Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Lancaster University

Home
About FASS
- Home page
- Read the Dean's Welcome
- Contact Us
Departments
Departments
- Find departments, websites and department heads.
- Go to Department list
People
Faculty Office
- Contact Deans, admin, research support, finance and IT staff via the Faculty Office
Find all Academic and Support Staff
- Academic and support staff in departments
- General Contact information
Study Here
Undergraduate Study
- Introduction to undergraduate study
- Studying for a degree
Postgraduate Study
- Introduction to Postgraduate Study
- Go to the Graduate School Website for information about funding, research training, view student profiles etc.
Research
Our Research
Publications
- Download publications from Lancaster's Publications Repository.
- Recent Books
See also
- Business and Enterprise
- Knowledge Transfer
Business & Enterprise
Business and Enterprise
See also
- Research
- Knowledge Transfer
News & Events
FASS Events
- All Forthcoming Events
- Events Archive
FASS News
- Keep up-to-date with our News
- View News Archive
FASS Intranet
FASS Intranet
- LU Staff only. Policies/guidelines, funding, research support, committees etc.
- Go to FASS Intranet

You are here: Home >

Events

News

Subscribe to News and Events

Mixing things up: science, politics and lay knowledge

Date: 19 March 2008 Time: 1.30-5.30 pm

Meeting Room 1, Conference Centre, Lancaster University

Invited speakers:

Robert Evans (Cardiff), Katharine Farrell (UFZ, Leipzig), John Law (Lancaster), Jerry Ravetz (Oxford), Larry Reynolds (Lancaster), Bronislaw Szerszynski (Lancaster), Claire Waterton (Lancaster), Brian Wynne (Lancaster)

In recent decades many social scientists have argued that, in order for policy decisions in the area of science and technology to be robust and legitimate, they need to draw on forms of knowledge that lie outside that of accredited technical experts. For example, Funtowicz and Ravetz have proposed that problems characterised by high levels of uncertainty and high decision-stakes exceed the capacity of Kuhnian 'normal' science to provide answers, requiring a 'post-normal science' in which 'extended facts' are considered by an extended peer community. Brian Wynne has argued that publics properly draw on a wider set of hermeneutic, lifeworld judgements about technologies, such as those concerning the trustworthiness and implicit worldviews of the institutions involved. Collins and Evans agree that lay citizens can contribute to policy debates but have suggested that epistemic rigour in the construction of facts be maintained by selectively extending the epistemic community to include 'uncertified experts', leaving lay citizens to act in different, more overtly political settings. And Bruno Latour has argued for new decision-making arrangements in which modernity's founding distinction between nature and society - and thus between science and politics - is abandoned.

In this informal workshop we will explore the implications of these and other approaches to reconceptualising the relationship between politics, science and the public.

The workshop is organised by the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change (CSEC) and the ESRC Centre for the Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics (Cesagen)

All are welcome, but numbers will be limited so please reserve a place in advance.

The workshop is free, including tea and coffee at the break.

If you would like to join the speakers for a hot buffet lunch from 12.30 in the Conference Centre Foyer, the cost is £13.00. Just let me know by Wednesday 12 March (and if you're vegetarian).

Maps can be found here http://www.lancs.ac.uk/travel/maps.htm (the conference centre is marked 21 on the campus map).

For all communications, please contact Bronislaw Szerszynski.

Contact:

Who can attend: Anyone