Deliberating the Environment
What happens if you invite a scientist and a non-scientist to discuss environmental issues collaboratively?
- Project Dates: 2003 - 2004
- Project Leader: Derek Bell
- Staff: Derek Bell (School of Geography, Politics and Sociology), Nicola Thompson, Mary Brennan, Jan Deckers (School of Medical Sciences Education Development)
- Sponsors: ESRC
This project explored the potential of a novel institutional mechanism, the formal one-to-one deliberation or deliberative exchange, to facilitate mutual learning between two disparate groups.
Twelve research participants were involved in the project - 6 academic scientists and 6 members of the public from the Newcastle area. They took part in a series of one-to-one meetings facilitated by a researcher. At the meeting, the two participants were asked to work together to address a small number of issues related to a particular environmental topic. The research addressed the following questions:
- Does the deliberative exchange provide a context in which people with very different backgrounds, beliefs and attitudes can learn from each other?
- How much can we learn by recording deliberative exchanges and analysing how the participants communicate, especially how they try to explain things that may be unfamiliar to the other person?
- How do the participants integrate scientific ideas with other relevant ideas? What are the obstacles to mutual understanding?
- How do they explain their ideas, including scientific ideas, to each other?