Bildung durch Wissenschaft. Schlaglichter einer Auseinandersetzung um die Beziehung zwischen Wissenschaften und ihren Öffentlichkeiten

The author diagnoses a widening gap between scientific and general public: as political and social estimation of science rises, it vanishes from daily life and is taken into well-funded but not ver y well-known institutions and thus hidden from the view of the public. At the same time, ever-rising numbers of people are confronted with the results of scientific research in their daily lives and thus in a way in intimate contact with science, but at the same time unable to understand its workings, which produces insecurity. Thirdly, while to a naive view science is perceived to be the solution of all problems, an increase in information about science leads to a more realistic, which in this respect means less optimistical, view of its power. Thus, while on the one hand science plays an increasingly important role, the general public is surprisingly indifferent. The author argues in favour of a new culture of scientific education, distinguishing between a mere „diffusion of science” and the anchoring of scientific discussion in the public: the latter requiring more effor t than just the presenting of information, but promising to take science back into the public realm and thus socialising it.