Public Communication of Research Universities: 'Arms Race' for Visibility or Science Substance?

This book analyses communication of university research institutes, with a focus on science communication. Advancing the 'decentralisation hypothesis', it asserts that communication structures are increasingly built also at 'subordinate unit' levels of research universities.

The book presents a cross-country systematic comparison of institutes' communication activities showing ongoing transformations in their communication capabilities and practices. It considers a potential 'arms race' in activities, professionalisation, motivations, and evaluation. Based on empirical evidence from an international study carried out in various countries across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, the book examines the possibilities for civic science communication in this new context.

It will be of interest to scholars and students of Communication Studies, STS, and Science Communication as well as to those taking or leading courses in the fields of Sociology, Public Relations, Marketing, Environmental and Risk Communication, Innovation Studies, and Social Psychology. It is an essential resource for funders, practitioners, teachers, and students dealing with science communication and the position of science in society.

Marta Entradas is Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology at Iscte-Lisbon University Institute and Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She is a former Marie Curie Fellow at LSE (2016-18), and Fulbright Scholar at Cornell University (2015-16). In a current FCT-funded project (grant PTDC/COM-OUT/30022/2017), she is leading a cross-national study examining public communication at central communication offices at research universities. She received her Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from UCL in 2011. She is the 'European Young Researcher (EYRA) Award' 2016 winner (Euroscience).

Martin W. Bauer read Psychology and Economic History (Bern, Zurich and London) and joined London School of Economics and Political Science LSE in the mid-1990s, after a post-doctoral fellowship at the Science Museum London. Professor of Social Psychology and a former Head of the LSE Methodology Department (2008-2010), he currently directs the Msc Social & Public Communication. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Public Understanding of Science (2009-2016) and a regular academic visitor in Brazil (Porto Alegre, Campinas and Rio) and recently also to China, where he co-directs the Centre for Study of Science Cultures, an LSE-NAIS-Tsinghua University venture in Beijing.