Collaborative Research: Participatory Technology Assessment and Cultures of Expertise

该奖项支持一个研究项目，该项目研究在联邦机构决策的背景下努力使专业知识民主化的努力。它调查参与式技术评估是否以及如何改变了NASA、NOAA和美国能源部的专家文化。参与性技术评估是不同的利益攸关方群体(包括公民组织、国家系统和非政府机构)与技术科学家和技术专家组互动的公共参与活动，人们对参与性技术评估如何影响机构决策过程以及技术专家对普通公民的看法知之甚少。将在该项目中制定的联邦政府机构及其参与性技术评估做法的案例研究有可能为许多类型的技术专家如何在实践中规划和实施这种评估提供信息；它将为改进今后的合作提供实际经验教训。除了学术出版物和会议发言外，这项研究的结果还将用于编写一本最佳做法手册，促进专门从事公共参与的边界组织与政府机构之间的有效协作。结果将在华盛顿特区的亚利桑那州科学政策成果联盟研讨会系列上公布，该研讨会在吸引地方和联邦机构、非政府组织和对研究实际应用感兴趣的学者方面有着悠久的历史。该研究项目将使用深度访谈和文件分析相结合的方式来评估参与性技术评估是否以及如何导致专家对公共投入和知识的看法发生反射性变化，包括专家如何在决策中感知和实施公众参与实践。研究团队可以接触到美国联邦政府背景下的技术专家决策者。因此，这项研究将能够解决公共参与和专门知识文献中的基本知识差距。它将提供联邦机构专家对他们参与采用、制定和实施参与性技术评估以及将评估结果纳入决策过程的比较和应用情况的报告。它将揭示特定的联邦机构专家和专家组如何受到评估进程的影响和挑战，并将探讨这种评估在多大程度上起到了技术专家决策者自反式学习工具的作用。它还可以用来证实公共参与和专业知识文献中的现有理论，这些文献仅仅假设通过公共参与活动来改善决策过程和技术科学文化变革。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award supports a research project that studies efforts to democratize expertise in the context of federal agency decision-making. It investigates whether and how participatory technology assessments have change expert cultures at NASA, NOAA, and DOE. Very little is known about how participatory technology assessments, which are public engagement exercises where different stakeholder groups (including citizen organizations, state systems, and non-government agencies) interact with technical scientist and technical expert groups, impact agency decision-making processes and the ways that technical experts think about lay citizens. The case studies of federal government agencies and their participatory technology assessment practices that are to be developed in this project have the potential to inform how numerous types of technical experts plan and implement such assessments in practice; it will result in practical lessons learned for improving future collaborations. Beyond academic publications and conference presentations, the results of this study will be used to develop a best practices handbook for effective collaboration between boundary organizations that specialize in public engagement and government agencies. Results will be presented at the Arizona State Consortium for Science Policy Outcomes seminar series in Washington, DC, which has a long history of engaging local and federal agencies, NGOs, and academics interested in the practical application of research.This research project will use a combination of in-depth interviews and document analysis to assess whether and how participatory technology assessments lead to reflexive changes in expert views on public input and knowledge, including how experts perceive and implement public engagement practices in decision making. The research team has access to technical expert decision-makers in the U.S. federal government context. As a result, the study will be able to address fundamental knowledge gaps in the public engagement and expertise literature. It will provide a comparative, applied account of federal agency expert reflections on their participation in the adoption, framing, and implementation of participatory technology assessment and the integration of assessment results into decision-making processes. It will bring to light how particular federal agency experts and expert groups are influenced by and challenge the assessment process, and it will explore the extent to which such assessments serve the role of a reflexive learning device for technical expert decision-makers. It may also serve to substantiate existing theories in the public engagement and expertise literature that merely postulates improvements in decision making processes and techno-scientific cultural change through public engagement exercises.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.