CASSIS · Communication About SocioScientific Issues (CASSIS)

CASSIS (Communication About SocioScientific Issues) is a collaborative research project between four universities in France, England (2) and New Zealand. The overall aim of the proposed staff exchange programme is to improve communication about socioscientific issues (SSIs) between people with opposing views, to help them to develop a collaborative reflection and to improve their reasoning integrating wider perspectives. The context for the research project is the potential conflict that can arise when people’s views about agriculture, sustainable practices, animal welfare and conservation intersect.This programme is focused on a particular issue – the problem of controlling ‘pest animals’ when they influence farming practices. While on the surface the problem is about pest control in the three countries they raise very different questions with different constituencies in the public sphere.The goal of this research is for the four universities to collaborate in developing a working model of communication that will be transferable to other socioscientific issues.In particular this programme will:•collaboratively create a knowledge base for the collection, analysis of people’s views about the problem of ‘pest animals’ when they intersect with farming•develop a joint training and research programme to provide a range of research tools, pedagogical strategies and strategies for appropriate forms of communication between different stakeholders•inform strategies to improve communication between disparate groups when they are attempting to communicate about the control of ‘pest animals’ when they intersect with farming practices.From these aims the exchange objective is to provide researchers with: (1) an international platform to develop a coherent theoretical framework to examine socioscientific issues; (2) an opportunity to formulate new joint collaborative research and funding proposals; and (3) international exposure and intercultural understandings.