Public participation in science and technology decision making: trends for the future

Abstract This article examines past, current, and future trends in the relationship between science, technology, and society. The evolution of current science policy in the USA is described. The paper then examines a shift in the current scientific and research environment that is calling forth new research collaborations, and a new relationship between science and society. This shift is demanding greater public participation in science and technology decision making, changing the traditional 'trust us, we're experts' science-society relationship. The paper offers several methodologies used worldwide that provide citizens with the opportunity to participate in science and technology decision-making processes. It then examines how such methodologies are affecting research and funding agencies, and argues that such efforts need to be expanded

Opening up the participation laboratory: the co-creation of publics and futures in upstream participation.

How to embed reflexivity in public participation in techno-science and to open it up to the agency of publics are key concerns in current debates. There is a risk that engagements become limited to “laboratory experiments,” highly controlled and foreclosed by participation experts, particularly in upstream techno-sciences. In this paper, we propose a way to open up the “participation laboratory” by engaging localized, self-assembling publics in ways that respect and mobilize their ecologies of participation. Our innovative reflexive methodology introduced participatory methods to public engagement with upstream techno-science, with the public contributing to both the content and format of the project. Reflecting on the project, we draw attention to the largely overlooked issue of temporalities of participation, and the co-production of futures and publics in participation methodologies. We argue that many public participation methodologies are underpinned by the open futures model, which imagines the future as a space of unrestrained creativity. We contrast that model with the lived futures model typical of localized publics, which respects latency of materials and processes but imposes limits on creativity. We argue that to continue being societally relevant and scientifically important, public participation methods should reconcile the open future of research with the lived futures of localized publics

Economic Mechanisms to Encourage the Transfer of Low-Emission Technologies: An Evaluation of the Joint Implementation Concept

The issue of global climate change has occupied scientists, environmentalists, and policy makers around the world for approximately twenty years. The Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) and the recent Kyoto Protocol, negotiated in December 1997, have been focused on mitigating world-wide emissions of green-house gases (GHG), and the impact of human activities on our climate. For several reasons, the issue of climate change is one of the most complex environmental problems to face our planet today. It is an issue which has impacts upon all sectors of society, and involves not only science, but economics, development, health, energy, agriculture – in short, it impacts every aspect of our lives. The complexity of the issue has led to the development and analysis of mechanisms to solve the climate change problem in ways that will not hurt the economic development of the developing countries, nor will harm the way of life of the industrialized world. The development and use of energy-efficient and renewable-energy technologies has often been cited as the solution to the problem of climate change. It is furthermore believed that the use of such technologies in Eastern European countries with economies in transition (EIT) and the developing world could reduce the global level of GHG emissions substantially. Given the fact that most of the low-emission, energy-efficient and renewable-energy technologies have been developed in the industrialized world, mechanisms to transfer these technologies to EIT and developing countries is an important part of any climate change policy. The purpose of this paper is to examine current and future mechanisms to promote and encourage the transfer of low-emission technologies from industrialized countries to EIT and developing countries. Using the pilot phase of the Joint Implementation process, ‘Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ),’ as a model, the paper examines the effectiveness of the Joint Implementation concept in encouraging such technology transfer