Technoscientific futures: Public framing of science

• Explicit and implicit lay discourses of ignorance vis-à-vis science are distinguished.
• An extended categorisation of general and particular lay discourses is proposed.
• Interchangeable use of general and particular lay discourses is demonstrated.
• Specific discursive strategies and accompanying rhetorical devices are identified.

Using the broader framework of science and technology studies and insights from social research on public understanding of science, this paper discusses specific aspects of the public perception of science. It is accomplished by means of analysing public discourses of ignorance as well as the interrelations between discourses of science-in-general and science-in-particular in lay narratives, thereby advancing the approach originally developed by Mike Michael [24,25]. This study is based on two empirical cases of future-oriented science-related matters, climate change and biomedicine (xenotransplantation). Discourse analysis is applied to two thematic focus groups in Latvia between 2008 and 2009. The analysis introduces a set of more specific rhetorical devices and discursive strategies employed by laypeople in reflecting on the role of science and in providing their assessment of modern technoscientific solutions.