Performing publics of science in the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study in Austria, Bolivia, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and Portugal
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Research about science and publics in the COVID-19 pandemic often focuses on public trust and on identifying and correcting public attitudes. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 209 residents in six countries-Austria, Bolivia, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and Portugal-this article uses the concept of performativity to explore how participants understand, and relate to science, in the COVID-19 context. By performativity, we mean the ways by which participants understand themselves as particular sorts of publics through identification with, and differentiation from, various other actors in matters that are perceived as controversies surrounding science: COVID-19 vaccination, media communication of science, and the interactions between governments and scientists. The criteria used to construct the similarities and differences among publics were heterogeneous and fluid, showing how epistemic beliefs about the nature of, and trust in, scientific knowledge are intermingled with social and cultural memberships embedded in specific contexts and across disparate places.
Source: Public Understanding of Science
Institutions: University of Minho, Universidade do Porto, Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Technical University of Munich, University of Vienna, Centre for Research in Anthropology, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, University of Florence, European Institute of Oncology, University of Milan, KU Leuven
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,700
Awards: G1483381719, Unidade de Investigação em Epidemiologia - Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto, G4175588177, Sem título, Laboratório para a Investigação Integrativa e translacional em Saúde Populacional, SolPan - Solidarität in Zeiten der Pandemie? Eine longitudinale internationale Vergleichsstudie zu Werten und Verhalten, G7123698595
OpenAlex ID: W4391473271