Science Education, Communication and Appropriation from a Pluralistic Perspective: Experiences in the Construction of Dialogue for the Social Ownership of Knowledge

Abstract

Scientific culture and the social appropriation of knowledge are considered basic conditions in order to face some of the challenges of the knowledge society. Therefore, the need to promote actions to foster citizens capable of participating in the different stages of scientific and technological processes is often pointed out. However, many of these proposals do not consider cultural diversity, the recognition of traditional knowledge, the need for dialogue about knowledge or the participation of different parties in the decision-making process. In the last stage of his philosophy, León Olivé’s pluralistic approaches created a framework of concepts that accepts this need for dialogue about knowledges and the construction of knowledge-based societies, bearing cultural diversity in mind. In addition, these concepts are projected to models of social appropriation of knowledge in which the key is the adaptation of the knowledge to the natural and cultural context of diverse communities. In this paper, practical experiences of social appropriation of knowledge are presented, each one directly related to the means proposed by Olivé to achieve a strong social appropriation of scientific and technological knowledge, which are: scientific education, the communication of science and the creation of an active participation in social innovation networks.