Call for Papers ‘Opening up Science Through Public Engagement’

Photo by 🇨🇭 Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/_wDZkpybAfY

NewHoRRIzon invites you to submit an abstract for the session ‘Opening up science through public engagement’ (session 6) at the Eu-SPRI conference in Utrecht, The Netherlands, 3-5 June 2020.

Although public engagement practices generally have shifted from an ‘information deficit model’ towards more democratic ‘dialogue models’ of engagement, the question remains relevant what these practices contribute to wider societal goals as acclaimed, such as scientific literacy, political participation, new research perspectives, societal relevance (as formulated by the European Commission), transparency, openness, or inclusion, responsiveness, anticipation, reflexivity (Stilgoe et al., 2013). The session aims to further investigate institutional, regulatory and cultural barriers and (technological) opportunities for public engagement practices to truly benefit public values. We regard public engagement as two-way communication between science and the public, therefore including citizen participation in all research phases, as well as science communication.

The session is organized by Wout Scholten, Anne-Floor Scholvinck, Paul Diederen (Rathenau Institute – Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) and Ingeborg Meijer (CWTS – Leiden University).

Important dates:

  • Opening of Submissions for paper proposals: 1 January 2020
  • Closing of Submissions for paper proposals: 15 February 2020
  • Announcement of selected papers, speed talks and roundtables: 15 March 2020