Science and citizens: global and local voices

This IDS Policy Briefing argues that public engagement in scientific debates and policy processes is necessary to address how research agendas are framed and the social purposes they serve, and to ensure that poorer people and communities will benefit from them.

Key questions include:

• what new perspectives on the links between science, technical expertise and citizen participation emerge from comparing cases across different issues and settings?
• what difference does globalisation make to the policy processes which govern science and technology development?
• what does this tell us about approaches to risk, regulation and public participation?
• how might the notion of "cognitive justice", involving dialogue between the different knowledges and perspectives held by scientists and members of the public locally and globally – help to further debate and practice?

The policy brief provides three case studies:

• rice and biotechnology in India
• anti-retroviral drugs in South Africa
• health problems in India’s industrial zones.

The bulletin concludes that by exploring how science and citizenship claims are emerging around different issues we can see how diverse knowledges evolve in different settings, according to particular histories and dynamics in relationships between science, states and international political economy and society.

Recommendations include:

• policymakers, civil society and activist groups (together with researchers) should carefully consider what conditions and what avenues of participation offer routes to more vital forms of dissent, to genuine negotiation, and to political and practical solutions based on mutual recognition and respect
• such approaches need to work in tandem with citizen mobilisation (through the media and internet, public protest and challenges through the courts).

It argues that there is a need to think about how a new politics of science and citizenship can open up debates through participation and deliberation, rather than closing them down.