CPPA lecturer Gretchen Gano will speak next week at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars about engaging the public in evaluating technology use in science and in social decision-making.
This forum, titled “Technology Assessment and Public Participation: From TA to pTA,” will be webcast live from the Wilson Center on Thursday, Dec. 6, from noon to 2 p.m. Gano and other speakers will explore ways to change the current paradigm whereby everyday people pay for technology through taxes and consumer purchases, but rarely are involved in assessing that same technology in a meaningful and influential way. The recent World Wide Views on Biodiversity project will be used as an example of how the public can be effectively engaged in these kinds of discussions.
As part of the World Wide Views project, Gano and two CPPA students worked last summer and earlier this fall to recruit 100 participants from across Massachusetts for a day-long discussion about environmental regulations and policies. The Massachusetts event, held at the Museum of Science in Boston, was one of 34 that took place that day in 25 countries around the globe. Results from all of the sessions were then compiled into a report, which was released in October at the meeting in Hyderabad, India, of the U.N. Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity.
CPPA has been able to participate in this innovative global project thanks to a university Public Service Endowment grant to the Science, Technology and Society Initiative, a CPPA-affiliated endeavor that conducts multidisciplinary research on the intersection of science and technology with today’s social, political and economic issues.
Other speakers at next week’s event include David Rejeski, director of the Wilson Center’s Science and Technology Innovation Program; Richard Worthington, professor of politics and chair of the Program in Public Policy Analysis at Pomona College; Darlene Cavalier, founder of Science Cheerleader and SciStarter and contributing editor of Discover Magazine; David Sittenfeld, Forum program manager at the Museum of Science, Boston; Tim Persons, U.S. Government Accountability Office; and Mikko Rask, head of research at Finland’s National Consumer Research Centre.