Studying the Relationships between Medical Science and Citizens through the Methods of Big Data
Analysis: the Cases of Vaccination and Homeopathy (Funded by National Science Fund, Bulgaria,
2019-2023)
The main objective of the project is to investigate the transformation of science-public
relations in Bulgaria, the opening of scientific practice and innovation to the citizens and
the autonomous participation of stakeholders in the formation of knowledge and attitudes
towards a specific field of application of modern science – medicine. . This raises the
following research problem: how and why, although contemporary life and social life are
based on facts, evidence and technology produced by modern science, and daily life is
highly scientific, there is a growing spread of skepticism about science, anti-intellectualist
movements and the search for alternative forms of knowledge. The question remains
whether this skepticism and anti-intellectualist attitudes are related to the practices of
individual scientific institutions, research groups and practitioners with scientific training, or
question the scientific method and science itself.
The specific objective of the project is to study the dissemination, use and influence of some
pseudoscientific and integrative forms of knowledge with significant reach among Bulgarian
society. The research scope focuses on the hot case (current in other EU countries) of the medical
and public health field – the resistance to compulsory immunizations and the case of homeopathy
and its growing popularity among patients and doctors and pharmacists themselves.
