Abstract
Abstract: This theoretical essay explores three publications by Jürgen Habermas from the 1960s. The author deals with the critique of science, the production of knowledge and universities democratization. The objective was to extract from them clipings of reflections that can contribute to the studies of public communication of science. We consolidated the considerations into a graphic representation that summarizes the factors to be considered when thinking about the practice of science communication in society: the importance of considering the three interests that drive the production of knowledge - technical, practical and emancipatory, of promoting self-reflection of sciences in politicized and democratized universities, and the mediation of society in the interaction between science and politics, to subsidize decision-making based on social interests. We argue that the basis for a public communication idea of dialogical science - now widely defended - emerged in the German philosopher’s thinking in books published more than 50 years ago. However, that was not his central motivation at that time.
Highlights
This theoretical essay explores three publications by Jürgen Habermas from the 1960s
Some reflections can be used to think about science’s public communication
When we talk about public communication of science, it is beneficial considering the author’s reflections and recovering, in his set of works, those ideas and excerpts that can support the discussions on the practices of popularization of knowledge
Summary
We consider that there is a subtle difference between the term’s popularization of science and public communication of science (Silva, 2019), in this study, we use both expressions with the same purpose: that of considering the communication of science done in an essentially dialogical way with the public. Searching published articles on science journalism, the popularization of science and related expressions on the Web of Science, we found more than 1,300 records, of which approximately 1.6% mention terms that are central for Habermas (i.e., public sphere, theory of communicative action, system and life-world or mention Habermas’s name) in the main topic. Six of these articles include Habermas in the list of references. Going back in time via Habermas can enrich the theoretical component of the discussion
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