Implementing the Concept of Public Engagement with Science and Technology: Visions and Reflections on Practice

Abstract

Public engagement with science and technology has been increasingly recognized as desirable for proper management of the social and environmental challenges facing humanity. However, achieving an effective public participation in science and technology has proven to be a quite complex objective and one that is difficult to fully reach. Several bodies have tried to implement public participation, resulting in different proposals on ways to “do engagement”. Identifying differences and similarities between those proposals and examining their assumptions and implications can contribute to rethink and to adjust future actions. This article presents a reflection on the purposes that public engagement with science and technology should serve, who to involve, how, when and which methods to use to assess the impacts of participation, as well as on the limits of participatory processes.