Political dimensions of scientific culture: Highlights from the Ibero-American survey on the social perception of science and scientific culture

In this paper, we analyse the data on citizen participation obtained by a recent Ibero-American survey on social perception of science and scientific culture conducted in seven important Ibero-American cities during autumn and winter 2007. The purpose is to analyse the relationship between scientific culture and its behavioural dimensions, especially the willingness to engage in participatory activities. In this respect, we assume that the inclination towards citizen participation generated by processes of scientific education captures relevant political dimensions of scientific culture. The paper combines a quantitative methodology for exploiting demographic data with a qualitative approach to the phenomenon of participation.