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Dear all, Our next seminar will be held on Wednesday 29th February. We are very pleased to have Oliver Escobar (Public Policy Network, University of Edinburgh) to discuss the practice and politics of public engagement. Details of the seminar are below. All welcome. If you'd like to join the email list then please contact Simon Lock. We look forward to seeing you there. Professor Martin Bauer, Dr Simon Lock, Dr Jane Gregory Date, Time and Location: Wednesday 29th February 2012 16.15-18:00 Venue: St Clement's, S314, LSE http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/findingYourWayAroundLSE.htm Speaker: Oliver Escobar, Public Policy Network, University of Edinburgh Dialogue in science public engagement: Inquiry, practice and political work Abstract: In this session, based on stories of research and practice in Scotland, I share a personal tale of excitement, puzzlement and action. In 2009 I became a Public Engagement Fellow of Edinburgh Beltane –one of the six UK Beacons for Public Engagement. Coming from a background in political science and policy analysis, and based back then at a communication’s department (Queen Margaret University), I couldn’t wait to learn about how the infamous ‘mood for dialogue’ was transforming public engagement practices in the science and technology world. [Excitement] My main research interest was –and still is- how direct citizen participation was reshaping a range of policy arenas. As I began to work with, and do research about, public engagement practitioners, it became apparent that most of their everyday activity –with the exception of a few experimental mini-publics- seemed better classified as public relations exercises rather than as deliberative practices. Practitioners’ talk was peppered by Public Dialogue rhetoric, while their practices seemed clearly anchored in the PUS mindset. [Puzzlement] At that point I became involved in studying, and contributing to, a deliberative process around Brain Imaging and Society. This case study helped me to understand the frictions between the discourse of ‘upstream public engagement’, and the practices of ‘downstream policy-making’. Simultaneously, I kept collaborating in the development of the Beltane training programme on dialogue, which has introduced over a hundred PE practitioners, knowledge brokers and researchers to dialogic facilitation. The course is currently being transformed in to a core module for a new MSc in Science Communication and Public Engagement, and it’s also somewhat galvanising a network of cross-disciplinary facilitators. [Action] In this session, therefore, I use some of these research/practice stories to reflect about the role that researchers can play in ‘participatory democracy’, and thus stimulate a discussion on the intertwinement of inquiry, practice, and political work. Future seminars - 2011/12 Session: 14th March - Tiago Mata, Cambridge University on economic journalism 30th May - Felicity Mellor, on the BBC science coverage review About the Seminar Series The London PUS seminar is an interdisciplinary intercollegiate seminar concerned with the broad range of topics that fall under the headings of public understanding of science, public engagement with science, science communication, and science-in-society. It has been run jointly between LSE and UCL since 1993 and is open to all. Our participants predominantly come from a wide range of academic disciplines, and the science policy and science communication/public engagement communities. It is currently supported by the Public Understanding of Science journal published by SAGE and the Department of Science and Technology Studies, UCL. Dr Simon J Lock Teaching Fellow in STS Global Citizenship Study Abroad Programme Co-ordinator Department of Science and Technology Studies UCL Gower Street London WC1E 6BT [log in to unmask] 020 7679 3763 (internal: x33763) www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/staff/lock twitter: @simonjlock STS Goes Global! Study Abroad Year in Global Citizenship at UCL: www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/global-citizen ********************************************************************** Further information about the psci-com discussion list, including list archive, can be found at the list web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/psci-com.html You may also change your settings and subscribe/unsubscribe to psci-com from the web site. Psci-com is part of the National Academic Mailing List Service, known as 'JISCMail'. 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