What Is Public Engagement, and What Is It for? A Study of Scientists’ and Science Communicators’ Views

Hauke Riesch · Clive Potter · Linda Davies

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Research, Science, and Academia Museums and Cultural Heritage Academic Publishing and Open Access

Abstract

The “Open Air Laboratories” (OPAL) is a large, England-wide environmental public engagement (PE) project based on the “citizen science” model. It is designed to involve people of all backgrounds and abilities in the production of environmental science and in the process to educate and raise awareness and enthusiasm about nature and its importance. This article draws on a series of interviews with scientists and science communicators involved in the project to explore their motivations and aims for the project and what they see as the goals of public engagement generally. We find a varied and nuanced array of motivations and aims that interviewees cite for taking part in the project, pointing toward a reevaluation of traditional ways of understanding the value of public engagement, policy relevance, and dialogue within public engagement. Especially relevant in relation to thinking about the policy relevance of PE is our conclusion that there are many different ways of thinking about the value of PE, characterized in this article as “the neglected middle.”

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References

1999Cultural boundaries of science: Credibility on the line 1992Misunderstood misunderstanding: social identities and public uptake of science 2009Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits 2004Evaluating Public-Participation Exercises: A Research Agenda 2003Science, Social Theory and Public Knowledge 2013Citizen science as seen by scientists: Methodological, epistemological and ethical dimensions 2002A Conceptual Definition and Theoretical Model of Public Deliberation in Small Face-to-Face Groups 2007What Factors Predict Scientists' Intentions to Participate in Public Engagement of Science Activities?

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