Image, perception and cultural authority of science – by way of introduction

Science culture provides the wider context for conducting science; it remains local and part of traditions. General indicators of the image of science have a history in studies of public understanding since the 1980s, and they are often considered 'irrelevant', because not speaking to any particular debate. The authority of modern institutions is, by and large, resting on reputation, image and thus perception in the streams of public opinion. The cultural authority is an aspiration as much as it is a social fact in any society, to be an institution of general repute able to speak truth to power. The Lighthouse model assumes a secular decline of authority. The cultural authority of science serves a holding function that moderates any fall from public grace in a particular controversy. The Bungee Jump model is consistent with the sense of riskiness that scientists experience when speaking out in public controversy.