reflection.

  Volume 21 • Issue 02 • 2022 • Special Issue Participatory science communication for transformation (PCST2020+1) (PCST2020+1)