Article ID: CBB001420060

The Politics of Buzzwords at the Interface of Technoscience, Market and Society: The Case of “Public Engagement in Science” (2014)

unapi

Emerging technologies such as genomics, nanotechnology, and converging technologies are surrounded by a constellation of fashionable stereotyped phrases such as `public engagement in science', `responsible innovation', `green technology', or `personalised medicine'. Buzzwords are ubiquitous and used ad libitum by science policy makers, industrial companies in their advertisements, scientists in their research proposals, and journalists. Despite their proliferation in the language of scientific and technological innovation, these buzzwords have attracted little attention among science studies scholars. The purpose of this paper is to try to understand if, and how buzzwords shape the technoscientific landscape. What do they perform? What do they reveal? What do they conceal? Based on a case study of the phrase `public engagement in science', this paper describes buzzwords as linguistic technologies, capable of three major performances: buzzwords generate matters of concern and play an important role in trying to build consensus; they set attractive goals and agendas; they create unstable collectives through noise.

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Authors & Contributors
Bruner, Justin P.
Seiko Ishihara-Shineha
James Owen Weatherall
O'Connor, Cailin
Mingjun Zhang
Miira B. Hill
Concepts
Public understanding of science
Communication of scientific ideas
Science and society
Public policy
Rhetoric in scientific discourse
Public opinion
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
19th century
Places
China
Australia
East Asia
United States
Great Britain
Brazil
Institutions
Royal Society of London
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