The next London PUS seminar will be taking place on Wednesday 26 April 2017 from 16.15-18.00 in Room QUE328 at LSE (map here http://www.lse.ac.uk/mapsAndDirections/home.aspx), when Federico Brandmayr from the Université Paris–Sorbonne will talk about ‘Competing conceptions of science in the L’Aquila “Major risks” trial’. An abstract is below.
Our subsequent seminar will be taking place on 31 May 2017, when Dr Meritxell Ramírez-i-Ollé will be speaking about ‘Assessing the Evidence of Public (Dis)trust in Science: The Case of “Vigilante Science”’.
As usual, all are welcome and there is no need to book a place. We hope to see you on 26 April!
Best wishes
Jane Gregory, Martin Bauer, Simon Lock, Melanie Smallman
Abstract
Wed 26 April 2017, Federico Brandmayr, Université Paris–Sorbonne: Competing conceptions of science in the L’Aquila “Major risks” trial
In the last twenty years, science and technology studies have increasingly turned their attention to the methods and practices by which individuals and groups attribute certain characters to science to define its nature and distinguish it from other social spheres, such as politics, administration and the media. The theoretical aim of these studies is to explain why different groups select certain characters and ignore others, thus constructing conceptions of science that are often at odds with each other. The talk will discuss some conjectures drawing from a study of the L’Aquila “Major risks” trial, in which several earthquake experts were charged with manslaughter for having disseminated bad information to the inhabitants of an Italian city in early 2009. During the controversy, science was depicted sometimes as an influential and authoritative institution, at other times as a stock of knowledge without real impact on the behavior of laypeople; certain actors emphasized the practical and short-term benefits of science, while others emphasized its theoretical and speculative dimension. These conceptions had different implications on the decisions taken by the judicial authority, and thus constituted rhetorical tools that could be used strategically by the actors involved.
Federico Brandmayr is a doctoral candidate in sociology and teaching fellow at the Université Paris–Sorbonne, Paris. He works in the fields of the sociology of social sciences, the sociology of expertise and the sociology of law. His dissertation investigates the use of social scientific knowledge beyond the academic sphere, focusing on the institution of expert testimony in the courtroom.
Public Understanding of Science 