The Articulation of Scientific Paradigms and Social Representations in Science Diffusion

Clélia Maria Nascimento-Schulze

UFSC - CNPq

VIII International Conference on Social Representations

Rome - 2006

The Scientific Revolution of the 50’s and 60’s

*Wittgenstein

*Kuhn

*Lakatos

*Feyerabend

Thomas Kuhn (1962)

“The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”

“to learn a paradigm means to learn a way of viewing the world.”

*Paolo Rossi (1983)

*Ludwig Fleck (1935,1983)

*Moscovici and Vignaux (2000)

*Themata = “framework of pre-existing thought”

Social Psychology, Paradigms and

*Farr (1996)

*Markova (1982)

*Incompatibility between Cartesian X Hegelian paradigms

Social Representations

Purkhardt (1993)

*Cartesian Paradigm: - dualism

-mechanistic, reductionist

*Hegelian paradigm - mutualism/relationism

- organic or relational

Social Representations and Science

*Interdisciplinary approach

*Jodelet (1989)- Complexity of SR

*Moscovici(1984)- Scientific myth

The notion of paradigms as applied to

*Health paradigms (Nascimento-Schulze et al., 1995)

*Environmental Paradigms (Dunlap and Van Lière, 1978 – Nascimento-Schulze et al., 2002)

research in Social Psychology

Environmental Paradigms and the use of

*Environmental Paradigms and DNA

*Environmental Paradigms and Water on the Planet

*Environmental Paradigms. The case of Transgenics

Communicative media

3 Scientific Exhibitions (Nascimento-Schulze, 2003 - Nascimento-Schulze, 2004)

Old Environmental Paradigm (OEP)

*Beliefs of abundance, progress, endless natural resources.

New Environmental Paradigm (NEP)

*World conceived as a system.

E D N A

This scientific exhibition is the

result of a of a set of studies

developed by researchers in social

psychology directed to social

representations and attitudes about

the environment and nature.

Environment is considered here in a

broader sense, taking into account

both the micro and macro

universes. Thus, we deal with the

issues of DNA intervention affecting

the human body and food, and also

with the impact upon the physical

environment and biosphere.

E Á G U A

Among the eight goals laid down by the United Nations for this millenium, the seventh makes explicit the measures to be taken by relevant political institutions regarding the environment and the availability of treated water for populations.

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources.

Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.

Achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020

From : http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

E TRANSGÊNICOS

This is the planet in which we live. Light,

oxygen, water and mineral salts that

serve as food for animals and vegetables

are our life source. The Earth is a living

being, a planet that pulses and breathes.

According to the ideas of sustainable

development, men and women will only

be able to live fully if the planet’s web of

life is preserved and respected. This

vision of the world demands deep

transformations on the part of modern

citizens, especially from the most

developed nations. It requires a radical

change in the relationships among human

beings themselves and also human

beings and nature.

Human life is, and has always been, full of risks. If on the one hand scientific and technological development brings benefits to human beings, it is evident that such development also contributes to the creation of new threats.

“I don’t know if science, in its congenital voracity, is able to listen to the other’s voice. Anyway, it needs the criticism of culture to enlarge its horizons of legitimacy and denounce the symbolic reification of the world of life, that is established through systemic determinations...”

“The new meeting of science with ethics, in a relationship of shared responsibility, can bring forward a new era in the lives of peoples that are emancipated or in a process of emancipation...”

(Source: Eduardo Portella, COMEST/UNESCO, Rio de Janeiro, 2003)