Professor Martin W Bauer

Professor Martin W Bauer

Professor of Social Psychology and Research Methodology

Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science

Telephone
0207 955 6864
Room No
CON.4.04
Connect with me

Languages
English, French, German, Portuguese
Key Expertise
Social psychology, Science communication, Attitudes, Beliefs, Mentalities

About me

Martin read Psychology and Economic History (Bern, Zurich and London) and joined LSE in the mid-1990s, after a post-doctoral fellowship at the Science Museum London. A former Head of the LSE Methodology Department (2008-2010), he currently directs the MSc Social and Public Communication. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Public Understanding of Science (2009-2016) and a regular academic visitor in Brazil (Porto Alegre, Campinas and Rio) and recently also to China, where he co-directs the Centre for Study of Science Cultures, an LSE-NAIS-Tsinghua University venture in Beijing. Martin is an International Fellow of 'acatech' (German Academic of Technical Sciences). 

His research focus is the relationship between science and common sense (‘sensus communis’) through theoretical elaboration and comparative research using national surveys, mass media monitoring and also qualitative enquires. He analysed public controversies over Biotechnology in the 1990s, and he is currently working with colleagues across Europe, India, China, Africa, North and South America on a global database to construct indicators of local 'science cultures' (www.macas-project.com/ & www.MORE-PE.com/). He is a member of the scientific committee of PCST (www.pcst.co/). His papers appeared in Nature, Science, Nature-Biotechnology, Public Understanding of Science, Genetics & Society, SSS, IJPOR, Science Communication and DIOGENE.

You can find Martin's publications via Google Scholar


Book publications include

  • 'AI and Common Sense - Ambitions and Frictions', London, Routledge, 2024 (with Schiele (eds))
  • 'Science Communication – Taking a Step Back to Move Forward', Paris, CNRS Editions (484pp), 2023 (with Schiele (eds))
  • Public Communication of Research Institutes: ‘Arms race’ for visibility or science substance? London, Routledge Studies of Science, Technology and Society, Vol 48, 2022 (with Entradas (eds))
  • 'The Psychology of Social Influence – Modes and Modalities of Shifting Common Sense', Cambridge, CUP, 2021 (with Sammut)
  • 'The Cultural Authority of Science – Comparing across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas', Routledge Studies of Science, Technology & Society, Vol 40, London, Routledge [Chinese translation 2020] (with Pansegrau & Shukla)
  • Atoms, Bytes & Genes – Public Resistance and Techno-Scientific Responses’ (NY, Routledge, 2015).
  • ‘Textual Analysis – Sage Benchmarks in Social Research Methods’, London, SAGE, 2014 (4 volumes, with Suerdem & Bicquelet).
  • ‘Resistance  and the Practice of  Rationality’, Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishers (with Harre & Jensen)
  • The Social Psychology of Communication’, London, Palgrave, 2011 (With Hook and Franks)
  • The Culture of Science - how the public relates to science around the globe, NY, Routledge, 2011 (with Shukla & Allum)
  • ‘Journalism, Science & Society’, Routledge, 2007 (with Bucchi);
  • 'Biotechnology - the making of a global controversy' (Cambridge, CUP, 2002, with G Gaskell).
  • ‘Genomics & Society’ (Earthscan, 2006; with G Gaskell);
  • ‘Biotechnology 1996-2000 – the Years of Controversy’, London, Science Museum, 2001 (With Gaskell)
  • Qualitative researching with text, image and sound: a practical handbook, London, Sage, 2000 (with Gaskell)
  • Resistance to New Technology - nuclear power, biotechnology and information technology, (Cambridge, CUP, 1995)

Expertise Details

Public understanding and public engagement; rhetoric and science communication; resistance and critical innovation studies; public opinion; common sense; conspiracy mentality; mass media monitoring and text analysis; experience sampling