What happens if you invite a scientist and a non-scientist to discuss environmental issues collaboratively? This project explores the potential of a novel institutional mechanism, the formal one-to-one deliberation or deliberative exchange, to facilitate mutual learning between two disparate groups. The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Science in Society Programme.
The importance of public participation in environmental (and other science-related) decision-making is now widely recognized. However, it is widely recognised that there are major obstacles to effective participation. One important response to these problems has been the development of new forums, such as citizens' juries, in which a small randomly selected group of ordinary citizens are brought together to discuss a particular issue over a period of two or three days with the help of expert witnesses. Another response has been the attempt to promote "scientific citizenship" or increased public understanding of science. This project aims to contribute to the further development of both responses.
We will invite 12 people - 6 academic scientists and 6 members of the public from the Newcastle area - to take part in a series of meetings (or deliberative exchanges). Each meeting will be a one-to-one meeting between an academic scientist and a non-scientist, which will be facilitated by a researcher. At the meeting, the two participants will be asked to work together to address a small number of issues related to a particular environmental topic (see below). We will examine the deliberative process that occurs as the participants talk to each other. We will also examine the effects on the environmental beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of each participant as a result of taking part in a series of six deliberative exchanges with six different people.
The project will enable us to make initial assessments of the potential of the deliberative exchange as a social institution and as a research method. Does the deliberative exchange provide a context in which people with very different backgrounds, beliefs and attitudes can learn from each other? How much can we learn by recording deliberative exchanges and analysing how the participants communicate, especially how they try to explain things that may be unfamiliar to the other person? The project will also provide an opportunity for us to look specifically at the discussion of scientific ideas as part of a complex set of considerations (including, ethical, political and social ideas) that are relevant to environmental issues. How do the participants integrate scientific ideas with other relevant ideas? What are the obstacles to mutual understanding? How do they explain their ideas, including scientific ideas, to each other?