Scientific Research and Public Opinion in Europe. A Preliminary Study

This study aims at identifying, starting from the questions and response variants proposed in the questionnaires of the Eurobarometer surveys, the forms of operationalisation of the concepts specific for the scientific research, that have been used from 1973 until 2011, without a preliminary preparation of the sample investigated in this respect. The main objective of this approach is to identify the evolution of the specialised vocabulary of the Eurobarometer, which accounts to a great extent for the forms of ambiguisation of the European discourse on scientific research and its results. Our concern is also to identify the intrusion of the scientific vocabulary in the European common language, which is in fact an unavoidable perspective, given the EU approach at interrogating the frontiers of knowledge.