Performed and preferred participation in science and technology across Europe: exploring an alternative idea of 'democratic deficit'

Mejlgaard, Niels and Stares, Sally ORCID: 0000-0003-4697-0347 (2013) Performed and preferred participation in science and technology across Europe: exploring an alternative idea of 'democratic deficit'. Public Understanding of Science, 22 (6). pp. 660-673. ISSN 0963-6625

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Abstract

Republican ideals of active scientific citizenship and extensive use of deliberative, democratic decision making have come to dominate the public participation agenda, and academic analyses have focused on the deficit of public involvement vis-à-vis these normative ideals. In this paper we use latent class models to explore what Eurobarometer survey data can tell us about the ways in which people participate in tacit or in policy-active ways with developments in science and technology, but instead of focusing on the distance between observed participation and the dominant, normative ideal of participation, we examine the distance between what people do, and what they themselves think is appropriate in terms of involvement. The typology of citizens emerging from the analyses entails an entirely different diagnosis of democratic deficit, one that stresses imbalance between performed and preferred participation.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://pus.sagepub.com/
Additional Information:	© 2012 The Author
Divisions:	Methodology
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology
Date Deposited:	09 Aug 2013 14:07
Last Modified:	02 Oct 2024 19:15
Projects:	RES-239-25-0022
Funders:	Economic and Social Research Council
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/51629

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