List members planning “public engagement” activities may be interested in reading this paper about the evaluation of the GM nation public debate. Dr Gene Rowe from the Institute of Food Research and colleagues highlight some of the difficulties with rigorous evaluation and, most usefully for practitioners, suggest some solutions to those difficulties. If you have any questions for Gene you can either reply to this message or email him directly on [log in to unmask]

 

The abstract and pdf can be viewed and downloaded at:

http://pus.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/14/4/331

 

Reference

Rowe, G., Horlick-Jones, T., Walls, J. and Pidgeon, N.F. (2005) Difficulties in evaluating public engagement initiatives: Reflections on an evaluation of the UK ‘GM Nation’ public debate, Public Understanding of Science, 14 (4), 331-352.

 

Abstract

In the realm of risk management, and policy-making more generally, "public engagement" is often advocated as an antidote to pathologies associated with traditional methods of policy-making, and associated deficit-model-driven communication strategies. The actual benefits of public engagement are, however, difficult to establish without thorough evaluation of specific engagement processes. Unfortunately, rigorous evaluation is difficult, and, perhaps for this reason, it has rarely been undertaken. In this paper we highlight a number of these difficulties in the light of our experiences in evaluating a major engagement initiative, namely the GM Nation? publice debate on the possible commercialization of transgenic crops, which took place in Britain in 2003. The difficulties we identify seem likely to be relevant to many, if not most, engagement evaluations. They are concerned with both theoretical/normative (how one should evaluate) and practical (how one does evaluate) issues. We suggest a number of possible solutions to these evaluation difficulties.

Zoe Dunford, Media Manager
Institute of Food Research,

Norwich, NR4 7UA

Tel: +44 (0)1603 255111
M: +44 (0)7768 164185
www.ifr.ac.uk 

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