ABSTRACT

This chapter provides an overview of key trends and directions in science communication. It focuses on three key developments: first, moves ‘beyond discourse’, in which research treats the material and affective as well as the discursive; second, an emphasis on going ‘beyond critique’, by drawing on STS arguments for studying ‘matters of concern’ rather than ‘matters of fact’; and third, a move ‘beyond deficit and dialogue’, to study science communication as situated practice rather than measuring it against particular models. In closing it reflects on two central issues: the question of whose language should be used to represent and discuss science in public, and the degree to which science communication is going beyond language use as the exclusive way of representing science in public.