Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Public Understanding of Science
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lezaun, J.
Right arrow Articles by Soneryd, L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Consulting citizens: technologies of elicitation and the mobility of publics

Javier Lezaun, Ph.D.

Cornell University, jlezaun{at}amherst.edu

Linda Soneryd

The new centrality of "the public" to the governance of science and technology has been accompanied by a widespread use of public consultation mechanisms designed to elicit from citizens relevant opinions on technoscientific matters. This paper explores the configuration of legitimate constituencies in two such exercises: the UK "GM Nation?" public debate on food biotechnology, and a Swedish "Transparency Forum" on the risks of mobile telephones. We consider the apparently paradoxical combination in these two examples of a tendency to produce static images of the public with a high valuation of mobility—of citizens and their opinions—as the key outcome of deliberation. We discuss the organizers' careful delineation of a distinction between "stakeholders" and the "general public," and their aversion to any sort of "eventfulness" in public deliberations. Finally, we introduce the classical notion of the "idiot"—the individual who minds exclusively his or her own private affairs— and argue for the need to develop a new vocabulary to evaluate the politics of "listening to the public."

Public Understanding of Science, Vol. 16, No. 3, 279-297 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0963662507079371
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Bulletin of Science Technology SocietyHome page
M. C. Powell and M. Colin
Participatory Paradoxes: Facilitating Citizen Engagement in Science and Technology From the Top-Down?
Bulletin of Science Technology Society, August 1, 2009; 29(4): 325 - 342.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Prog Hum GeogrHome page
G. Davies and C. Dwyer
Progress reports
Progress in Human Geography, June 1, 2008; 32(3): 399 - 406.
[PDF]