Reconfiguring the public of science

International audienceThis paper reconsiders recent changes in science–public relations inFrance in the light of earlier ideas about the role of the lay public. A broad historicalperspective shows that the categories used to describe communications betweenknowledge producers and society have been reconfigured again and again(Secord 2004). Notions such as such as ‘savants’ and ‘amateurs’, ‘popular science’and ‘science mediation’ are historical constructions heavily dependent onthe institutional conditions of scientific research and on its technological applications(Topham 2009ab). This paper first emphasizes the epistemic and social conditionsof the construction of the notion of the public as ‘those who do not know’in the 20th century. It then tries to understand when and how the notions of ‘citizenscience’ and ‘participatory science’ emerged. Finally, through a brief surveyof various modes of participation developed over the past decade, it questions thenotion of a radical change or paradigm shift