The need for public participation in the governance of science centers

Bandelli, Andrea; Konijn, Elly A.; Willems, Jaap

doi:10.1080/09647770902857497

Cited by 24 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…While increasingly ISE institutions include community advisory panels or committees as part of institutional governance or project development, the extent to which such approaches enable or resist power-sharing has been questioned (Bandelli & Konijn, 2012;Bandelli, Konijn, & Willems, 2009;Lynch, 2011). Similarly, although calls for participatory practice in various elements of ISE activity have increased and have been specifically linked to issues of equity and widening participation (see for example Golding, 2009;Simon, 2010), this appears to have been difficult in practice.…”

Section: Limits To Infrastructure Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equity in informal science education: developing an access and equity framework for science museums and science centres

Dawson

2014

Studies in Science Education

127

115

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Informal science education (ISE) is a popular pursuit, with millions of people visiting science museums, science centres, zoos, botanic gardens, aquaria, science festivals and more around the world. Questions remain, however, about how accessible and inclusive ISE practices are. This article reviews research on participation in ISE through the lens of social inclusion and equity and suggests that, as a field of practice, ISE is exclusive, with relatively little empirical or theoretical research on equity compared to 'formal' science education. This article contributes to science education scholarship by exploring equity in ISE, bringing together international research on ISE equity issues to examine what an access and equity framework for ISE might entail. It draws on theoretical perspectives from research on social justice, social reproduction and pedagogy to adapt a three-part access framework, focusing in turn on infrastructure access, literacy and community acceptance, to develop an access and equity framework for ISE.

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Section: Limits To Infrastructure Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equity in informal science education: developing an access and equity framework for science museums and science centres

Dawson

2014

Studies in Science Education

127

115

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…They include: public debates of varying scale, frequency and focus [the most famous of which in the UK is the GM Nation (Rowe et al 2005)]; citizens' juries or citizens' conventions [happening at national and even crossnational levels, such as The Meeting of Minds (Goldschmidt and Renn 2006)]; science shops and cafe ś scientifiques; science festivals (the major ones in the UK being organized in Manchester, Cheltenham, Glasgow, Oxford, Brighton, Bristol and the UK-wide festival organized by the British Science Associations); forums around outreach programmes organized by universities and laboratories in local schools and community centres; in addition to small-scale forums-often known as dialogue events-that take place within science museums and science centres (Pedretti 2004(Pedretti , 2007Tlili et al 2006;Bandelli et al 2009). This presents us with a challenging spread of activities, modes of operating and delivery, and even divergent objectives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediating Science and Society in the EU and UK: From Information-Transmission to Deliberative Democracy?

Tlili

Dawson

2010

Minerva

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In this paper we critically review recent developments in policies, practices and philosophies pertaining to the mediation between science and the public within the EU and the UK, focusing in particular on the current paradigm of Public Understanding of Science and Technology (PEST) which seeks to depart from the science information-transmission associated with previous paradigms, and enact a deliberative democracy model. We first outline the features of the current crisis in democracy and discuss deliberative democracy as a response to this crisis. We then map out and critically review the broad outlines of recent policy developments in public-science mediation in the EU and UK contexts, focusing on the shift towards the deliberative-democratic model. We conclude with some critical thoughts on the complex interrelationships between democracy, equality, science and informal pedagogies in public-science mediations. We argue that science and democracy operate within distinct value-spheres that are not necessarily consonant with each other. We also problematize the now common dismissal of informationtransmission of science as inimical to democratic engagement, and argue for a reassessment of the role and importance of informal science learning for the ''lay'' public, provided within the framework of a deliberative democracy that is not reducible to consensus building or the mere expression of opinions rooted in social and cultural givens. This, we argue, can be delivered by a model of PEST that is creative and experimental, with both educational and democratic functions.

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“…Museums have good opportunities to encourage participation in the physical environment -physical venues, authentic objects and real-world experiences can be combined with the lessons of participation (Simon 2010). Researchers (Simon 2010;Schick and Damkjaer 2010;Bandelli, Konijn, and Willems 2009) have already explored if and how museums exploit the participatory potential of Web 2.0, but do all museums have the opportunity, the necessity or the desire to employ this participatory potential online? Despite the fact that the modern ICT explosion has generated an assumption that participatory activities are part of the everyday routine for many individual users and organisations, there remain many challenges for museums engaging with participatory culture .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Reviewing museum participation in online channels in Latvia

Lotina

2014

Museum Management and Curatorship

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Museums have good opportunities to encourage different forms of online participation, but the use of online channels for participation remains as a question to be investigated. This research explores the diversity of participatory activities applied by Latvian museums in online channels and the attitude of museum professionals towards online participation. Specialists working in different museums in Latvia were interviewed, and the results demonstrate that activity in social networking sites (SNS) is determined by the following aspects: credibility of SNS, characteristics of the main museum target groups, usage of social media by audiences, museum professionals' understanding of how to use social media for communication with users, the amount of time museum professionals are ready to spend on communication and a level of scepticism about the participatory potential of users. The major motivations to engage museums in SNS include voluntary initiatives motivated by personal faith in the power of social media.

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The need for public participation in the governance of science centers

Cited by 24 publications

References 20 publications

Equity in informal science education: developing an access and equity framework for science museums and science centres

Equity in informal science education: developing an access and equity framework for science museums and science centres

Mediating Science and Society in the EU and UK: From Information-Transmission to Deliberative Democracy?

Reviewing museum participation in online channels in Latvia

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