Science and public participation

A group of activists protest against GMOs outside a biotechnology research institute. The citizens of a region vote in a referendum on a new waste disposal facility. A patients association compiles a large database of the symptoms and clinical evolution of a rare genetic disease. A group of citizens is invited to discuss the issue of embryo stem cell research and produce a final document to be submitted to policy makers. What do these examples have in common? Are they all in their own way expressions of a profound change in the terms and conditions under which scientific knowledge is produced, discussed, and legitimated? Public participation in science is an emerging phenomenon with uncertain boundaries, and the difficulties of defining it are compounded by the fact that it has simultaneously become a key focus of social mobilization, policy initiatives, and scholarly analysis. Moreover, a plurality of points of view and motives of interest for public participation can be identified within each of these areas. However, for our purposes here, public participation may be broadly defined as the diversified set of situations and activities, more or less spontaneous, organized and structured, whereby nonnonexperts become involved, and provide their own input to, agenda setting, decision-making, policy forming, and knowledge production processes regarding science (Callon et al., 2001; Rowe & Frewer, 2005). This chapter seeks to (1) provide an overview of the emergence of the phenomenon and theme of public participation in science, (2) define a general interpretative framework with which to map its various manifestations, and (3) outline the possible driving forces behind it as well as its potential impact in terms of changes in the production of scientific knowledge. Specific types of public participation are dealt with in the following chapters.