People Power? – A workshop on science, participation and politics
Demos and Greenpeace would like to invite you to take part in a workshop for European NGOs and others to share and learn from experiences of public participation in issues involving science.

We have seen recently a new enthusiasm across the EU for public participation. In the UK, Citizens’ Juries are being held up as a source of new political legitimacy. For issues involving science, it is now accepted that public engagement is important for policy-making. Recent policies on GM crops, hybrid embryos and nanotechnologies have all claimed to have involved some element of public dialogue. But we are also seeing a credibility gap emerging. The UK’s recent energy review attempted a public consultation with public events, but was called a ‘sham’ and many green groups including Greenpeace pulled out because of doubts about the real intentions of the process. It seems that participation can be used both to close down debate and to open it up.

Where does this all leave science, democracy and civil society? Does public participation undermine NGOs and scientists? Or does it empower them? How should NGOs deal with future issues, whether micro-generation, open source software, the ethics of stem cell research, clinical trials for drugs or synthetic biology, in a more democratic way? Please join us for a workshop bringing together participation experts, scientists and NGOs. Lunch will be provided. Attendees at this workshop will all participate. But the conversation will be prompted by speakers including the following
> Doug Parr, Chief Scientist, Greenpeace UK
> Robin Grove-White, Emeritus Professor, University of Lancaster
> Richard Wilson, Director, Involve
> Norbert Steinhaus, International Science Shop Network and the Citizen Participation in Science and Technology project
> Jack Stilgoe, Senior Researcher, Demos

This workshop is supported by the European Commission’s Science, Technology and Civil Society project (www.peopleandscience.org), which looks for new research from dialogue between scientists and NGOs.

Registration required:

Yes

Free:

Yes