This paper examines the impact of the ethnographic approach in the public understanding of science. First of all, I present the guide lines on which the first studies were developed and the conceptions of science and public which supported them. Secondly, I introduce the ethnographic perspective that guided a new analysis model for the public perception of science. Finally, I conclude with a brief balance of the scope and the limitations of that perspective and the field current situa tion.
Public perception of science; deficit model; ethnographic perspectives