El aporte de la Teoría de las Representaciones Sociales a los estudios de Comprensión Pública de la Ciencia: its Contributions to the Public Understanding of Science studies

the aim of this article is to present a set of relevant contributions of the theory of social representations to current research in the field of public understanding of science. i will begin by examining the key conceptual issues of the theory. then, i will describe the way it has been applied to account how scientific knowledge is spread and fitted in the popular common sense. yet, i will argue that the theory is of major interest in a deeper sense; i.e., to handle with a core of social and cultural constrictions that shape epistemic interactions between scientists and the publics and affect, therefore, the possibilities of a genuine dialogue, devoted to share knowledge and to debate concepts and reasons in a more plural and horizontal way.