Decolonizing Science Communication: A Road for Envisioning Public Engagement

As evidenced in Chapter 2, science communication requires evolving from a deficit paradigm to dialogic and participatory frameworks in order to promote newer practices to overcome several limitations that maintain a distant and tense atmosphere between science and society. This chapter presents several reflections that combine decolonial thought and science communication processes to explain how and why research processes have contributed to enacting practices that leave people behind. Moreover, we will offer a reflection on how to practice self-reflexivity applied to science communication studies and tangible practices to conduct research that provides participants a voice. Finally, we will combine decolonial epistemologies with other streams of Western scholarship that provide clear guidelines for researchers who want to develop ethical science communication.