Katie Mantell reports on the eighth international conference on the Public Communication of Science and Technology, Barcelona for SciDev.Net--Science communicators 'must respect cultural context'.
I found the following passage from her report of interest:
...Yuwanuch Tinnaluck of the ASEAN Handicrafts Promotion and Development Association in Bangkok, Thailand, argued that scientists should work together with local people to 'co-create' knowledge.
"Science and local knowledge are not that far away from one another," she said. "We need to share space and time between scientists and indigenous people."
As an example, she pointed to the way that scientists from the Thai National Research Foundation are working with local people to codify tacit 'local wisdom' into explicit knowledge.
Patrick Luganda, chairman of the Network of Climate Journalists in the Greater Horn of Africa, said that many agricultural techniques touted as "magical" new interventions, such as sustainable agriculture and integrated pest management, have in fact been practised in Africa for centuries.
Luganda also argued that an appreciation of traditional knowledge is essential for science to be communicated successfully. "The message will be better understood and better appreciated if you have an understanding of local knowledge," he said...
K-Collector Topics: Knowledge Economy research AfricaThis is a very difficult problem - not only are there language and cultural issues, but education levels are often non-existent. I've been involved in a few projects that deal with this and all have been disasters for one or more of the three reasons cited.
In the US we lack leaders who have the education for science to be communicated.
One needs to go to the basics and work with culturally sensitive general education programs. It is hard and slow, but there aren't any shortcuts.
Posted by: steve crandall at June 12, 2004 07:14 AMThis is a very difficult problem - not only are there language and cultural issues, but education levels are often non-existent. I've been involved in a few projects that deal with this and all have been disasters for one or more of the three reasons cited.
In the US we lack leaders who have the education for science to be communicated.
One needs to go to the basics and work with culturally sensitive general education programs. It is hard and slow, but there aren't any shortcuts.
Posted by: steve crandall at June 12, 2004 07:16 AM