Assessing Models of Public Understanding In ELSI Outreach Materials

Advances in the science of genetics have implications for individuals and society, and have to be taken into account at the policy level. Studies of ethical, legal and social issues related to genomic research have therefore been integrated in the Human Genome Project (HGP) since the earliest days of the project. Since 1990, three to five percent of the HGP annual budget has been devoted to such studies, under the umbrella of the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Programs of the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institute of Health, and of the Office of Biological and Environmental Research of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE-ELSI budget has been used to fund a variety of projects that have aimed at ?promoting education and help guide the conduct of genetic research and the development of related medical and public policies? (HGP, 2003). As part of the educational component, a significant portion of DOE-ELSI funds have been dedicated to public outreach projects, with the underlying goal of promoting public awareness and ultimately public discussion of ethical, legal, and social issues surrounding availability of genetic information (Drell, 2002). The essential assumption behind these projects is that greater access to information will lead to more knowledge about ethical, legal and social issues, which in turn will lead to enhanced ability on the part of individuals and communities to deal with these issues when they encounter them. Over the same period of time, new concepts of ?public understanding of science? have emerged in the theoretical realm, moving from a ?deficit? or linear dissemination of popularization, to models stressing lay-knowledge, public engagement and public participation in science policy-making (Lewenstein, 2003). The present project uses the base of DOE-funded ELSI educational project to explore the ways that information about a new and emerging area of science that is intertwined with public issues has been used in educational public settings to affect public understanding of science. After a theoretical background discussion, our approach is three-fold. First, we will provide an overview, a ?map? of DOE-funded of outreach programs within the overall ELSI context to identify the importance of the educational component, and to present the criteria we used to select relevant and representative case studies. Second, we will document the history of the case studies. Finally, we will explore an intertwined set of research questions: (1) To identify what we can expect such projects to accomplish -in other words to determine the goals that can reasonably be achieved by different types of outreach, (2) To point out how the case study approach could be useful for DOE-ELSI outreach as a whole, and (3) To use the case study approach as a basis to test theoretical models of science outreach in order to assess to what extent those models accord with real world outreach activities. For this last goal, we aim at identifying what practices among ELSI outreach activities contribute most to dissemination, or to participation, in other words in which cases outreach materials spark action in terms of public participation in decisions about scientific issues

Achieving Public Understanding of Research in Developing Countries

This set of webpages documents a workshop on "Achieving Public Understanding of Research in Developing Countries." The goal of the workshop was to explore differences between how "public understanding of science" is perceived in the developed world and how it might be perceived and defined in the developing world. We were particularly interested in whether theoretical ideas about public understanding emerging from recent work in the developed world would have any relevance in the developing world. The initial proposal contains a full discussion of these issues and is included in the document. The workshop was held in Cape Town, South Africa, immediately following the 7th International Conference on Public Communication of Science and Technology, "Science Communication in a Diverse World." The workshop brought together more than 50 people from 16 countries on 6 continents.U.S. National Science Foundation, grant INT 022120

Public Participation in Scientific Research: a Framework for Deliberate Design

Members of the public participate in scientific research in many different contexts, stemming from traditions as varied as participatory action research and citizen science. Particularly in conservation and natural resource management contexts, where research often addresses complex social–ecological questions, the emphasis on and nature of this participation can significantly affect both the way that projects are designed and the outcomes that projects achieve. We review and integrate recent work in these and other fields, which has converged such that we propose the term public participation in scientific research (PPSR) to discuss initiatives from diverse fields and traditions. We describe three predominant models of PPSR and call upon case studies suggesting that—regardless of the research context—project outcomes are influenced by (1) the degree of public participation in the research process and (2) the quality of public participation as negotiated during project design. To illustrate relationships between the quality of participation and outcomes, we offer a framework that considers how scientific and public interests are negotiated for project design toward multiple, integrated goals. We suggest that this framework and models, used in tandem, can support deliberate design of PPSR efforts that will enhance their outcomes for scientific research, individual participants, and social–ecological systems

Modelos de comprensión pública: la política de la participación pública (Models of Public Understanding: The Politics of Public Engagement)

Based on presentation to workshop on "New views and challenges in science communication and the promotion of scientific culture," University of Valencia, 1-2 December 2009.In this paper, I will highlight some of the assumptions underlying the new language and approach in the field of science communication, –that is, the language of public engagement or social appropriation. My goal is to show how an understanding of the political implications of different models of science communication can help us negotiate the relationships of power and authority that are at stake. Recognizing the political complexity of the public engagement context can help in identifying the scholarly questions that need to be explored, as well as the more practical questions that need to be asked in evaluations of particular events, activities, and institutions

Expertise, democracy, and science communication

This paper presents an argument for the essential intertwining of expertise, democracy, and science communication

What does citizen science accomplish

Paper prepared for meeting on citizen science, Paris, France, 8 June 2004; draft dated 27 May 2004The terms "citizen science" and "citizen scientist" have at least three meanings: (1) the participation of nonscientists in the process of gathering data according to specific scientific protocols and in the process of using and interpreting that data; (2) the engagement of nonscientists in true decision-making about policy issues that have technical or scientific components; and (3) the engagement of research scientists in the democratic and policy process. Looking just at the first definition, proponents of citizen science argue that it engages nonscientists in the scientific process, making them direct participants in the creation of reliable knowledge about the natural world. From an S&TS perspective, many statements in the preceding paragraph pose problems. What is meant by "engagement"? Can we distinguish between the "technical," "scientific," and "policy" components of a decision? How much social process is hidden by the phrase "specific scientific protocols"? What is meant by "the scientific process"? What constitutes "reliable knowledge"? What is the "natural world" and how does it differ from other conceptions such as the "social world"? In this paper, I will use attempts to define the "outcome" of several specific citizen science projects at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology as a case for exploring the meanings of these various phrases. I will suggest that defining "success" for citizen science projects requires, in part, that the scientific community that supports citizen science must leave behind its Mertonian ideals about the independence of science and adopt instead S&TS-inspired conceptions of the social embeddedness of scientific knowledge

Models of public communication of science and technology

Science journalism, science museums, community outreach programs about science – all these forms of "public communication of science and technology" have a long history. But little is understood about the systematic differences between the goals and possibilities of different kinds of projects. This working papger identifies four key models that have been used to describe public communication activities: deficit model, contextual model, lay expertise model, and public participation model. It also identifies problems both within the models and with attempts to fit all activities into this particular set of models. It suggests both new areas for research and new possibilities for outreach.A grant from the Department of Energy's Human Genome Project – Ethical, Legal, & Social Issues program (Grant DE-FG02-01ER63173) supported the writing of this manuscript

Models of Public Understanding: The Politics of Public Engagement

In this paper, I will highlight some of the assumptions underlying the new language and approach in the field of science communication, –that is, the language of public engagement or social appropriation. My goal is to show how an understanding of the political implications of different models of science communication can help us negotiate the relationships of power and authority that are at stake. Recognizing the political complexity of the public engagement context can help in identifying the scholarly questions that need to be explored, as well as the more practical questions that need to be asked in evaluations of particular events, activities, and institutions.En este artículo destacaré algunos supuestos subyacentes al nuevo lenguaje (y enfoque) que se utiliza en el ámbito de la comunicación pública de la ciencia –esto es, al lenguaje de la participación pública o apropiación social. Mi propósito es mostrar cómo una comprensión de las implicaciones políticas de los diferentes modelos de comunicación pública de la ciencia puede ayudarnos a negociar las relaciones de poder y autoridad que están en juego. El reconocimiento de la complejidad política del contexto de la participación pública puede ayudarnos a identificar las cuestiones académicas que es necesario investigar, así como las preguntas más prácticas que es necesario formular en la evaluación de eventos concretos, actividades, e institucione

The speculative world of emerging technologies

Working paperAmid all the excitement about specific technological advances, it’s easy to lose sight of how emerging technologies are more than particular new techniques and tools. Rather than viewing them simply as a collection of specific examples (valuable though that is), much is to be gained by seeing them also as a general phenomenon. From this perspective, what is most striking is that “emerging technologies” have become a distinctive social world, a peculiar "speculative space" found at the edges of technological systems, where innovations are being most actively constructed and transformed. Characteristics of that speculative space include revolutionary rhetoric, scientific and technological practices, new institutional arrangements, and the politics of decisionmaking