This is a standardized version of the original case analysis number 17. Specific names and locations have been substituted from the original document number 17 with generic references in order to preserve the anonymity of every participant.

In case you would like to read the original document, please contact occ@upf.edu.

Abstract

The aim of this pilot study was to refine and to calibrate a set of tools to measure, capture and analyze the “impacts” that various scientific culture initiatives and policies (SCIPs) in the particular case of this city in the North East of the country.

As a method, we carried out 11 semi-structured in-depth interviews with the main local stakeholders (among public administrators, university representatives, science museum workers, representatives of local NGOs, communicators) and a deep document analysis (websites, laws texts, existing studies on the local public perception of research and communication activities).

Results show a local dynamic reality of SCIPs, based on a strong local vocation towards environmental and sustainability topics that lead the political decisions and orient the communication of the scientific and technological culture. The role of the public body (the province) as leader in orienting the SCIPs is fundamental. The most important actor on the science communication scene is the museum of science, opening with a new science centre in 2013. Moreover, results show a relatively good collaboration among different actors in the field of the scientific research (university, scientific institutes, and museum) and the crucial importance of the local media as leaders in influencing the opinions of the citizens.

These results let us think of discussing the opportunity to include the city among the “city of science”, though there isn’t any formal status or even proposal on this issue at the moment.

Regarding the evaluation tool tested, they show a very good consistence with the main aims of the PLACES toolkit and deserve some changes to be more effective for the next users.

Introduction

The aim of this pilot study was to refine and to calibrate a set of tools to measure, capture and analyze the “impacts” that various scientific culture initiatives and policies in the contexts of science centres, of science events or festivals of cities of science have on a local level, in the particular case of this city in the North East of the country.

Considering the different dimensions and levels of research offered by the PLACES Impact Assessment Toolkit, we decided to take the Political Sphere as the privileged area to investigate in order to pilot the instrument.

We were interested in the views of our selected interviewees in their role as privileged observers or stakeholders in the process of SCIPs. We wanted to understand what they think about the impact of SCIPs on the political sphere and the city itself, and cross these results with the documents available on the topic.

For this reason the tools used were that of the individual semi-structured interviews (module B1) and the document analysis (module B2). In the period 6th-22nd of February 2012, we conducted 9 semi-structured interviews with relevant local stakeholders. In the weeks around, we collected the relevant documents through the internet and the interviewees themselves. As far as the topic investigated are concerned, we followed the topics listed in the interview guideline, namely:

• The local social and economic impacts of SCIPs
• Their possible impacts on quality of life
• The impacts of the local policies
• The impacts on education.

During the interviews, the participants were requested to think, comment, and express their knowledge and ideas on the local SCIPs taking into account also the future of these activities and policies in the city.

To better read the results of this pilot-study, it is necessary to refer to the characteristics of the province, from the geographical and administrative points of view. This influences crucially the types of policies, activities and financing related to the local science and technology communication:

This is the main city of an autonomous province, with a special regulation as described below. Its geography is mainly mountainous, from 65 metres above the sea level to 3.764 metres. The territory is divided into 11 districts that mostly mainly coincide with the main valleys. The province valleys are very important for the economical and the social life. This city is also home to one of the country’s highest ranked universities. In 2009 the total inhabitants were 524.826, of whom about 115.511 living in the city. The local economy is mainly based on tourism (skiing in winter, excursions in summer) and agriculture (above all apples and grapes for winemaking). Therefore, scientific and technological culture in the reality of the city is for the most part contextualised through topics relating to environment, climate and sustainability, key-features around which also the local politics articulates its discourses.

The choice of piloting the toolkit for the analysis of impacts of SCIPs in the county in the town is influenced by two main features:

• The city hosts the museum of science that is third party of PLACES and one of the most important science museums in the country. Of particular importance is the transition the museum is facing in these years, and the fact that in 2013 it will move in a new science centre, projected by a world famous national architect in a formerly disused industrial area. It is also important to stress that the museum was born with a strong territorial vocation. Indeed, the concept of the museum is that of a consortium of museums of the province based on the local environment and traditions. The new website of the museum of science states that the priorities will be: the interest in local topics, the study of environment and the preservation of the identity roots, “raising awareness activities” aimed at the wider public on ecology and sustainability issues.
• The province has a special status so that from a political and institutional point of view, the province is autonomous, which means that it benefits from its own tax revenues which are given back to it by the state. The province thus manages substantial budget with respect to its size. At the same time, due to the historical and cultural context of the region, the province benefits from the transfer of regional competences to the provincial level.

A major consequence is that the province authorities are in a position of setting up and developing their own public policies with solid financial capacities for implementing them. This also implies that the financing of science in society activities comes easily from public funds rather than private investments.

As a very first relevant result, after carrying out 9 interviews with relevant stakeholders and the document analysis, we stress that the dimension and levels, which constitute the frame where the PLACES evaluation toolkit starts from, are strictly intertwined in the case of the city. Indeed, it was quite a challenge to fit the results inside the borders of the grid set toolkit: as more interviews were collected the richer became the panorama about the SCIPs activities in the province; consequently it became ever more complicated to contain the topic inside the cells of the grid. Just for a short example, to talk about the “new forms of public/private interaction” –one of the issues investigated during the interview– in a reality as this city, where the public money finances most of the S&T research and the communication activities, lead us think of discussing the opportunity to include the city among the “city of science”, though there isn’t any formal status or even proposal on this issue at the moment.

A major consequence is that the province authorities are in a position of setting up and developing their own public policies with solid financial capacities for implementing them. This also implies that the financing of science in society activities comes easily from public funds rather than private investments.

As a very first relevant result, after carrying out 9 interviews with relevant stakeholders and the document analysis, we stress that the dimension and levels, which constitute the frame where the PLACES evaluation toolkit starts from, are strictly intertwined in the case of the city. Indeed, it was quite a challenge to fit the results inside the borders of the grid set toolkit: as more interviews were collected the richer became the panorama about the SCIPs activities in the province; consequently it became ever more complicated to contain the topic inside the cells of the grid. Just for a short example, to talk about the “new forms of public/private interaction” –one of the issues investigated during the interview– in a reality as this city, where the public money finances most of the S&T research and the communication activities, lead us think of discussing the opportunity to include the city among the “city of science”, though there isn’t any formal status or even proposal on this issue at the moment.

Methods

On the basis of the potential targets listed in the Political Sphere module and of a first desk-research to explore possible targets, we recruited a set of relevant stakeholders and carried out the fieldwork in the period 6th-22nd of February.

The tools used were that of the individual semi-structured interviews (module B1, see Annex 1 for the language translation of the guideline) and the document analysis (module B2, see Annex 2 for a summary of the coding and analysis procedures). In the period 6th-22nd of February 2012, we conducted 9 semi-structured interviews with relevant local stakeholders.

(tabla)

Given the availability of previous visitor studies at the local museum of sciences and a preliminary study conducted by the museum itself to prepare the opening of the new science centre, we were able to collect valuable information about the Public Sphere.

(tabla)

The recruitment and the search for documents were facilitated by the people at the museum of science (AC, responsible for the international affaires, and ML, director and interviewee himself).

We wish to make two major comments regarding the recruitment are: the extreme kindness, the genuine interests taken in the research and availability of the interviewees and their staffs in fixing the appointments for the face-to-face (and skype) interviews –probably due to the time of the year where not many events are going on; and the difficulty of reaching the city by the interviewer because of the exceptional snowfalls in the centre of the country. The latter also introduced an emotional factor (trains blocked, following delays, moving of dates, etc.) and facilitated the flexibility of the interviewees in being available for spending a considerable time for the interview (the difficulty of the interviewer in getting the place took even a warmer hospitality). We wish to thank our colleagues in the city for the kind and very constructive collaboration on this part of the research on Impacts of SCIP within the PLACES project WP6.

The duration of the interviews, in fact, is in average about 1hour and 15 minutes. As far as the document analysis is concerned, we took into account:

Documents Type 1:

• Museum of sciences statute (reference 1)
• Scientific institution financed by the province statute 1 (reference 2)
• Scientific institution financed by the province statute 2 (reference 3)
• Provincial law March, 9th, 2010, n. 5: the province for the protection of the climate (reference 4)

Documents Type 2:

• Evaluation of the impact of the activities promoted by the two scientific institutions on the provincial system in the period 2005-2007 with particular reference to the provisions of the 2007-2008 planning and financial agreements signed with the province. (reference 5)
• Book about the science, technology and public opinion in the province. By the department of Humanities of the local university. (reference 6)
• Book about the impact perception of the scientific research in the province. By the statistical service of the province. (reference 7)

Sources of information on visitor studies (Public Sphere):

• Book about the science between the local and global provincial museum on natural sciences. Master Thesis, International School for Advanced Studies. (reference 8)
• Science museum evaluation research, to be presented at PCST 2012. (reference 9)
• Book on exploring visitor’s opinion at the science museum of the province to evaluate a gallery about sustainability. (reference 10)
• Website to launch the science museum of the province and research on public perception of hot topics in science, technology and environment. (reference 11)