摘要
Session 1 Culture of Science in Public: Participation and Engagement
The Potential of Local Science Festivals for a Sustainable
Society
——A case study of the hakodate international science festival
Noyuri Mima
Faculty of Systems Information Science, Future University Hakodate, Hakodateshi, Japan
Abstract: In this paper, I describe a local science festival that I began designing in 2008 and which has been held each year since 2009. I use this case to consider the significance of local science festivals as learning environments for citizens. It is worth mentioning that the design of the local science festival discussed here involved the application of learning theory and philosophy. Rather than ‘knowledge transfer’ or ‘knowledge acquisition’, science communication is contingent on inter-personal activity performed through conversations that are inseparable from the situations in which they occur. Science communication is a part of learning activities and should be defined as a process of interaction that transcends a single individual, emerging in the context of social relationships within a broadly inclusive community. Moreover, conviviality, the vernacular, and the commons will also be important when considering the significance of local science festivals. Many cities in Japan and around the world face situations like the one discussed here. It will be meaningful to share the lessons learned and design model used in this case as a ‘cultural apparatus’. I believe that local science festivals will contribute to creating a sustainable and resilient society.
Keywords: Science Festival; Science Communication; Science Literacy; Learning; Local Context; Conviviality; Vernacular; Commons; Cultural Apparatus
1. Background
It has been 10 years since the inaugural science festival was held in the Japanese city of Hakodate. The festival is held annually at multiple venues in the Hakodate area for nine days every August.
116-2 Kamedanakanocho, Hakodateshi, Hokkaido 0418655 Japan. noyuri@fun.ac.jp.
It offers a wide variety of science-related events for everyone from children to adults—for laypersons and experts alike. As a series of preliminary events, hands-on classes and experimental workshops for children are offered through the summer holidays beginning in mid-July. There are also events for adults in September.
The number of people involved in carrying out the operational tasks for the festival has been increasing each year; thus, it has gradually become an established event. People from diverse backgrounds bring their interests and ideas, forming multiple groups loosely joined with one another. Though funding has been a challenge each year, we have steadily gained the support of local businesses and leveraged the festival’s strengths as a networked organization. Contributions of free drinks, product samples, and a free venue are appreciated. The festival is a place for participatory and collaborative practices generated by the mutual exercise of the knowledge, skills, and ideas brought by various individuals.
I was involved in establishing and drawing up the plans for the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) in Tokyo, where I served as the deputy director from 2003 to 2006. At that time, the importance of science communication was beginning to gain recognition as a worldwide trend. After the completion of my term of office, when I returned from Tokyo to Hakodate, a regional city with a population of 260,000 people, it came to my attention that Hakodate did not have a science museum or science center. However, I knew that it would be difficult for such a small city to secure a budget for creating and operating a science museum/center.
Therefore, in 2008, I recruited some colleagues to establish Science Support Hakodate as an organization to promote science communication and develop citizens’ science literacy. Since 2009, we have held the Hakodate International Science Festival every summer. Through trial and error, we have built up our know-how and a record of achievement, resulting in the expansion of our circle of volunteers from industries, academia, and the government, such that our yearly calendar of activities is now more or less fixed.
2. Theory and Philosophy for Designing a Science Festival
To plan a science festival to be held in a local city, two perspectives were considered. One was a learning theory perspective regarding a festival as a place of learning and the other was a philosophical perspective regarding local communities.
1) Learning Theory Perspectives
The need to develop science literacy and promote science communication as a means of doing so has been discussed actively in recent years in science and technology policies and in the fields of science, technology, and social studies. However, these discussions have not yet—at least in the context of education and learning— touched on science festivals as a means of realizing this end (Mima and Watanabe, 2008).
A paradigm shift in learning psychology occurred with the transition that began in the 1980s from behaviorism to social constructivism to a situated model. Learning came to be reinterpreted from ‘something passive’ to ‘something active’ and from an ‘individual enterprise’ to a ‘social enterprise’ (Mima and Yamauchi, 2005). In other words, learners came to be seen as having the power to engage their own environment and seize knowledge, and learning came to be seen as a process of collaborative activity and discussion with others. It has been a shift from individual to collective learning focused on the importance of society, culture, and others. Moreover, this way of thinking has also demanded a shift in the nature of worldly things and knowledge. From something static and fixed, knowledge has come to be recognized as being socially constructed—something built communally in the context of communicative processes.
2) Philosophical Perspectives
When thinking about a science festival deeply rooted in a local community, it is useful to think about the concepts of conviviality, the vernacular, and the commons, as discussed by Ivan Illich, a philosopher who was active in the latter half of the 20th century. These important concepts are featured in Illich’s most eminent works, Deschooling Society (Illich, 1971), Tools for Conviviality (Illich, 1973), and Shadow Work (Illich, 1981). These concepts have been reviewed again in the context of the digital society in recent years (Bollier, 2013).
To be ‘convivial’ means to live together happily in a state of mutual independence. Illich once lived in a village on the outskirts of Cuernavaca, Mexico, and is said to have taken this term from the Spanish word conviviencial, used to refer to the ties that linked the indigenous villagers to the commons and the festive interactions that occurred when a market was open (Kurihara, 2006). Local festivals are indeed convivial in this sense, representing an autonomous mechanism that makes life more vibrant and enjoyable.
‘Vernacular’ refers to the characteristic of being rooted in the realm of everyday life. The term describes something that is neither mass-produced elsewhere nor supplied by the government; rather, it is something of one’s own. Vernacular space is something that emerges from the formation of our own space within the mutually beneficial commons in our communities. The vernacular is ultimately neither an acquisitive act realized in the form of an exchange of currency, nor is it an institutionalized service.
The term ‘commons’ originated from the idea of shared pasturage, and it signifies a communal environment accompanying a convivial life. It is a new social and political sphere in which people can create their own rules and solve problems tailored to local conditions in a grassroots fashion. In contrast to ‘resources’, commons are something ‘shared by everyone’, providing a space in which the subsistence activities of people take root.
Through these concepts, Illich argues, things are made rather than consumed; he regards human independence as something that builds up in the form of regional and autochthonous lifestyles in the company of others. Illich also points out the danger of relying on the products and care provided by groups of experts. He maintains that human happiness depends on our subjective understanding of the world; it is consistent with the recent significance of promoting science communication and developing science literacy.
