Workshop on the dialogue between scholars and the public, the dissemination of science, and the right to science

Dialogue between scholars and the public

In a world filled with uncertainty and fractured by polarization, how do we get better at thinking about how we think – and how do we conduct high-stakes debates more intelligently in- as well as outside the academic world?

The idea behind the workshop is that there is an increasing need for accurate, accessible and engaging science communication – not least in light of the rapidly growing impact of science and technology on everyday life and politics, and the rise in science denial and science populism, which gnaw on society’s trust in science.

The cultural human right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications, which is written into both the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from 1966, makes it an obligation on member states to take steps to conserve, develop, and diffuse science in order “to achieve the full realization of this right.” These instruments offer a broad and rights-based approach to the topic of dissemination of science and creating dialogue with the public as a state responsibility.

Science is woven into our everyday lives to such an extent that even the simplest decision-making typically involves evaluating something scientific. As Saul Permutter et al. put it, good decision-making involves three basic things: 1) accurate information from reliable experts; 2) a careful consideration of values; and 3) a structure that places the authority to make the decision in the hands of those who will be affected by it. “If any of these ingredients is dramatically out of balance with the others, we see clear failure modes – we know that something has gone pretty far wrong.”[1]

There will be three panels, each lasting two hours and consisting of three panel talks followed by a Q&A session.

 

 

09:30- 09:45 Coffee and tea, getting started
09:45- 10:00

Welcome and introduction to the workshop, Professor Helle Porsdam
10:00- 12:00

 

Chair: Professor Helle Porsdam, University of Copenhagen

This panel explores the perspective from within science which is missing in the commonly referenced science diplomacy models such as the taxonomy offered by the British Royal Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2020, identifying three pillars: 1) Science in diplomacy: informing foreign policy objectives with scientific advice; 2) science for diplomacy: using science cooperation to improve international relations between countries; and 3) diplomacy for science: facilitating international science cooperation.  Diplomacy within science means creating an internal form of diplomacy within the scientific/academic world itself and employing a transdisciplinary approach and methodology involving the humanities and social sciences in addition to the natural and technological sciences. Such an internal form of diplomacy within science is needed to mediate between not only competing interests and theories/viewpoints within or across branches of science, but also between competing interests across business, politics, society, and science. 

10:00-10:30 Andreas Roepstorff, Professor, School of Culture and Society, and Centre Director, Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Aarhus: "Multidisciplinary collaborations: Enforcing knowledge politics or enacting research diplomacy?"
10:30-11:00 Ken Arnold, Professor of Public Health and Director of Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen: “Tolerating discomfort: why we should value creative unease in transdisciplinary experiments”
11:00-11:30 Lisa Maria Herzog, Professor of Political Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy and at the Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, University of Groningen, Netherlands: “Values in science, values in collaboration: on the ethical dimensions of multidisciplinary collaborations”  
11:30-12:00 Q & A

 
12:00- 13:00 Lunch              
13:00- 15:00

 

Chair: Professor Mikkel Gerken, University of Southern Denmark

This panel discusses recent work in science communication involving both empirical scientific testimony, and the scientific recommendations and science policymaking that are based on this testimony. That these types of science communication are well-functioning is important for a scientifically informed public debate as well as for evidence-based policy. The panel will also move beyond a focus on cognitive rationality to emphasize the importance of values, affects, and lived experience in reciprocal dialogue across forms of knowledge – expanding what it means to be ‘informed’ and ‘evidence-based’.

13:00-13:30 Louise Whiteley, Associate professor in Medical Science Communication, Department of Public Health and Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen: “Reciprocal and Strange: Dialogue beyond rationality”
13:30-14:00 Mikkel Gerken, Professor of Philosophy, University of Southern Denmark: “The Value of Value-Based Reporting”
14:00-14:30

Erik Albæk, Professor of Political Science and Journalism, University of Southern Denmark: “Experts in the Media”
14:30-15:00 Q & A

 
15:00- 15:30 Coffee/tea break
15:30- 17:30

 

Chair: Dr. Sebastian Porsdam Mann, University of Copenhagen

There has long been a shortage of individuals capable of communicating science. But recent advances in generative artificial intelligence hold great potential for facilitating scientific communication. Large language models are capable of presenting complex information at different levels of reading comprehension and in different modes of delivery. These models present unique opportunities for interactive scientific communication, where members of the public can query – and interact with – a language model tailored to convey scientific information to individual end users. This potential may soon be enhanced via advances in text-to-video generation, which can greatly simplify the production of visual learning materials. The panel will explore these issues from both conceptual and practical angles.

15:30-16:00  Dr. Brian D. Earp, Associate Professor of Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore & University of Oxford: “LLMs for Science Communication in the Face of ‘Broad Medical Uncertainty’”
16:00- 16:30

Dr. Sebastian Porsdam Mann, Center for Advanced Studies in Bioscience Innovation Law (CEBIL), University of Copenhagen: “Large language models for science communication under the human right to science: Lessons from application-specific and personalized language models”
16:30- 17:00 Dr. Hazem Zohny, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford: 

"Emerging roles for Generative AI in Patient-Directed Medical Communication"
17:00- 17:30 Q & A

 
17:30

Thank you for today, Professor Helle Porsdam + reception

 

 

Click here to register for the workshop no later than 25 October 10:00.

 

 

 

 

[1] Saul Perlmutter, John Campbell, Rober McCoun, Third Millenium Thinking (Hodder & Stoughton Limited, 2024), Chapter One.