Scientists, Politics, and the Rhetoric of Public Controversy

This book examines how scientists around the world embrace their responsibility as agents in a broader civic community, as well as how science is being used and abused by non-scientists in public spaces. As right-wing politicians, conspiracy theorists, and modern robber barons intensify their assault on science in the current moment, this volume argues that it is time for the rhetoric of science to reconceptualize itself as a crisis/care discipline. The essays in this volume help us do that by scrutinizing particular cases of science activism, from the Union of Concerned Scientist to the March for Science, examining the public modalities of resistance that scientists are increasingly taking up, and the ways they are learning to modify their public engagement in response to rapidly evolving rhetorical situations. The essays in this volume also help us to recognize how the authority of science is being distorted, assailed, and exploited by non-experts in ways that are more dangerous than ever as we face the devastation of climate change and global pandemics. The book ends with a look at new possibilities for collaboration between local communities and scientists and a reflection on how a rhetorical conception of ethos can help us comprehend the negotiation of asymmetries between experts and laypeople in the current era. Pamela Pietrucci is Associate Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Leah Ceccarelli is Professor of Communication at the University of Washington, in Seattle, USA. She is the recipient of two career awards for her research on the rhetoric of science, from the National Communication Association and the Rhetoric Society of America.