The culture of science in modern Spain : an analysis of public attitudes across time, age cohorts and regions

The terms culture of science, or previously Public Understanding of Science (PUS), have a dual meaning. They designate both the assessment of a state of affairs (PUS, culture of science) and the activities targeted to enhance this state of affairs (PUS activities and the cultivation of science in the wider public). This report presents evidence of the state of affairs in Spain and assesses changes over the period 1989 to 2005 on the basis of a total 4058 observations. We build key indicators and compare time periods, generational cohorts and Spanish regions, and we benchmark these results against the rest of core Europe (i.e. EU11). A picture of the science culture of Spain within old Europe emerges that should be read not as an evaluation of past PUS activities, but as a marker of the changing strategic context for such activities in the future.