Beyond the Science Wars

[Wade]

Dear friends,

I haven't posted to this list in a couple of years -- in fact you may have forgotten that you are a subscriber to my Google Group!

I wanted to reactivate the list in order share a link to a piece of mine published today by WBUR's Cognoscenti op-ed site. It sums up many of the ideas I've been thinking about and working on this year:

Beyond the Science Wars: Stories of a Shared Future

This short piece (800 words, 5 minutes) is about the emergence of science denialism and NIMBYism as paralyzing social and political forces, and how we should respond if we'd like to hasten the emergence of healthier forms of public engagement in science and technology. I hope you'll read it and share it.

In some ways the piece is a mini-manifesto for the proposed "Center for Science Engagement" at MIT. That's the project I've been working on since October 2015, when I completed my term as acting director of the Knight Science Journalism program at MIT and producer of the ScienceWriters2015 conference. 

Beyond the ever-present need to promote science literacy, which is part of the job of science journalists, I think there's an even harder problem. That's finding ways to make progress on pressing science- and technology-centered policy challenges in a time of extreme polarization among voters, consumers, and politicians. 

Despite decades of good, dedicated work by science engagement professionals—a group that includes educators, artists, journalists, filmmakers, exhibit designers, game developers, comics writers, performers, live event organizers and many others—there hasn't been a meaningful reduction in the animosity and mistrust marking science issues like climate change. That's a problem, because if we can't find a way to work toward consensus, or at least have civilized conversations, we're going to have a hard time doing essential things like reducing carbon emissions, dealing with sea level rise, exploring alternative energy sources, developing new crops to feed more people, and keeping childhood infections in check.

One hypothesis—the one I explore in the Cognoscenti piece—is that the deep divides persist in part because we still aren't doing a very good job of listening to one another. In the vision that I and several colleagues at MIT have been articulating, part of the mission of the Center for Science Engaement would be to discover and demonstrate repeatable mechanisms for promoting deeper, less fractious conversations between scientists, engineers, and the non-expert public. 

The funding to continue work on the Center is up in the air, and it's not clear yet if the project is going to move forward. But if it does, I'm hoping that we can spur the production of more stories, encounters, and experiences in the spirit of this terrific vaccination story by Maggie Koerth-Baker. In other words, engagements that grow out of respect, deep listening, and honest discussions with people on all sides of debates about science and technology.

Thanks for reading this far! If you have, then you might be interested in a few other things I've published since moving to MIT in mid-2014:

Trading Quality for Ease: Confessions of an Earbud Junkie, Xconomy, April 1, 2016

One Writer's Strategy for Avoiding Information Overload, Xconomy, February 5, 2016

Annotation Tuesday!: Jenna Pirog on Virtual Reality in "The Displaced," Nieman Storyboard, January 19, 2016

The Best Podcasts of 2015: A Guide for New Listeners, Xconomy, December 21, 2015

Looking Back at ScienceWriters2015 Via Twitter, KSJ Dispatches, October 21, 2015

Guardians of the Flame: Parting Thoughts on Science, Journalism, and Progress, KSJ Dispatches, June 30, 2015

Apple Watch: The First Wearable Device Worth Wearing, Xconomy, June 5, 2015

Dispelling the Gloom: An Open Letter to Science & Technology Journalists, KSJ Blog, November 14, 2014

I hope you're all doing well. Thanks and please stay in touch.

Cheers,
Wade

site: www.waderoush.com

twitter: @wroush