Local steps in an international career: a Danish-style consensus conference in Austria

Abstract

The article gives an account of the first Austrian nationwide Danish-style consensus conference, held in the summer of 2003, treating policy issues related to genetic data. Consensus conferences are currently widely discussed for their promise to democratize fields of technological decision-making which are both crucial to the fate of modern society and inaccessible to public involvement. Instead of evaluating the "democratic efficiency" of the deliberative exercise, the essay will contextualize the event in local, as well as international developments comprising discursive, institutional and political elements. Rather than offering definitive claims about the normative significance of the rapidly diffusing deliberative technique, the discussion of a local experience with it will arrive at ambivalent conclusions.

Controversial science-based technology public attitude formation and regulation in comparative perspective: The state construction of policy alternatives in Asia

“…The notion that new technologies are a growing area of policy concern is reflected in the increasing use of processes such as Danish-style consensus conferences in countries like Norway, the Netherlands, France, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States [59]. The reception of controversial technologies like biotechnology in general [18,36,73], in the medical field [7,10,31], and of genetically modified foods in particular [26], has highlighted the need to better understand public opinion and attitude formation among consumers and observers of new products and processes.…”

Deliberation, Dialogue or Dissemination: Changing Objectives in the Communication of Science and Technology in Denmark

“…Finally, a board of representatives from a large number of different public, private and third sector organizations serve as a group of important mediators to stakeholders. During its years of operation, the Board has developed a number of specific formats for technology assessment, including expert reports, but the specific format of the participatory consensus conference is most widely known (Einsiedel, Jelsøe, & Breck, 2001;Horst, 2008;Seifert, 2006).…”

“…Besides marking the beginning of the network period, the 2002 STAGE-workshop in Denmark was supposed to provide insight into the particular Danish form of participatory governance of science and technology, which has been epitomized by the Danish Style consensus conferences (Andersen & Jaeger, 1999;Klüwer, 1995;Seifert, 2006). It was therefore not a surprise that the agenda for the workshop included a presentation by Lars Klüwer, the director of the Danish Board of Technology, who was scheduled to talk about the work of the board.…”

Self-government Elements in Town-planning of the Russian Federation: Public Hearings Experience

“…This model has been implemented in other European countries. In particular a work of F.Seifert [5] is dedicated to this model implementation in Austria, an article of A. Ricroch and F. Jésus [6] -in France. A work ofS.…”