Public engagement and Citizen science  

Last week at Harvard, STS20+20 - looking at current status and future prospects for academic science and technology studies. Of interest in terms of understanding the societal context and interfaces of science with society, including public engagement.

The UK Sciencewise Expert Resource Centre, a BIS unit addressing public dialogue, has produced an international comparison of public-science dialogue programmes in policy, with recommendations for development in the UK.  The UK stands fourth out of eight countries, scored on a variety of metrics. /....

.../ The recommendations of the report are fairly detailed, but in summary:

• Building
  on and continuing the work of Sciencewise-ERC in creating institutional memory
  to capture experience and improve practice
• Developing
  resource-efficient solutions (what we call „third generation engagement‟)
• Creating
  and professionalising S&T engagement
• Providing
  a national focus for S&T engagement (somewhere for the media, politicians
  and the public to go)
• Creating
  a parliamentary link between elected representatives and the public on S&T matters
• Focusing
  on and developing opportunities for using social media to harness open government
  and transparency

Very interesting site from Sciencewise ERC on public engagement and citizen science relating to environment and landscapes - Public engagement on landscape & ecosystem futures in England, Scotland and Wales /...

.../

This is from the ScienceWise Expert Resource Centre (a UK government initiative for dialogue on science in society).  Of particular interest is that this focuses on citizen science in the sense of a direct engagement of the public in decisions and interpretation of science in a policy framework - in contrast to the use of citizen science to mean public participation in field monitoring and so forth.  This particular initiative also connects to the UK National Ecosystem Assessment which will be released in the early part of 2011.