Community-Level Controversy Over a Natural Resource: Toward a More Democratic Science in Society

Abstract

In this article, we contribute to an understanding of science and scientific knowledge in support of the democratic ideal of including all stakeholders in community-level controversies over access to natural resources. By analyzing the actual discourse between scientists and citizens in a water-supply controversy, we move beyond “scientific” and “nonscientific” classification schemes to focus on the rhetorical strategies and different ways of problem framing encountered at the community level. By doing so, we articulate some of the diverse relations that constitute the social embeddedness of the science in this controversy. This frame provides a way of accommodating the creative contributions residents make to community dialogues involving scientifically delimited controversies.

Keywords:

• community
• controversy
• experts and citizens
• public understanding of science

Notes

“TPM” followed by a number refers to the page number of our transcript of the public meeting (September 19, 1999). Providing exact sources constitutes a part of establishing an audit trail, a practice that contributes to the quality of qualitative research (e.g., Guba and Lincoln 1989).