The term ‘public understanding of science (PUS)’ considers the relationship of science and society with a double focus. On the one hand it refers to a variety of activities that engage the public with science. This takes at times the character of a social movement, involving actors, resources, and a growing repertoire of activities. It is on the other hand a growing field of empirical social research. This paper will trace developments in the latter through three phases, which are associated with a change in language: from science literacy until the 1980s, to public understanding of science from the 1980s into the 1990s, and science and society since the 1990s. Naming matters here. Each period is associated with a particular diagnosis of the problems in the relationship between science and society, particular research questions and preferred intervention strategies, and each period displays a rhetoric of ‘progress’ over the previous one. Comparing the three ‘paradigms’, I will ask the question: is there any progress in this field of research?

science literacy  /  public understanding of science  /  science and society