Dilemmas of public participation in science policy

ABSTRACT

Public participation is ubiquitous in many contemporary democratic societies – used for many purposes, and in many contexts, with particular and growing relevance for policy-making on science and technology issues. However, there is a dearth of evidence as to its qualities and benefits. We contend that the implementation and interpretation of participation faces a number of dilemmas that – together –undermine its successful adoption. In this paper, we identify and discuss six specific dilemmas that – together – may militate against the practice and development of good quality participation in science and technology policy, notably dilemmas of Timing; of Relevance; of Representation; of Evaluation; of Criticism; and of Impact. We theoretically account for these dilemmas and discuss their likely impacts. Finally, we provide some suggestions as to how the participation community might attempt to pre-empt difficulties due to these dilemmas and demonstrate participation effectiveness.

KEYWORDS:

• Public participation
• public engagement
• evaluation
• impact
• dilemmas

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gene Rowe

Gene Rowe is an independent research consultant and Director of Gene Rowe Evaluations, which he established in 2010. A social/cognitive psychologist, Gene gained his PhD from the Bristol Business School, and - after a variety of research posts - ended up at the Institute of Food Research, Norwich, where he rose to the Head of Consumer Science (before leaving to set up his consultancy). He has worked in a variety of areas, having conducted research into human judgment and decision-making, forecasting, expert knowledge elicitation, social science research methodology, risk analysis/ management/ perception, health expectations, science communication, and public/ stakeholder engagement (in agenda setting, policy-making, etc.). Much of his recent work has focused on the evaluation of engagement processes.

Richard Patrick Watermeyer

Richard Patrick Watermeyer is a Reader in Education and Director of Research in the Department of Education at the University of Bath and a Research Fellow of the International Centre of Higher Education Management (ICHEM). He is a sociologist of education (knowledge, science and expertise) with general interests in education policy, practice and pedagogy. He is specifically engaged with critical sociologies of higher education and a focus on new conceptualizations of academic praxis and the current and future role of the (public) university, particularly in the context of the marketization, globalization and neoliberalization of higher education.