The concept first appeared in the Netherlands as a post-1968 movement that gradually spread to other countries; now Romania, Italy and Australia all have science shops. In Flanders, the network was established in 2006, after pilot projects in Brussels and Antwerp. Today, Saskia Vandeputte coordinates the wetenschapswinkels – a group of five science shops based at universities, funded by a grant from the Flemish ministry of economy, science and innovation.
It works like this: non-profit, or nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), carry out field work that generate questions, both at the conceptual and practical level: How to define and frame an issue? What are the potential solutions? These questions can be complex and challenging, and the organisations often don’t have the time, skills or tools to answer them.
At a science shop, academics do research on behalf of the organisation. It’s a fair deal: NGOs get serious, personalised academic input into their work, while students and professors contribute to research that is particularly relevant and in touch with society’s needs.
Science shops only work on the basis of real-life requests. Every year, about 10 new organisations find their way to the shops; the network receives between 30 and 50 new requests a year. Most have to do with social sciences, with about twothirds answered by the faculty of psychology and educational sciences.
“The typical request is about evaluating the impact of a specific education or social action – does it work?” Vandeputte explains. However, the network wants to reach a broader range of NGOs and push disciplines like engineering or medical sciences. “I’m quite convinced that some organisations also have more scienceor technology-based questions, but they don’t find their way to the science shops,” Vandeputte says.
From the homeless world cup to language issues
Flemish science shops tackle a wide range of issues. Two years ago, for example, the Action Project Hardcore Drug Users in Antwerp set up a football team to take part in the Homeless World Cup. This spectacular project gave birth to an eightpart TV programme, which followed the selection and training of the players, as well as the actual tournament in Melbourne in 2008.
The social workers turned to the science shops network; as part of her master’s thesis, a student in social, cultural and personal welfare evaluated the impact of the scheme. Of course, it fosters healthy competition and team spirit; but it can also generate frustration and exclusion. (There are only so many players you can include in a football team!) Hence, the student also made recommendations for the coming years, as this project has been extended to the whole of Flanders.
In a more controversial vein, the nonprofit cultural organisation De Rand asked the science shops for input on the issue of language in the Flemish municipalities around Brussels. A linguist from the Free University of Brussels (VUB) studied the attitudes of people living in two municipalities of the rand, or border. She asked Dutch and French speakers in which language they are addressed in different places and circumstances, and in which language they want to be addressed.
“This is no easy research,” Vandeputte notes. “The student was a linguist, but these issues are mostly political and rife with ideology, while scientific research is supposed to be independent and objective.” In broad terms, the study’s main findings were that Dutch speakers are more sensitive to language laws and switch more easily to French, while French speakers are less strict about being addressed in their own language, but have more difficulty switching to Dutch.
On a different note, the Flemish Platform for Accessibility turned to the science shops to evaluate the access of mentally disabled people (such as Alzheimer’s sufferers) to society in general, and to public spaces in particular. A graduate in social, cultural and personal welfare interviewed people with disabilities as well as their relatives and caregivers. She will present her work at a two-day conference in November this year; the influence of her research can be significant in the field, as it tries to frame a novel concept of “mental accessibility”. As Vandeputte stresses: “The impulse really came from the research itself.”
This is indeed one of the objectives of science shops: opening up a dialogue between academia and society and giving NGOs and citizens an insight into how scientific research actually works. Research can be slow and complex, sometimes powerful, and always subject to interpretation.
In the future, Vandeputte hopes to boost the quality and ambition of the shops’ work, for instance by extending it to research at PhD level. She also wants to broaden the work of the network to other disciplines and across borders. As part of the massive EU-funded project PERARES (Public Engagement with Research and Research Engagement with Society), the Wetenschapswinkel Brussel is involved in research into violence against pregnant women throughout Europe.
To find out if a science shop can help you with research and information, non-profit organisations must register in the network’s database and can submit research requests anytime. The coordinator will get in touch for an initial meeting to discuss if and how the network can research the question. On the other end, students and researchers can browse the database to look for questions they find interesting and relevant. The network’s services include not only match-making but also a close followup of the research process. Generally, the research is carried out by Master’s degree students.
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