Public participation in the making of science policy

Abstract

This paper argues that, because Science and Technology Studies (STS) lost contact with political philosophy, its defense of public participation in policymaking involving technical claims is normatively unsatisfactory. Current penchants for political under-laboring and normative individualism are critiqued, and the connections between STS and theorists of deliberative democracy are explored. A conservative normativity is proposed, and STS positions on public participation are discussed in relation to current questions about individual and group rights in a liberal democracy. The result is avenues to normatively defend public participation, by analogy with identity politics and Habermas, while also theorizing its limits. © 2010 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.