There’s an interesting essay by Roland Jackson, Chief Executive of the British Science Association on the UK’s Dept. for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) website about British attitudes to science and the notion that science is part of ‘culture’ in the way that the arts are. From the Science and Public Attitudes project page on the website,

I have always been interested in what the Public Attitude Surveys tell us, and not least to use the results to challenge those who still persist in claiming that the UK public is ‘anti-science’ when it is clearly nothing of the sort.

This time round I developed a particular interest in the concept of science and culture, leading out of the work we did on the Science for All Group (http://interactive.bis.gov.uk/scienceandsociety/site/all/). In our Report and Action Plan we identified a number of actions to encourage UK cultural institutions to take a strategic approach to the sciences in culture, and we recommended that public perceptions of science and culture should be explored in this upcoming Survey.

It has always irked me that the arts community in the UK seems to have purloined the words ‘culture’ and ‘creativity’ as if they are synonymous with the ‘arts’. For example, the European Capital of Culture bidding process, and that of the UK City of Culture, have no requirement for a science-based cultural programme (though the use of digital technologies is graciously and instrumentally encouraged in the latter to ‘maximise participation and access’). Not that I have anything against the arts, but my concept of culture and of creativity certainly includes the sciences, and they are implicitly excluded in the way these bidding documents are written and interpreted.

So, it is good to see the Public Attitudes Survey 2011 seeking to test out how the public views science and culture.

I look forward to seeing the Public Attitudes Survey when it is released in March 2011.