Abstract

Popularization of mathematics seems to have gained importance in the past decades. Besides the increasing number of popular books and lectures, there are national and international initiatives, usually supported by mathematical societies, to popularize mathematics. Despite this apparent attention towards it, studying popularization has not become an object of research; little is known about how popularizers choose the mathematical content of popularization, what means they use to communicate it, and how their audiences interpret popularized mathematics. This thesis presents a framework for studying popularization of mathematics and intends to investigate various questions related to the phenomenon, such as: - What are the institutional characteristics of popularization? - What are the characteristics of the mathematical content chosen to be popularized? - What are the means used by popularizers to communicate mathematical ideas? - Who are the popularizers and what do they think about popularization? - Who are the audience members of a popularization event? - How do audience members interpret popularization? The thesis presents methodological challenges of studying popularization and suggests some ideas on the methods that might be appropriate for further studies. Thus it intends to offer a first step for developing suitable means for studying popularization of mathematics.