Shifting and Deepening Engagements: Experimental Normativity in Public Participation in Science and Technology

Abstract

Public participation in science, technology, and innovation is a significant trend in contemporary western democracies, which increasingly implicates the social scientist in diverse ways. Yet, the question as to how social scientists actually engage in public participation, and how their engagements may be normatively justified, is not the object of systematic consideration in participatory frameworks and in action-oriented social science. In this article, we ask how social scientists can take responsibility for their normative choices when engaging in participatory practice. Drawing on our experiences as researchers of public participation in nanotechnologies in Flanders (Belgium) and France, respectively, we reflectively consider our relationship with research subjects, the political relevance of our work, and the research problems we deal with. This leads us to articulate three modes of normativity that inform our commitments: a process mode, a critical mode, and a mode inspired by Actor Network Theory. Differentiating between these modes and garnering sensitivity towards each mode’s characteristics opens the way to experimentation with different types of normativity through which the social scientist accounts for her commitments and shifts or deepens her engagements in response to conflicting demands and real-world circumstances. Thus, rather than endorsing one approach to participation, we recommend a pragmatic attitude that implies systematic probing of the roles the social scientist assumes vis-à-vis other participants, interests, and objectives, and that enables her to continually adjust her position in view of the particularities of her situation.

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