The Cultural Distance Model: Empirical Evidence from India

Abstract

Public understanding of science (PUS) is an area of research using contributions from various areas of expertise but focusing on the borders between science and society. It is a recent but growing area of research with its own strengths and limitations. The first phase of its development involved attitudinal surveys in many countries to measure the public’s scientific knowledge and probe the public’s attitude towards science and scientists. In many countries, regular survey studies have underpinned the allocation of special budgetary provisions. Later, researchers refined their methodology and developed new analytical tools and techniques to gain deeper insights into PUS. In India, researchers from the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (a unit of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) have worked since 1989 on techniques for surveys suitable for developing countries. As a consequence of that research, the research group has proposed a culturally sensitive model for evaluating the data. This chapter describes the historical background of the development of PUS research, with special reference to that simple but effective ‘cultural distance’ model. The authors confirm that the method of measuring cultural distance can be applied to various datasets to draw meaningful conclusions.