View article

As the chapters in this handbook richly suggest, science communication is important in many contexts and many different ways. This chapter focuses on an area that has at times been especially controversial and contested. The relationship between risk, science and science communication lies at the core of some difficult matters of governance, public discussion and decision-making. This relationship, in turn, raises many questions about the nature–and indeed the purpose–of science communication1.

To offer the significant example of climate change, a good argument can be made that ‘communication’is by no means a minor aspect of global action. Instead, it is actually central to the whole international process. How does one communicate uncertainty, disagreement and complexity? How can ‘the facts’ of climate change but also matters of values and responsibility be communicated? How can an open and …