Home Power: A Model for Democracy in Technology Decision Making

美国的家庭电力运动现在有超过10万户家庭，他们的主人已经安装了自己的光伏（太阳能电池）、风能和微型水力发电系统。本研究的目的是考察这一运动作为技术设计和开发领域直接民主决策的罕见实例。将国内权力经验与民主理论和科学技术研究文献的要素联系起来，研究者将开发一种公众参与科学技术决策的新模式，并将其与其他更熟悉的制度结构和实践进行比较和对比，这些结构和实践是做出此类决策的。关于家庭电力运动的经验数据收集将包括对主要国家人物和其他活动家的采访，以及对威斯康星州阿默斯特附近社区的参与者观察，该社区每年举办中西部可再生能源博览会。研究将检验大众互动在形成知识库方面的独特性质；参与运动的性质以及参与对参与者自身的影响；独特的感知和处理专业的运动；以及所涉及的技术的特定属性与个人直接参与之间可能存在的任何联系。为了帮助完善模型并衡量其适用性，研究者将考虑家庭电力发展与公民对有毒废物处理的担忧之间是否存在关系，或者美国和国外“参与式研究”努力的出现。即将开发的模型将对最近表达的对民主国家技术决策的关切作出反应，并有助于根据冷战后社会和经济环境的变化对政府与科学和技术之间的关系进行重新审查。在这种情况下，新的决策模式及其影响值得考虑。研究结果将在各种会议和文章中向学术界和大众提出；可能还会出一本书。

The home power movement in the United States now counts over 100,000 homes whose owners have implemented their own photovoltaic (solar cell), wind and micro-hydroelectric power systems. The object of this research is to examine this movement as a rare instance of direct democratic decisionmaking in the area of technology design and development. Linking the home power experience with elements of democratic theory and the science and technology studies literature, the investigator will develop a new model of public participation in science and technology decisionmaking and compare and contrast it with other, more familiar institutional structures and practices in which such decisions get made. Empirical data gathering on the home power movement will involve interviews with major national figures and other activists, and participant observation in the community around Amherst, Wisconsin, that produces the annual Midwest Renewable Energy Fair. Research will examine the unique nature of popular interactions in shaping a knowledge base; the nature of participation in the movement and the effects of participation on the participants themselves; the distinctive perception and handling of expertise in the movement; and any links that may exist between particular attributes of the technologies involved and the directness of individual participation. To help to refine the model and gauge its applicability, the investigator will consider whether relationships exist between home power developments and citizens' concerns about toxic waste disposal, or the emergence of `participatory research` efforts in the U.S. and abroad. The model to be developed will be responsive to recently expressed concerns about technology decision making in a democracy and contribute to ongoing re-examinations of relationships between government and science and technology in light of post-Cold War changes in social and economic circumstances. In this climate, new patterns of decisionmaking and their impacts are worthy of consideration. Findings will be presented at conferences and meetings and in articles for both academic and popular audiences; a book may also result.