The Road Ahead
The Road Ahead: Public Dialogue on Science and Technology brings together some of the UK’s leading thinkers and practitioners in science and society to ask where we have got to, how we have got here, why we are doing what we are doing and what we should do next.
The collection of essays aims to provide policy makers and dialogue deliverers with insights into how dialogue could be used in the future to strengthen the links between science and society.
It is introduced by Professor Kathy Sykes, one of the UK’s best known science communicators, who is also the head of the Sciencewise-ERC Steering Group, and Jack Stilgoe, a DEMOS associate, who compiled the collection.
Leading scientist and TV presenter Lord Robert Winston, who regularly speaks on scientific issues in the House of Lords, has written one of the essays, ‘Why turning out brilliant scientists isn’t enough’. He said: “The remarkable creativity of science is an integral part of human culture and it needs to be thought of in this way. Public dialogue has now been part of the research process for several decades but the way in which it’s performed and used continues to be debated.”
If you would like a hard copy of The Road Ahead, please contact us at enquiries@sciencewise-erc.org.uk
The Chapters
Engaging futures: Opening up choices on science and technology
Andy Stirling
The collection starts with the why of public dialogue. Andy Stirling argues in the first chapter that, in different situations and different perspectives, there are many different possible whys. Stirling is interested in how we connect dialogue to policy-making. He wants us to get away from the Manichean view that science is either good or bad and have a dialogue about the different possibilities science presents. He draws a distinction between processes that close down debate and those that open it up to these new possibilities.
Empowered or reduced? Reflections on the citizen and the push for participation
Chris Caswill and Steve Rayner
In chapter two, Steve Rayner and Chris Caswill take a sceptical look at public dialogue and ask some difficult questions about power and politics. They suggest that, even if public dialogue is as open and empowering as it claims to be, which is far from clear, we have still not yet thought through the connection between deliberation and representative democracy.
Designing and delivering public engagement with science
Andrew Acland
Turning to the how of dialogue, Andrew Acland argues that, rather than pulling participation processes off the shelf, we must design our dialogue with clarity about purpose, people, products, context and resources. These factors might conflict, leading to compromises, but we need to be clear why we are doing what we are doing.
An appetite for public dialogue: Using public engagement to inform policy decisions in emerging areas of science and technology
Dame Deirdre Hutton
Created soon after the BSE crisis, the Food Standards Agency has had to develop a sophisticated system of dialogue with members of the public. It is at the forefront of thinking through how dialogue connects to the decisions public bodies have to make. In her chapter, Dame Deirdre Hutton, the chair of the FSA, describes its approach, earning public trust rather than assuming it. The FSA uses public dialogue to think through its decisions, recognising the frequent tensions between public and scientific priorities.
Public engagement and nanotechnology: The UK experience
Richard Jones
Richard Jones offers his conceptual and personal thoughts on the public debate about nanotechnology. Jones personifies the transition towards an open-minded model of science. He is an experimental nanoscientist who has in the last five years started to engage with experiments of a different sort.
Reflections from participants
Debbie Perry and Laura Bowater
It is easy to talk about dialogue in the abstract, forgetting that there are people at its core. The next chapter brings together two participants, Laura Bowater and Debbie Perry, both of whom have taken part in Sciencewise-ERC processes.
Science and the web
Charles Leadbeater
Charles Leadbeater broadens our gaze by putting public dialogue in the context of a trend towards greater openness within and around science. He argues that in old fields such as astronomy and new ones such as synthetic biology, scientists are increasingly doing science with people rather than for them. If dialogue is not sufficiently meaningful, members of the public will get tired of it, Leadbeater says: ‘they will want to contribute, not just to comment.’
Why turning out brilliant scientists isn’t enough
Lord Robert Winston
Processes of opening up science need to go beyond formal public dialogue, into the hearts and minds of scientists themselves. Robert Winston concludes the collection by arguing that scientists themselves should be encouraged to listen to the public and talk more confidently about the things they think are important.
