Scientific Conferences and the Communication of Enlightenment

Abstract

As institutional practices for the efficient transmission of
enlightenment, scientific conferences carry structural liabilities
preventing them from maximizing the task performance for which they were
constituted. An example is presented of an international conference,
and Q methodology is employed to demonstrate the intellectual themes
implicit among those in attendance. Examples are provided of the ways in
which the results from the Q study could be used to facilitate the
conference's intellectual mission by focusing on the already existing
schemata of the participants.