Inspired by the Cosmos: Strategies for Public Engagement in Nonpolicy Contexts

Public engagement scholarship has explored science-policy settings at length. This work is being complemented by growing scholarly attention to engagement outside of policy spaces. As this expanding focus indicates, these spaces, where publics engage science with lower stakes and less confrontation, should be taken seriously. We explore what engagement in such contexts can look like, offering insights from one site, the planetarium. When coupled with a commitment to fostering public-science conversations, engagement strategies like dialogue, storytelling, analogy, and fostering agency can be instrumental for publics to be heard, which can enrich the efforts of nonpolicy venues. In turn, studying nonpolicy contexts can broaden our understanding of engagement