‘State experiments with public participation: Polycentric and eccentric states in France and the Republic Democratic of the Congo

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Ehrenstein, Vera and Laurent, B. 2015. ‘State experiments with public participation: Polycentric and eccentric states in France and the Republic Democratic of the Congo. In: Jason Chilvers and Matthew Kearnes, eds. Remaking Participation: Science, Environment and Emergent Publics. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415857406 [Book Section]

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Abstract or Description

Changing relations between science and democracy – and controversies over issues like climate change, energy transitions, genetically modified organisms, and smart technologies - have led to a proliferation of new spaces of public participation and engagement. While most existing approaches adopt fixed meanings of ‘participation’ and are consumed by questions of method or critiquing the possible limits of democratic engagement, this book offers new insights that rethink public engagements with science, innovation and environmental issues as diverse, emergent and in the making. Bringing together leading scholars on science and democracy, working at the interface between science and technology studies, political theory, geography, sociology and anthropology, the volume develops relational and co-productionist approaches to understanding and intervening in spaces of participation. New empirical insights into the making, construction and circulation of participation across cultures are illustrated through examples ranging from climate change and energy to nanotechnology and mundane technologies, from institutionalised deliberative processes to citizen-led innovation and activism, and from the global north to global south. This new way of seeing participation opens up alternative paths for reconfiguring and remaking participation in more experimental, reflexive, anticipatory and responsible ways.

This ground breaking book is essential reading for scholars of participation across the critical social sciences and beyond, as well as those seeking to build more transformative participatory practices.

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