The order of discourse in surveys of public understanding of science

This paper discusses how insights from constructivist studies on the place of context, reflexivity, and framing in studies of public understanding of science may be applied within a survey framework. By emphasizing the role that images or ideologies of science play in science policy discourse, surveys are conceptualized as a means to map the social pervasiveness of such ideologies. It is argued that survey results may contribute to a broadening of the framework of science policy, if questions that explicitly reflect civic perspectives on science are included in survey questionnaires. An experiment with three non-standard questions in a Norwegian survey in 1999 on public understanding of science is seen to provide some empirical support for the viability of this approach.