Co-ScienCE - Covid Science Controversies Evolutions

Co-ScienCE project aims at investigating scientific controversies arising in contemporary societies, considered as a structural dimension of “global” modernity (Beck 1989, Giddens 1990). Since mid ‘70s of the past century social controversies on scientific knowledge production and application have characterized the most developed societies wherein issues like environmental pollution,the proliferation of nuclear power, genomics, bio-medical technologies have emerged. STS(ScienceTechnologySociety) field represents the project background. This multidisciplinary tradition has become increasingly relevant because of the growing citizens’ involvement in controversies related to science, health, and innovation issues; an involvement which, with the raise of social media, has become a crucial concern in social, economic, and political spheres (Howell, 2013), thus becoming a strategic sociological object. Thus, this research project focus is on Covid-19 pandemic observed as a crucial case-study since it has engendered the rise, unfolding and structuration of socio-scientific controversies within the societal contexts and public opinion at large. Then the research focuses on two specific sides of these controversies, that is on scientists – specifically the academic ones – (the knowledgeproducers) and the public (the knowledge users), with the political and media arenas standing between them with their proper actors that intertwine in a figurational game (Elias 2012). The increased risks and the sense of emergency produced by the pandemic called for a major involvement of scientists and experts in decision making processes and public debates, determining pressures on experts and scientists to provide scientific and technical solutions to address it. In turn, those pressures have impacted on society at large influencing the production and dissemination, especially through social media, of representations and solutions alternative to scientific orthodox ones. In general, these processes have produced socio-scientific conflicts that can be labelled as epistemic ones. Thus, this scenario provides a suitable context for observing conflicts of this type. Methodologically, the research is an embedded multiple-case study (Yin 2003), based on: 1. Content and network analysis based on Digital methods. 2. Qualitative analysis of documents on socio-scientific controversies; and in-depth interviews to participants on controversial episodes. 3. A survey on the Italian population, integrated with projective techniques to investigate the impact of socio-scientific conflicts. Expected outcomes of Co-ScienCE include: shifting the public debate on socio-scientific disputes from the actual rhetoric of struggles and conflicts to a more harmonious, data-driven ‘fusion of horizons’ orientation; providing open access documents devoted to stakeholders involved in controversial episodes; implementing dissemination actions involving the Co-ScienCE team and stakeholders.