Through the grapevine: In search of a rhetoric of industry-oriented science communication

Abstract

Rhetorical features of industry-oriented science communication texts structure meetings between science and industry communities and, consequently, structure research industry relationships. Industry-oriented science communication, however, remains dominated by metaphors of technology transfer and research utilization which continue to enact deficit model paradigms by drawing on essentially positivist constructions of scientific knowledge. In so doing, these models limit the capacity for science communication texts to make research relevant to industry practice and to facilitate research-industry collaboration as multidirectional knowledge sharing. Better metaphors for more relevant and more collaborative communication can, I argue, be found in material semiotic paradigms which would have science communicators align and overlap the multiply practiced worlds of science and industry instead of transferring acontextual, would-be universal knowledge to deeply emplaced sites of utilization. In interviews with and surveys of winemakers and growers in Washington State and New Zealand, I find that technology transfer paradigms configure wine industry members' interactions with research in ways which systematically eliminate moments in which this public participates in scientific processes. Winemakers and growers generally value and seek out scientific information, but also tend to perceive scientific and industry knowledge as complementary, with industry knowledge having the epistemic authority to judge new scientific findings. Textual analyses of research dissemination in these two settings outline science communication texts which limit valid knowledge to scientific knowledge alone, manifestly ignoring industry knowledge and the context-dependency of knowledge-making practices for industry use. These texts construct research practices as above and distant from the world of winemaker and grower practices rather than making scientific and industry practices adjacent and proximal. Material semiotic paradigms would in contrast have science communicators align and overlap the multiply practiced worlds of science and industry. Instead of transferring acontextual knowledge to sites of utilization, science communication would make it possible for industry readers to locate scientific knowledge practices with respect to their own practices, making science relevant to industry by drawing relationships amongst them. A collaborative rhetoric of industry-oriented science communication would, therefore, communicate scientific research as locatable practice in the context of its generation, recognizing the meaning-making practices of industry audiences and their potential contribution to the iterative process of creating applied scientific claims valid in both scientific and industry spaces.

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