engleski

Science in the Eyes of the Public and Social Elite: An Empirical Study

This paper presents an empirical comparison of public perceptions of science and the perceptions of social elites' members - politicians, top managers as well as scientists themselves. The same battery of items concerning nature of science and its role in a society was applied in two empirical investigations carried out in Croatia in 2004. The battery was constructed to measure respondents' (dis)agreement with statements about science on four-point scales. The battery was applied to: 1) a representative sample of the ecomically active Croatian population (2200 respondents) ; 2) a sample of 200 top menagers of the most successful Croatian companies ; 3) a sample of 200 politicians from local and national level ; 4) a sample of 915 Croatian researchers from all scientific fields and institutions. Since the battery was included in four different questionnaires used in two different studies, it was necessarily short (10 items). Yet the data can give an important empirical insight into both, public and elite view of science as an intellectual and social enterprise in a contemporary transitional society. Both, the hierarchy and structure of respondents' perceptions are compared for the observed groups. The differentiation of these perceptions within the groups, specially within the widest public, is analysed too.

public perceptions of science; social elite; scientists; politicians; managers

nije evidentirano