«NON-PROFESSORAL CORPORATION»: NON-ACADEMIC EMPLOYEES OF THE ODESA BIBLIOGRAPHIC SOCIETY (TO THE 110TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST ASSOCIATION OF BIBLIOLOGISTS IN UKRAINE)

The purpose of this article is to study how individuals who did not work in universities or academies, were teachers of secondary educational institutions, officials, and public figures took part in the activities of the Odesa Bibliographic Society. In the history of OBS, we can distinguish the following stages: 1) 1911–1914 – the stage of stability, prosperity; 2) 1914–1917 – the stage in the conditions of the first World War, which had a significant impact on the subject, personnel, etc.; 3) 1917–1919 – the period of crisis in the conditions of revolutionary events, when OBS increasingly operated not because of, but in spite of circumstances; 4) 1920–1923 – the period of adaptation to new conditions communist reality, where OBS acted as a bearer of previous traditions. In the end, this was led to the liquidation of the society in its original form, but, at the same time, in fact, the transformation into a Ukrainian bibliographic society, which largely continued the traditions of the “old”. During all these stages, non-academic individuals played an important role in the development of OBS. They participated in all aspects of the OBS’s activities, in particular, replenishing the society’s library, reading reports, and so on. Among them, a large and active group consisted of women, which was a unique phenomenon for the culture of Odessa. They were high school teachers, representatives of the city’s elite. A fairly active role in the life of society, in addition to Odesa members, was played by those who were outside of Odessa. Most often, such persons did not take an active part in societies. But MBT managed to break this trend, as evidenced by the examples of Londoner V. S. Isakovich, Petersburgers O. S. Partsevsky, O. Z. Popelnitsky, M. G. Martynov, a citizen of Riga V. E. Cheshikhin. For the trends of the beginning twentieth century, it is significant that exactly the involvement of non-academic members led to the transformation of OBS into one of the most prominent centers of popularization of Ukrainian culture in Odessa, that was most clearly reflected in the reports of L. O. Chizhikov, S. P. Shelukhin, N. M. Lazurskaya, O. O. Smirnitsky, A. P. Milskaya and others. Thus, we have an example of successful activity of a scientific society, primarily due to the expansion of its social base and the involvement of the public. Popularization of science, blurring the line between “heavy” science for science and public science is quite modern, relevant trend that has both pros and cons. Historical experience should contribute to the development of the most successful approaches.

PUBLIC SCIENCE EDUCATION: SOME MORE ROLES AND CONTRIBUTIONS

In previous editorial (Lakhvich, 2021) we have discussed three comprehensive roles of Science Education, determining its contribution to our life: if briefly, (1) Science Education gives the methodology to digest facts via the experiment, reasoning, and discussion; (2) Science Education gives rise to the development of logics, problem-solving skills, complements the command of language, social communication and etc.; (3) Science Education develops specific person’s thinking skills involved in inquiry, experimentation, evidence evaluation, speculation argumentation, and finally, inference. In this issue we pursue the topic discussing two more roles the Science Education contributes to our life

The enduring pursuit of public science at U.S. land-grant universities

Since the 1990s, universities have faced a push toward output commercialization that has been seen as a potential threat to the public science model. Much less attention has been given to the enduring nature of internal organizational features in academia and how they shape the pursuit of traditional scholarly activities. This article exploits four waves of representative, random-sample survey evidence from agricultural and life science faculty at the 52 major U.S. land-grant universities, spanning 1989-2015, to examine faculty attitudes/preferences, tenure and promotion criteria, output, and funding sources. Our findings demonstrate that faculty attitudes toward scientific research have remained remarkably stable over twenty-five years in strongly favoring intrinsic and public science goals over commercial or extrinsic goals. We also demonstrate the faculty’s positive attitudes toward science, an increased pressure to publish in top journals and secure increasingly competitive grants, as well as declining time for science. These trends suggest a reconsideration of university commercialization strategies and a recommitment of universities and their state and federal funders toward fostering public agricultural and life science research.

A Framework for Understanding the Nature of Questions Asked by Audience Participants at Science Cafés

Science Cafés are events designed as public engagement tools that create the opportunity for open dialogue between members of the general public and experts on the issue being discussed at the event. This study explores the nature of questions being asked by audience participants during discussion sessions of Science Café events. It was conducted by coding audio recordings of audience participant engagements at 41 Science Café events held between 2010 and 2019. The result of this analysis produced a novel taxonomic framework to describe audience participant behaviors in terms of their learning goals. This framework was evaluated by applying it to samples of Science Café question data selected by Science Café topic theme. Comparisons between question-asking behaviors for specific Science Café topics and overall trends in question-asking behaviors for all Science Cafés revealed significant changes in audience participant learning goals when asking questions at Science Cafés centered on different topic types. Implications for understanding Science Café audiences and potential developments for Science Café events as public science engagement tools are discussed.

THE DESTINY OF VISUALIZATIONS IN PUBLIC SCIENCE COMMUNICATION: BETWEEN ACTION AND REPRESENTATION

Научные визуализации рассматриваются в трех контекстах. Первый контекст – визуального поворота, в ходе которого подчеркивается внимание к двойственной роли образов в общественных взаимодействиях: как представлений и как действующих агентов. Второй контекст – кризиса научных репрезентаций, выходом из которого оказывается внимание к научным визуализациям, связывающим, благодаря своему чувственному характеру, теорию и реальность. Третий контекст – публичной научной коммуникации, в которой визуализации активно действуют, изменяя отношения между общественными субъектами, а также репрезентируют важную научную информацию. На переходе от второго контекста к третьему формируется интересующая автора коллизия судьбы научных визуализаций, которые в публичной научной коммуникации оказываются одновременно и научными, и политическими объектами, представляющими научные исследования и включающимися в процессы принятия общественно значимых решений. В профессиональной научной коммуникации двусмысленный характер научных визуализаций оказывается конструктивным. Они существуют одновременно и как представления, отсылающие к реальности, и как действия, собирающие в единство научное сообщество. Однако в публичной научной коммуникации сборка сообщества посредством научных визуализаций оказывается не менее значимой, но более проблематичной, поскольку интересы участвующих во взаимодействии субъектов различны, соответственно, утрачивается возможность однозначного восприятия визуализаций. Тем не менее визуализации в публичной научной коммуникации действуют достаточно эффективно, способствуя распространению научной грамотности в процессах популяризации, вовлечению граждан в управление и принятие политически значимых решений. При этом возникают условия, препятствующие удержанию конструктивной двусмысленности визуализаций. В качестве таких условий в статье рассматриваются цифровые посредники коммуникации, усиливающие действенный характер визуализаций, а также неопределенность как предмет познания современной науки «пост-нормальной эпохи», который сложно репрезентировать посредством образов. В итоге возникает ситуация уклонения к признанию действенности визуализации в ущерб ее репрезентативной функции и, как следствие, принесения научной объективной стороны визуализаций в жертву их политической и даже идеологической составляющей. В заключение автор предлагает выход из этой ситуации, способствующий удержанию необходимой двойственности визуализаций в публичной научной коммуникации. The article discusses scientific visualizations in three contexts. The context of the visual turn emphasizes attention to the ambiguous character of images in social interactions – as representations and as agents. The context of the crisis of scientific representations concerns scientific visualizations, which are the way out of it due to their linking of theory and reality. The context of public science communication demonstrates visualizations as activity changing the relationship between public actors and as representation of important scientific information. In the transition from the second context to the third, the author finds the collision of the destiny of scientific visualizations. Visualizations in public science communication turn out to be both scientific and political objects that represent scientific research and take part in the processes of decision-making. In professional science communication, the ambiguous nature of scientific visualizations turns out to be constructive. Scientific visualizations exist simultaneously as representations referring to reality and as actions that bring together the scientific community. However, in public science communication, the assembly of a community through scientific visualizations turns out to be no less significant, but more problematic since the interests of the subjects participating in the interaction are different. Nevertheless, visualizations in public science communication work quite effectively, contributing to the dissemination of scientific literacy in the popularization and to the involvement of citizens in decision-making. In this case, conditions arise that prevent the retention of the constructive ambiguity of visualizations. As such conditions, the author examines the emerging digital mediators of communication that enhance the activities of visualizations, as well as uncertainty as a subject of “post-normal” science, which is difficult to represent through images. In conclusion, the author proposes a way out of this situation, contributing to the retention of the necessary ambiguity of visualizations in public science communication.

PUBLIC SCIENCE EDUCATION: ROLES AND CONTRIBUTIONS

Why we need Science in our life? Why, when, and how people should learn scientific facts and acquire skills originated from application of specific scientific methods? Whether Science education is limited exclusively with the mission to prepare students to their life in the world of Physical/chemical/biological objects or vice versa it has a special cognitive potential that gives rise to the ability of every person regardless on its professional and social occupation to solve problems more effectively? JBSE publishes articles in which our authors try to answer all these questions exploring the issues of science education in different contexts. At the turn of the millennium, people have met a lot of new realities referring to issues in technologies, psychology, social relations etc. The life has changed drastically during a few last decades and a lot of traditional things seem to be perceived completely differently. How all those changes influenced the attitude to Science, how this is reflected in social and humanitarian issues, and finally, which ways should be proposed for Science Education in new reality?

Governing complexity: Integrating science, governance, and law to manage accelerating change in the globalized commons

The speed and uncertainty of environmental change in the Anthropocene challenge the capacity of coevolving social–ecological–technological systems (SETs) to adapt or transform to these changes. Formal government and legal structures further constrain the adaptive capacity of our SETs. However, new, self-organized forms of adaptive governance are emerging at multiple scales in natural resource-based SETs. Adaptive governance involves the private and public sectors as well as formal and informal institutions, self-organized to fill governance gaps in the traditional roles of states. While new governance forms are emerging, they are not yet doing so rapidly enough to match the pace of environmental change. Furthermore, they do not yet possess the legitimacy or capacity needed to address disparities between the winners and losers from change. These emergent forms of adaptive governance appear to be particularly effective in managing complexity. We explore governance and SETs as coevolving complex systems, focusing on legal systems to understand the potential pathways and obstacles to equitable adaptation. We explore how governments may facilitate the emergence of adaptive governance and promote legitimacy in both the process of governance despite the involvement of nonstate actors, and its adherence to democratic values of equity and justice. To manage the contextual nature of the results of change in complex systems, we propose the establishment of long-term study initiatives for the coproduction of knowledge, to accelerate learning and synergize interactions between science and governance and to foster public science and epistemic communities dedicated to navigating transitions to more just, sustainable, and resilient futures.

Innovation Behavior of Salvadoran Food & Beverage Industry Firms

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the external and internal determinants that affect the innovation dynamics of a low-tech sector in a less developed economy; the food & beverage (F&B) industry in El Salvador. The empirical framework relies on a multivariate probit analysis applied to data from El Salvador’s First National Innovation Survey 2013. The results show that R&D activities, use of industrial protection by F&B industry firms as well as relationships between firms and knowledge agents are useful for technological innovations while the qualifications of firms’ workforce and the relationships between firms and value chain agents prove useful for non-technological innovations. In addition, firms can take advantage of their size and location in the department of San Salvador to promote product innovation, whereas firms’ maturity is seen to be a disadvantage. Based on the results to emerge, the role that public science, technology and innovation (STI) policies as well as STI business strategies can play in the Salvadoran agri-food industry innovation system is seen to be huge.

Innovation Behavior of Salvadoran Food & Beverage Industry Firms

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the external and internal determinants that affect the innovation dynamics of a low-tech sector in a less developed economy; the food & beverage (F&B) industry in El Salvador. The empirical framework relies on a multivariate probit analysis applied to data from El Salvador’s First National Innovation Survey 2013. The results show that R&D activities, use of industrial protection by F&B industry firms as well as relationships between firms and knowledge agents are useful for technological innovations while the qualifications of firms’ workforce and the relationships between firms and value chain agents prove useful for non-technological innovations. In addition, firms can take advantage of their size and location in the department of San Salvador to promote product innovation, whereas firms’ maturity is seen to be a disadvantage. Based on the results to emerge, the role that public science, technology and innovation (STI) policies as well as STI business strategies can play in the Salvadoran agri-food industry innovation system is seen to be huge.