Rafael Pardo

Attitudes toward science among the European public: a methodological analysis:

Over the past decade, several influential papers examining the relationship between scientific knowledge and attitudes toward science have been published. The 1992 Eurobarometer has been the preferred source of data for analysis, and a number of suggestive conclusions regarding the extent and nature of the links between knowledge and attitudes have been proposed. Summated scales were built through principal component analysis of the attitudinal items and reliability analysis, but little attention has been paid to the content of the attitudinal items and to the metric and conceptual weaknesses of the scales. A more parsimonious revision of the data, carried out here, shows that the measures used are fuzzy and, as a consequence, the empirical support for some published results is very limited. We suggest that more theoretical effort should be devoted to the design of questionnaires and to the combined use of statistical exploratory techniques and qualitative analysis in the interpretation of the data.

The Cognitive Dimension of Public Perceptions of Science: Methodological Issues:

The cognitive dimension of public perceptions of science is a central component of the interdisciplinary field devoted to their study. The subset of this dimension that has received the most attention is the one known as scientific literacy (SL), and particularly scientific knowledge of the “know-what” type. People’s appropriation of scientific theories of the world and also of the inner workings of scientific practice is of interest in itself and also for its role in explaining—in interaction with other variables—public attitudes toward science. Despite its significance, the understanding of science has received progressively less attention since the late 1990s. This paper reviews the substantive characteristics and formal properties of the scale of SL most widely used in the literature, which has been constructed on the basis of Eurobarometer measurements. It considers a number of steps, such as content, item analysis, and differential reliability, both for the total sample and for different nations and social groups, that are usually omitted in the literature. This new analysis shows that the standard SL test barely achieves satisfactory metric properties and that although it captures major (but not fine-grained) differences in SL by nation and sociodemographic groups, it is in need of significant theoretical and formal improvements. Our analysis also shows that a well-known thesis in the literature, the so-called “knowledge-ignorance paradox,” rests on a statistical misinterpretation of the data.

Subset correspondence analysis: Visualizing relationships among a selected set of response categories from a questionnaire survey

This study shows how correspondence analysis may be applied to a subset of response categories from a questionnaire survey (e.g., the subset of undecided responses or the subset of responses for a particular category across several questions). The idea is to maintain the original relative frequencies of the categories and not reexpress them relative to totals within the subset, as would normally be done in a regular correspondence analysis of the subset. Furthermore, the masses and chi-square distances assigned to the subset of categories are the same as those in the correspondence analysis of the whole data set, which leads to a decomposition of total variance into parts if the whole data set is subdivided into disjoint subsets. This variant of the method, called subset correspondence analysis, is illustrated on data from the International Social Survey Programme’s Family and Changing Gender Roles survey.

Attitudes Toward Embryo Research, Worldviews, and the Moral Status of the Embryo Frame

Embryo research for obtaining stem cells is an attitudinal object embedded in a complex space of high expectations for reaching desirable goals, and also of strong moral reservations about the utilization and production of human embryos for research ends. An explanatory model of public attitudes to embryo research is offered here, composed of general variables and worldviews (expectations about scientific-technological advances, reservations to science, trust in scientists, religiosity, gender) and highly specific ones (one evaluative, views on “the moral status of the embryo,” and the other of a cognitive nature, “biological literacy”). A key factor in accepting or rejecting this line of research is the current, de facto, competition between biological science and moral and religious creeds in shaping a frame or image of the moral status of the embryo, either as a pure biological entity or, alternatively, as an actual or potential human being entitled to special protection.

Subset Correspondence Analysis

This study shows how correspondence analysis may be applied to a subset of response categories from a questionnaire survey (e.g., the subset of undecided responses or the subset of responses for a particular category across several questions). The idea is to maintain the original relative frequencies of the categories and not reexpress them relative to totals within the subset, as would normally be done in a regular correspondence analysis of the subset. Furthermore, the masses and chi-square distances assigned to the subset of categories are the same as those in the correspondence analysis of the whole data set, which leads to a decomposition of total variance into parts if the whole data set is subdivided into disjoint subsets. This variant of the method, called subset correspondence analysis, is illustrated on data from the International Social Survey Programme’s Family and Changing Gender Roles survey.

Multiple Correspondence Analysis of a Subset of Response Categories

In the analysis of multivariate categorical data, typically the analysis of questionnaire data, it is often advantageous, for substantive and technical reasons, to analyse a subset of response categories. In multiple correspondence analysis, where each category is coded as a column of an indicator matrix or row and column of Burt matrix, it is not correct to simply analyse the corresponding submatrix of data, since the whole geometric structure is different for the submatrix . A simple modification of the correspondence analysis algorithm allows the overall geometric structure of the complete data set to be retained while calculating the solution for the selected subset of points. This strategy is useful for analysing patterns of response amongst any subset of categories and relating these patterns to demographic factors, especially for studying patterns of particular responses such as missing and neutral responses. The methodology is illustrated using data from the International Social Survey Program on Family and Changing Gender Roles in 1994.

The role of means and goals in technology acceptance. A differentiated landscape of public perceptions of pharming.

Most pharmaceuticals are either chemically synthesized small molecules or are derived directly from natural sources such as plants and human blood. An increasing number of drugs comprising recombinant proteins, antibodies and nucleic acids are also produced in living organisms that have been genetically engineered for the purpose (Walsh, 2006). In parallel to this growing market of so‐called biopharmaceuticals (Lawrence, 2007; Ledford, 2006), research has focused on the development of improved production platforms, notably genetically modified plants and animals. Recombinant biopharmaceuticals have, for example, been expressed in maize kernels, tobacco leaves, goats milk and chicken eggs (Giddings et al , 2000; Dove, 2000). The production of recombinant pharmaceutical proteins in higher organisms is termed ‘pharming’, a portmanteau of pharmaceuticals and farming, which reflects the combination of ‘red’ (biomedical and/or pharmaceutical) and ‘green’ (agricultural and/or food) biotechnology. The idea behind pharming is that it will enable the faster, more flexible and cost‐effective production of pharmaceuticals compared with current synthetic production processes. The use of recombinant DNA technology to alter organisms for a specific purpose has raised its fair share of controversy. While initial public resistance to producing biopharmaceuticals in lower organisms has largely disappeared—for instance, synthesizing human insulin in bacteria—there is still considerable opposition to genetically modified higher organisms and their use in agriculture or medicine. In light of the often hostile public reaction to other applications of biotechnology, a better understanding of the publics views and attitudes to pharming might help to guide the interaction of the research community and industry with the public at large. > …a better understanding of the publics views and attitudes to pharming might help to guide the interaction of the research community and industry with the public at large Here, we present public perceptions of plant and animal pharming in 15 advanced industrial societies—12 European …

Mapping Perceptions of Science in End-of-Century Europe

This article offers an alternative to the dominant approach for analyzing public perceptions of science. The authors seek first to clarify to what extent the public at large holds defined attitudes toward science, proposing an “index of cognitive and evaluative distance.” They then present a map of perceptions of science in end-of-century Europe based on correspondence analysis, which displays some of the most salient elements of how science was appropriated in the culture of the time. The map shows that shared social and cognitive characteristics across nations act as unifying forces in public perceptions of science, while the nation variable conserves important singularities. Knowledge of science plays a very significant role in accounting for differences in value judgments about science. “Reservations,” not “promise” items, divide the perceptions of different social groups, suggesting that more weight should be given to the former in future studies.

Comparing Outsourcing Patterns in Domestic and FDI Manufacturing Plants: Empirical Evidence from Spain

To fully understand the local linkages of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) plants, we argue it would be useful to analyze the outsourcing patterns of such plants in comparison to domestic plants. Consequently, we examined 1031 industrial plants, both domestic and foreign, located in Spain. The FDI plants show patterns similar to those of domestic plants with regard to the level of outsourcing, the incidence of outsourced production on the companies’ total sales and the economic content of outsourcing relationships. Further, our results show that levels of embeddedness in the local and regional economy of FDI plants are not significantly different from domestic plants. However, FDI plants are highly concentrated spatially in the largest industrial agglomerations. For such plants, Barcelona not only seems a preferred site for location but also for contracting manufacturing tasks.

Technical Capital and Social Capital in Outsourcing Networks: Complements or Substitutes?

In recent years, applied studies have shown widespread, profound and increasing heterogeneity across firms in terms of their strategy, organization arrangement and performance. This book investigates the diversity of business firms, offering a picture of the different organizational settings they adopt in their endeavour to cope with increasing competitive pressure.