A major conference entitled Science in Society: dialogues and Scientific Responsibility takes place in Paris at the Economic and Social Council on the 24th and 25th November 2008. The objective of the conference is to discuss the place science holds within our society. The foundations of this discussion are the growing distrust citizens show towards new and potential scientific technological advances and applications and youth’s decreasing interest for scientific studies and careers. It will attempt to analyze the relationship between stakeholders and partners of the scientific community in the “knowledge society” that Europe is trying to build.

Issues to be debated are related to traditional means of communicating and diffusing science, as well as new exchanges processes, dialogues and debates with society. In parallel, the conference will examine the possible erosion of the research landscape due to globalization leading to questions about scientific responsibility. Finally, ‘best practices’ will be identified.

An initiative currently in preparation and intended to develop the relationships between sciences and society at the European level will also be presented: it will consist in creating a consortium of people and organizations to promote debate and provide useful information to stakeholders such as states, scientific institutions and the media.

As an introduction, the conference will present the concept of ‘knowledge society’, by looking at its successes and difficulties. The focus will be on the capacity of the scientific community and stakeholders of science in society to establish and use a dialogue in which scientific knowledge and all other types of knowledge are circulated and confronted productively.
Furthermore, the concept that knowledge is a ‘flat world’ will be analyzed in the context of world globalization. Finally, a cultural account on the position of science in society will add a social science and humanities dimension.

Five domains of science and technology will be examined in parallel workshops: Climate-Energy, Health, Agronomy, Basic Science and ICT (Information and Communication Technology).

Speakers include Jacques Dermagne, President of the Economic and Social
Council (CES) in Paris and Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for Science and Research. Key note speakers include Heinz Wismann, Senior Scientist, EHESS in France and Former director of the Protestant Interdisciplinary Research Institute of Heidelberg and Slavoj Žižek, Professor of Philosophy at the Ljubljana Sociology Institute and at the European Graduate School in Swizerland.The EU expert group report on Governance, knowledge, stakeholders and co-responsibility will also be presented by Zaneta Ozolina, Professor in Political Science, Latvia University.

The scientific orientation commitee contains two members that are frequent visitors to the Bassetti foundation, Sheila Jasanoff, Professor at Harvard University and Mariachiara Tallacchini, Professor at the Catholic University of Piacenza.

The conference is by invitation only.