SEARCH using keywords/tags or full text search.
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
Further information
Associated staff: Bronislaw Szerszynski
Organising departments and research centres: Centre for the Study of Environmental Change, ESRC Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics (CESAGen), Sociology
Keywords: Political theory, Politics, Public participation, Public policy, Public understanding of science, Science and technology studies
Faculty News & Events
Find out about news and events in other departments:
Research & Publications | Current Students | News and Events |
Save this page:
Del.icio.us
Digg It
Reddit
Facebook
Stumble It!
Privacy and Cookies Notice