Scientific Citizenship and Young People. Storytelling Perspectives for Public Health

Abstract

New life sciences and biotechnologies have challenged our classical understanding of being human, on an individual and private level as well as on a public level. Educational experts and policymakers have engaged in the development of new ways to make research and innovation processes accessible to every citizen, elaborating strategies aimed at allowing an open, inclusive, and informed discussion. The task of biomedical communication is complex not only because of the contents that are sometimes difficult to simplify, but also because of the communicative environment. Certainties and unequivocal answers are often expected from science, without consideringthat uncertainty is an integral part of the scientific method. In this context, experts tend to overestimate the power of data which, for the majority of the public, are meaningless fragments. The storytelling can be a suitable tool to get out of this communicative impasse especially for young people.