Democratizing Science?
Dialogue, Reflexivity, and Openness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52712/issn.1850-0013-820Keywords:
democratisation, science, dialogue, reflexivity, opennessAbstract
Within the political and academic discourses, dialogue, reflexivity and openness have been generally identified as defining features of ‘science democratisation’. This paper focuses on those three features and on how they work and are intervined within the discurse and practices of science democratisation. In developing these arguments, the author takes three different perspectives: “Out there”, looking at real proceses of science democratisation; “In-here”, focusing on academic approaches; “From within”, taking the position of a practitioner involved in the organisation of processes of science democratisation. In a broad sense, the paper argues that even when there is a shared discurse on science democratisation (defined in terms of dialogue, openness and reflexivity), there are multiple interpretations of it, and they are often controversial. A multiplicity of values and motivations is at the basis of differing ways of interpreting the discurse of science democratisation. In concrete practices, openness, dialogue and pluralism should work as practical regulative principles rather than rigid and predetermined goals.
Downloads
References
BECK, U., A. GIDDENS y S. LASH (1994): Reflexive modernization. Politics, tradition and aesthetics in the modern social order, Stanford, Stanford University Press.
BINIMELIS, R. y R. STRAND (2009): “Spain and the European Debate on GM Moratoria vs Coexistence”, en A. Guimarães Pereira y S. Funtowicz (eds.): Science for Policy: Oportunities and Challenges, Oxford University Press, pp. 120-135.
COLLINS, H. y R. EVANS (2002): “The third wave of science studies. Studies of expertise and experience”, Social Studies of Science, vol. 32, nº 2, pp. 235-296.
DELGADO, A., K. LEIN-KJØLBERG y F. WICKSON (en prensa): “Public engagement coming of age: From theory to practice in STS encounters with nanotechnology”, Public Understanding of Science.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION (2001): White Paper on Governance, disponible en formato electrónico en http://ec.europa.eu/governance/white_paper/index_en.htm
EVANS, R. y A. PLOWS (2007): “Listening without prejudice? Re-discovering the value of the disinterested citizen”, Social Studies of Science, vol. 37, Nº 6, pp. 827-853.
FISHER, F. (2000): Citizens, experts, and the environment: the politics of knowledge, Durham y Londres, Duke University Press.
FUNTOWICZ, S. Y J. RAVETZ (1993): “Science for the post-normal age”,Futures, vol. 25, nº 6, pp. 735-755.
HAJER, M. (1995): The politics of environmental discourse: ecological modernization and the policy process, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
IRWIN, A. (1995): Citizen Science: a study of people, expertise and sustainable
development, Londres y Nueva York, Routledge.
IRWIN, A. (2001): “Constructing the scientific citizen: science and democracy in the biosciences”, Public Understanding of Science, Vol.10, nº 1, pp. 1-18.
IRWIN, A. (2006): “The politics of talk: coming to terms with the ‘new’ scientific governance”, Social Studies of Science, vol. 36, nº 2, pp. 299-320.
JACOBY, J. (2004): “GM Nation? Debate”, Heredity, vol. 92, nº 135.
JASANOFF, S. (1995): Science at the bar: Law, science and technology in America, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.
JASANOFF, S. (2003): “Technologies of humility: citizen participation in governing science”, Minerva vol. 41, pp. 223-244.
JASANOFF, S. (2005): Designs on nature. Science and democracy in Europe and the United States, Princenton, Princenton University Press.
LEACH, M., I. SCOONES y B. WYNNE (2005): Science and citizens: globalization and the challenge of engagement, Londres, Zed Books.
LENGWILER, M. (2008): “Participatory Approaches in Science and technology. Historical origins and current practices in critical perspective”, Science Technology and Human Values, vol. 33, nº 2, pp.186-200.
LEVIDOW, L. y S. CARR (2007): “GM crops on trial: Technological developments as a real world experiment”, Futures, vol. 39, pp. 408-431.
MICHAEL, M. (2009): “Publics performing publics: of PiGs, PiPs and politics”, Public Understanding of Science, vol.18, pp. 617-631.
NOWOTNY, H. (2007): “How many policy rooms are there? Evidence-based and other kinds of science policies”, Science, Technology and Human Values, vol. 32, nº 4, pp. 479-490.
NOWOTNY, H., P. SCOTT y M. GIBBONS (2001): Re-thinking science: knowledge and the public in an age of uncertainty, Londres, Polity Press.
STIRLING, A. (2008): “‘Opening up’ and ‘Closing down’. Power, participation and pluralism in the social appraisal of technology”, Science, Technology and Human Values, vol. 33, nº 2, pp. 262-294.
WYNNE, B. (1996): “May the sheep safely graze? A reflexive view of the expert-lay knowledge divide”, en S. Lash., B. Szerszynski y B. Wynne (coords.): Risk, environment and modernity: Towards a new ecology, Londres, Sage, pp. 44-84.
WYNNE, B. (2006): “Public engagement as a means of restoring public trust in science - Hitting the notes, but missing the music?”, Community Genetics, vol. 9, nº 3, pp. 211-220.
WYNNE, B. y U. FELT (2007): Taking the European Knowledge Society seriously, Report of the Expert Group on Science and Governance to the Science, Economy and Society Directorate, Directorate-General for Research, Comisión Europea.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 CC Attribution 4.0
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All CTS's issues and academic articles are under a CC-BY license.
Since 2007, CTS has provided open and free access to all its contents, including the complete archive of its quarterly edition and the different products presented in its electronic platform. This decision is based on the belief that offering free access to published materials helps to build a greater and better exchange of knowledge.
In turn, for the quarterly edition, CTS allows institutional and thematic repositories, as well as personal web pages, to self-archive articles in their post-print or editorial version, immediately after the publication of the final version of each issue and under the condition that a link to the original source will be incorporated into the self-archive.
