We are delighted to announce that in autumn 2022, GSEJ will host an online forum on how to decolonise global participation in science and science communication. This is part of the project ‘Decolonise global participation:Developing new conceptual and participatory paradigms’ funded by the Independent Social Research Fund. The forum will involve approximately 100 individuals worldwide working in the general area of democratising participation.
Science and technology are often seen as an ‘enabling’ force in promoting participation, especially political participation. The forum goes beyond this linear imagination. We hope to unpack a much more comprehensive and ‘messy’ picture of the opportunities and challenges to meaningful and responsible participation in our shared socio-technical future.
It is true that new technologies can be empowering with their ‘de-skilling’ effects and by deflating various accessibility costs of participation. But it is also true that an unprecedented widening of intervention possibilities, if ungoverned, could raise new ethical and public security concerns, as is seen in the DIYBio/maker movement. More importantly, while technologies have seemingly lowered the bar for ‘participation’ in general, they have simultaneously raised the bar for responsible citizenship. As science and technology are becoming ever more fundamental to self- and collective-realisation, one may wonder if meaningful political participation is possible without an adequate level of scientific literacy.
Through convening a half-day forum with a particular focus on widening participation in science and science policy, GSEJ open brings together discussions on both how technologies shape contemporary participations, but also how an emerging civic epistemology of participation and scientific citizenship shape the practice of science.
We cordially invite citizen scientists, science communicators or organisers of relevant civic initiatives from around the world to join this dialogue. Logistic details will be released in due course. In the meantime, if you are interested and/or have suggestions, please get in touch with us: GSEJ@kent.ac.uk
