Competition Funded Studentship: Democratic innovations: Assessing new approaches for mapping public involvement in controversial science and technology issues
University of East Anglia - School of Environmental Science
| Qualification type: | PhD |
| Location: | Norwich |
| Funding for: | UK Students, EU Students |
| Funding amount: | £13,863 |
| Hours: | Full Time |
| Placed on: | 24th November 2014 |
| Closes: | 23rd January 2015 |
| Reference: | CHILVERS_U15SCI |
Start Date: October 2015.
Supervisor: Dr Jason Chilvers, jason.chilvers@uea.ac.uk
The Project:
Advances in science and technology have had profound effects on environment and society for good and bad. In the past few decades this had led to moves to democratize science and innovation, in making it more responsive and accountable to societal values and concerns, especially in areas of potentially controversial technologies. This is now seen as essential to shaping innovations for sustainability that meet social needs, draw on best available knowledge, meet conditions of public acceptability, and are implementable. To date, approaches to involving the public and societal concerns in decisions over controversial science and technology – such as GM crops, geoengineering of climate change, and fracking – have focused on inviting members of the public into discrete participatory fora or have depended on traditional social science approaches (e.g. surveys, focus groups). However, recent work in disciplines such as science and technology studies, geography and political theory has revealed the performative, constructed, partial and inherently uncertain nature of these forms of public representation (Chilvers and Kearnes, 2015). In response to this a major challenge in this field is to devise new approaches that are able to map across diverse forms of public involvement in science-related issues, and gather crucial forms of social intelligence for citizens and policy makers alike (Marres, 2007; Chilvers, 2013). Emerging approaches like digital humanities techniques, issue mapping, and forms of meta-analyses (e.g. Marres, 2012; Macnaghten and Chilvers, 2014) show much promise but have not yet been sufficiently developed and tested in real world settings. This PhD project aims to develop and evaluate an approach for mapping diverse forms of public involvement in areas of controversial science and technology.
The proposed controversy context is fracking in the UK (although the actual case will be defined by the interests of the student). The project will entail:
(i) reviewing and receiving training in existing concepts and approaches to mapping public involvement in controversies;
(ii) developing a mapping approach on the basis of this review and interviews with key user groups;
(iii) applying the approach to the case of fracking;
(iv) evaluating the mapping approach, its value and future development in interaction with policy makers and civil society actors.
It is intended that this PhD will have a major contribution to developing new approaches to better accounting for plural public values, visions and concerns in controversial areas of science and technology and provide new forms of social intelligence on a critical public issue (such as fracking). This project would suit excellent candidates with a social science or interdisciplinary environmental science background. Some knowledge of science and technology studies is desirable but not essential.
Entry Requirements:
Applicants should have a minimum of a 2.1 degree in Social science discipline, geography, environmental science
Funding:
This PhD project is in a Faculty of Science competition for UEA funded studentships. These studentships are funded for 3 years and comprise home/EU fees, an annual stipend of £13,863 and £1000 per annum to support research training. Overseas applicants may apply but they are required to fund the difference between home/EU and overseas fees (in 2014/15 the difference is £11,904 but fees are subject to an annual increase)
Interviews will be held on: 6 and 9 March 2015
To discuss the application process or particular projects, please contact the: Admissions Office, email: pgr.enquiries.admiss@uea.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0)1603 591709.
Supervisor: Dr Jason Chilvers, jason.chilvers@uea.ac.uk
The Project:
Advances in science and technology have had profound effects on environment and society for good and bad. In the past few decades this had led to moves to democratize science and innovation, in making it more responsive and accountable to societal values and concerns, especially in areas of potentially controversial technologies. This is now seen as essential to shaping innovations for sustainability that meet social needs, draw on best available knowledge, meet conditions of public acceptability, and are implementable. To date, approaches to involving the public and societal concerns in decisions over controversial science and technology – such as GM crops, geoengineering of climate change, and fracking – have focused on inviting members of the public into discrete participatory fora or have depended on traditional social science approaches (e.g. surveys, focus groups). However, recent work in disciplines such as science and technology studies, geography and political theory has revealed the performative, constructed, partial and inherently uncertain nature of these forms of public representation (Chilvers and Kearnes, 2015). In response to this a major challenge in this field is to devise new approaches that are able to map across diverse forms of public involvement in science-related issues, and gather crucial forms of social intelligence for citizens and policy makers alike (Marres, 2007; Chilvers, 2013). Emerging approaches like digital humanities techniques, issue mapping, and forms of meta-analyses (e.g. Marres, 2012; Macnaghten and Chilvers, 2014) show much promise but have not yet been sufficiently developed and tested in real world settings. This PhD project aims to develop and evaluate an approach for mapping diverse forms of public involvement in areas of controversial science and technology.
The proposed controversy context is fracking in the UK (although the actual case will be defined by the interests of the student). The project will entail:
(i) reviewing and receiving training in existing concepts and approaches to mapping public involvement in controversies;
(ii) developing a mapping approach on the basis of this review and interviews with key user groups;
(iii) applying the approach to the case of fracking;
(iv) evaluating the mapping approach, its value and future development in interaction with policy makers and civil society actors.
It is intended that this PhD will have a major contribution to developing new approaches to better accounting for plural public values, visions and concerns in controversial areas of science and technology and provide new forms of social intelligence on a critical public issue (such as fracking). This project would suit excellent candidates with a social science or interdisciplinary environmental science background. Some knowledge of science and technology studies is desirable but not essential.
Entry Requirements:
Applicants should have a minimum of a 2.1 degree in Social science discipline, geography, environmental science
Funding:
This PhD project is in a Faculty of Science competition for UEA funded studentships. These studentships are funded for 3 years and comprise home/EU fees, an annual stipend of £13,863 and £1000 per annum to support research training. Overseas applicants may apply but they are required to fund the difference between home/EU and overseas fees (in 2014/15 the difference is £11,904 but fees are subject to an annual increase)
Interviews will be held on: 6 and 9 March 2015
To discuss the application process or particular projects, please contact the: Admissions Office, email: pgr.enquiries.admiss@uea.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0)1603 591709.
