Sessions

• Up and down the Ivory Tower

  The ‘Ivory Tower’ is a metaphor being used to describe an elitist and self-sufficient research culture, which is relatively indifferent to the extent to which the conducted research is useful for the surrounding society, and whether the surrounding society is informed about the research and its results. Outside the tower, in contrast, citizen science is carried out, presentations are given at community centers, interviews are given to journalists, exhibitions are held, popular science articles are written, all to make the research understandable and digestible outside the tower. Over the past 50 years, scientists have alternately been chased up and down from the so-called Ivory Tower.