Using marketing concepts to facilitate upstream public engagement with science : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Material removed from thesis due to copyright reasons: Wright, M. J., Teagle, D. A. H., & Feetham, P. M. (2014). A quantitative evaluation of the public response to climate engineering. Nature Climate Change, 4(2), 106-110. doi:10.1038/NCLIMATE2087This thesis investigates whether marketing theories and methodologies can be used to facilitate upstream public engagement with contentious scientific issues. Upstream engagement requires the early involvement of citizens in decisions about new science or technology from the conceptualisation stage onwards; before ingrained attitudes, social representations or frames in the media bias responses. Contemporary approaches to science communication lack consensus on the most appropriate approach to engage the public with new science and technology. The research addresses upstream communication in the context of climate engineering. Scientists and the International Panel for Climate Change are considering climate engineering as a potential solution to global warming, given that the present methods of mitigation and adaptation have so far failed to sufficiently reduce global temperatures to a level of 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. The communication of potential solutions to global warming is a vital part of a critical global issue that will impact the planet’s eco-systems, biodiversity and future generations. Marketing may be able to provide methodologies and techniques for evaluating and measuring public perceptions of climate engineering. As well as contributing to upstream science communication and public engagement, the research contributes to marketing theory in two ways. First, it extends the application of brand image research founded on the Associative Network Theory of Memory (ANTM) to science concepts, demonstrating the robustness of the theory. Second, it extends the information dual-processing theory to investigate the effects of intuitive and deliberative thinking on concept evaluations, and whether these views change with greater deliberation. In the qualitative phase, thirty exploratory semi-structured depth interviews, using two methods of attribute elicitation, provided 12 common attributes associated with climate engineering. The findings identified an overall negative public reaction to the four climate engineering technologies tested. The independent qualitative findings also revealed a strikingly clear result – Carbon Dioxide Removal technologies are perceived more positively than Solar Radiation Management technologies. The subsequent quantitative on-line surveys tested public perceptions of six climate engineering techniques in Australia (n =1,006) and New Zealand (n =1,022). The results of the on-line surveys supported the qualitative findings that associations with climate engineering techniques are predominately negative, and allowed further diagnostic insights into the sources of these evaluations for each of the individual techniques tested. The analysis established the data are robust and stable across the two countries and the methodologies are validated by the strikingly similar aggregate findings across the qualitative and quantitative stages. For the comparison of intuitive and deliberative thinking on memory associations with climate engineering the effects are measured by comparing within sample groups split by the length of time taken to complete the online survey. In Australia, the findings show that greater deliberative thinking is associated with more negative evaluations, indicating that intuitive and deliberative thinking do give different results in magnitude, if not in direction for these data. In New Zealand, greater deliberative thinking is not associated with more negative evaluations suggesting that the effect of deliberative thinking on the evaluation of climate engineering concepts is moderated by the country of study, or by the prior beliefs of the country’s population. A final stage of research used five focus groups in New Zealand to investigate whether deliberative arguments and interactions help participants make sense of unfamiliar, multifaceted or contentious issues, and whether different perspectives are influenced by age, gender or the ethnicity of participants. Overall, most participants were sceptical of climate engineering, although some between-group differences were apparent. Knowledge of climate engineering varied between groups, with younger participants unaware of climate engineering, and reluctant to consider research on the technologies. Conversely, in the retiree group all but one participant had heard of climate engineering and the most of the participants were receptive to the idea of proceeding with research on climate engineering technologies. This further demonstrates that the effects of deliberation may be context specific. The results confirm the practicality of extending concept testing and measurement of memory associations to upstream engagement for controversial scientific methods, showing convergent validity across countries and methods. The results demonstrate that mixed mode research using marketing techniques yields a range of insights that are not otherwise available in upstream public engagement. Finally, the research finds that more deliberative responses may affect the magnitude of concept evaluations, but the effect is contextual. This highlights the need for further research to provide better understanding of the effect of deliberation on evaluations

Online Deliberation: Design, Research, and Practice

Can new technology enhance purpose-driven, democratic dialogue in groups, governments, and societies? Online Deliberation: Design, Research, and Practice is the first book that attempts to sample the full range of work on online deliberation, forging new connections between academic research, technology designers, and practitioners. Since some of the most exciting innovations have occurred outside of traditional institutions, and those involved have often worked in relative isolation from each other, work in this growing field has often failed to reflect the full set of perspectives on online deliberation. This volume is aimed at those working at the crossroads of information/communication technology and social science, and documents early findings in, and perspectives on, this new field by many of its pioneers. CONTENTS: Introduction: The Blossoming Field of Online Deliberation (Todd Davies, pp. 1-19) Part I - Prospects for Online Civic Engagement Chapter 1: Virtual Public Consultation: Prospects for Internet Deliberative Democracy (James S. Fishkin, pp. 23-35) Chapter 2: Citizens Deliberating Online: Theory and Some Evidence (Vincent Price, pp. 37-58) Chapter 3: Can Online Deliberation Improve Politics? Scientific Foundations for Success (Arthur Lupia, pp. 59-69) Chapter 4: Deliberative Democracy, Online Discussion, and Project PICOLA (Public Informed Citizen Online Assembly) (Robert Cavalier with Miso Kim and Zachary Sam Zaiss, pp. 71-79) Part II - Online Dialogue in the Wild Chapter 5: Friends, Foes, and Fringe: Norms and Structure in Political Discussion Networks (John Kelly, Danyel Fisher, and Marc Smith, pp. 83-93) Chapter 6: Searching the Net for Differences of Opinion (Warren Sack, John Kelly, and Michael Dale, pp. 95-104) Chapter 7: Happy Accidents: Deliberation and Online Exposure to Opposing Views (Azi Lev-On and Bernard Manin, pp. 105-122) Chapter 8: Rethinking Local Conversations on the Web (Sameer Ahuja, Manuel Pérez-Quiñones, and Andrea Kavanaugh, pp. 123-129) Part III - Online Public Consultation Chapter 9: Deliberation in E-Rulemaking? The Problem of Mass Participation (David Schlosberg, Steve Zavestoski, and Stuart Shulman, pp. 133-148) Chapter 10: Turning GOLD into EPG: Lessons from Low-Tech Democratic Experimentalism for Electronic Rulemaking and Other Ventures in Cyberdemocracy (Peter M. Shane, pp. 149-162) Chapter 11: Baudrillard and the Virtual Cow: Simulation Games and Citizen Participation (Hélène Michel and Dominique Kreziak, pp. 163-166) Chapter 12: Using Web-Based Group Support Systems to Enhance Procedural Fairness in Administrative Decision Making in South Africa (Hossana Twinomurinzi and Jackie Phahlamohlaka, pp. 167-169) Chapter 13: Citizen Participation Is Critical: An Example from Sweden (Tomas Ohlin, pp. 171-173) Part IV - Online Deliberation in Organizations Chapter 14: Online Deliberation in the Government of Canada: Organizing the Back Office (Elisabeth Richard, pp. 177-191) Chapter 15: Political Action and Organization Building: An Internet-Based Engagement Model (Mark Cooper, pp. 193-202) Chapter 16: Wiki Collaboration Within Political Parties: Benefits and Challenges (Kate Raynes-Goldie and David Fono, pp. 203-205) Chapter 17: Debian’s Democracy (Gunnar Ristroph, pp. 207-211) Chapter 18: Software Support for Face-to-Face Parliamentary Procedure (Dana Dahlstrom and Bayle Shanks, pp. 213-220) Part V - Online Facilitation Chapter 19: Deliberation on the Net: Lessons from a Field Experiment (June Woong Rhee and Eun-mee Kim, pp. 223-232) Chapter 20: The Role of the Moderator: Problems and Possibilities for Government-Run Online Discussion Forums (Scott Wright, pp. 233-242) Chapter 21: Silencing the Clatter: Removing Anonymity from a Corporate Online Community (Gilly Leshed, pp. 243-251) Chapter 22: Facilitation and Inclusive Deliberation (Matthias Trénel, pp. 253-257) Chapter 23: Rethinking the ‘Informed’ Participant: Precautions and Recommendations for the Design of Online Deliberation (Kevin S. Ramsey and Matthew W. Wilson, pp. 259-267) Chapter 24: PerlNomic: Rule Making and Enforcement in Digital Shared Spaces (Mark E. Phair and Adam Bliss, pp. 269-271) Part VI - Design of Deliberation Tools Chapter 25: An Online Environment for Democratic Deliberation: Motivations, Principles, and Design (Todd Davies, Brendan O’Connor, Alex Cochran, Jonathan J. Effrat, Andrew Parker, Benjamin Newman, and Aaron Tam, pp. 275-292) Chapter 26: Online Civic Deliberation with E-Liberate (Douglas Schuler, pp. 293-302) Chapter 27: Parliament: A Module for Parliamentary Procedure Software (Bayle Shanks and Dana Dahlstrom, pp. 303-307) Chapter 28: Decision Structure: A New Approach to Three Problems in Deliberation (Raymond J. Pingree, pp. 309-316) Chapter 29: Design Requirements of Argument Mapping Software for Teaching Deliberation (Matthew W. Easterday, Jordan S. Kanarek, and Maralee Harrell, pp. 317-323) Chapter 30: Email-Embedded Voting with eVote/Clerk (Marilyn Davis, pp. 325-327) Epilogue: Understanding Diversity in the Field of Online Deliberation (Seeta Peña Gangadharan, pp. 329-358). For individual chapter downloads, go to odbook.stanford.edu

Democratising biotechnology?: Deliberation, participation and social regulation in a neo-liberal world

There is now significant policy and academic interest in the governance of science and technology for sustainable development. In recent years this has come to include a growing emphasis on issues of public understanding of science and innovative processes of deliberative and inclusive policy-making around controversial technologies such as nuclear power and agricultural biotechnology. Concern with such issues coincides with rising levels of interest in deliberative democracy and its relationship to the structures and processes of global governance. This article connects these two areas through a critical examination of ‘global’ deliberations about agricultural biotechnology and its risks and benefits. It draws on an extensive survey concerned with the diverse ways in which a range of governments are interpreting and implementing their commitments under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety regarding public participation and consultation in order to assess the potential to create forms of deliberation through these means. The article explores both the limitations of public deliberation within global governance institutions as well as of projects whose aim is to impose participation from above through international law by advocating model approaches and policy ‘tool kits’ that are insensitive to vast differences between countries in terms of capacity, resources and political culture

Direct deliberative local governance using online media – consensual problem solving or a recalcitrant pluralism?

This paper describes and analyses distinct patterns of 'governance conversation' observed in interactions on a discussion list that aims to support local, direct, governance in a geographically colocated community in South Africa. Although each pattern relates to governance, making 'binding decisions', which has been seen as a key attribute of deliberative democratic processes, is almost entirely absent from the observed interactions. Nonetheless, the exchanges appear to be relevant and useful to the broader process of local direct deliberative governance. We investigate the extent to which the patterns feature instrumental or expressive dialogue, and subsequently support consensual or pluralist outcomes. The results propose that online interaction is particularly suited to facilitating the pluralist deliberation required to manage complex local governance problems. The outcomes observed in the case study further suggest the potential value of an infrequently investigated context of online deliberation – that of citizen-to-citizen deliberation of geographically local issues; and presents a broader conception of the role of online deliberation in local governance, where formal decision making is frequently over privileged in research

Citizens at the Center: A New Approach to Civic Engagement

Offers specific recommendations for giving citizens the tools they need to identify problems and develop solutions in their communities -- and warns against top-down solutions that require people to "plug into" existing programs or campaigns

Digital Democracy: Episode IV—A New Hope*: How a Corporation for Public Software Could Transform Digital Engagement for Government and Civil Society

Although successive generations of digital technology have become increasingly powerful in the past 20 years, digital democracy has yet to realize its potential for deliberative transformation. The undemocratic exploitation of massive social media systems continued this trend, but it only worsened an existing problem of modern democracies, which were already struggling to develop deliberative infrastructure independent of digital technologies. There have been many creative conceptions of civic tech, but implementation has lagged behind innovation. This article argues for implementing one such vision of digital democracy through the establishment of a public corporation. Modeled on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the United States, this entity would foster the creation of new digital technology by providing a stable source of funding to nonprofit technologists, interest groups, civic organizations, government, researchers, private companies, and the public. Funded entities would produce and maintain software infrastructure for public benefit. The concluding sections identify what circumstances might create and sustain such an entity

Argument maps as policy memories for informed deliberation: A research note

This is an eGISE network paper. A significant area within eGovernment is concerned with systems to support democratic policy formation and decision making processes. In modern government, both local and national, consultation with interested parties is an important element in maintaining the democratic process. To date online consultation tools have has used existing software tools, which are simple text based tools that were not tailored to the process. This project proposes to develop an online tool that will visualise the issues and arguments graphically as the consultation process proceeds. Using Discourse Analysis and Ontological Engineering it will create Argument Maps that will server not only to inform participants but also the archive record of the consultation – the Policy Memory. We hypothesise that such a tool would allow citizens to be come more engaged with policy formation and enhance democratic participation

Reflections from Participants

The Road Ahead: Public Dialogue on Science and Technology brings together some of the UK’s leading thinkers and practitioners in science and society to ask where we have got to, how we have got here, why we are doing what we are doing and what we should do next. The collection of essays aims to provide policy makers and dialogue deliverers with insights into how dialogue could be used in the future to strengthen the links between science and society. It is introduced by Professor Kathy Sykes, one of the UK’s best known science communicators, who is also the head of the Sciencewise-ERC Steering Group, and Jack Stilgoe, a DEMOS associate, who compiled the collection