Participating despite questions: toward a more confident participatory technology assessment : commentary on: "Questioning 'participation': a critical appraisal of its conceptualization in a Flemish participatory technology assessment"

David H Guston

doi:10.1007/s11948-011-9314-y

Participating despite questions: toward a more confident participatory technology assessment : commentary on: "Questioning 'participation': a critical appraisal of its conceptualization in a Flemish participatory technology assessment"

Sci Eng Ethics. 2011 Dec;17(4):691-7. doi: 10.1007/s11948-011-9314-y. Epub 2011 Oct 11.

Author

David H Guston¹

Affiliation

¹ Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes Arizona State University, P.O. Box 875603, 1120 South Cady Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. david.guston@asu.edu

PMID: 21986815
DOI: 10.1007/s11948-011-9314-y

Abstract

While the important challenges of public deliberations on emerging technologies are crucial to keep in mind, this paper argues that scholars and practitioners have reason to be more confident in their performance of participatory technology assessments (pTA). Drawing on evidence from the 2008 National Citizens' Technology Forum (NCTF) conducted by the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University, this paper describes how pTA offers a combination of intensive and extensive qualities that are unique among modes of engagement. In the NCTF, this combination led to significant learning and opinion changes, based on what can be characterized as a high-quality deliberation. The quality of the anticipatory knowledge required to address emerging technologies is always contested, but pTAs can be designed with outcomes in mind-especially when learning is understood as an outcome.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Community Participation*
Concept Formation*
Humans
Nanotechnology*
Social Values*
Technology Assessment, Biomedical*