Chemical Communities: Explaining Variation in Citizen Effects on Policy-Relevant Science and Industrial Transformation in Three Nations

公民参与以科学为基础的产业治理可以通过提供决策者或科学家并不总是看到或理解的见解来提高政策和科学的质量。这种参与在管理对环境具有重大实际和潜在影响的工业，例如核能和化学生产方面尤其重要。然而，人们对公民参与的形式和结果的理解，在很大程度上是基于单个案例的研究。我们也很少了解科学家的专业文化和科学产业的物质性，包括它们的布局和环境影响，如何在公民参与和科学产业的环境影响治理之间起中介作用。本研究运用科学与技术研究的理论与证据，对三个主要化工区域：德国路德维希港；意大利马格拉港；以及美国路易斯安那州的化学走廊。这项研究将展示在国家一级的管理和法律结构、国家和专业科学文化、以及每个地点的物质结构和实践方面的差异如何影响公民对与政策有关的环境知识的影响。关于科学家如何理解他们作为决策者和公民之间调解人的角色的新知识将得到发展。该项目的第二个主要贡献是，它将展示物质因素的变化，包括环境条件和工业场地本身的结构，如何影响公民参与。研究将通过分析相关文件、访谈和民族志田野调查来进行。本研究的结果将有助于政策相关科学的公民参与理论、环境治理理论，以及科学文化如何塑造公民参与科学的理论。更广泛的影响在于治理理论的发展，这可能对政策制定者、科学家、公民团体和参与化学工业治理的人有价值。这里使用的比较方法将提供新的知识，说明公民参与具有重大环境影响的行业的治理如何以及为什么在某些地方比在其他地方更有效。

Chemical Communities: Explaining Variation in Citizen Effects on Policy-Relevant Science and Industrial Transformation in Three NationsCitizen participation in the governance of science-based industries can improve the quality of policy and science by providing insights that are not always seen or understood by policymakers or scientists. Such participation is especially important in the governance of industries with significant actual and potential effects on the environment, such as nuclear power and chemical production. Yet much of what is understood about the forms and outcomes of citizen participation is based on single case studies. We also know very little about how scientists' professional cultures, and the materiality of science-based industries, including their layout and their environmental effects, mediate between citizen participation and the governance of the environmental effects of science-based industries. This study uses theories and evidence from Science and Technology Studies to carry out a comparative study of citizen participation in the governance of chemical industries in three major chemical regions: Ludwigshafen, Germany; Porto Marghera, Italy; and the chemical corridor in Louisiana, USA. The research will demonstrate how national-level variation in regulatory and legal structures, in national and professional science cultures, and the material structures and practices of each site shape citizen effects on policy-relevant environmental knowledge. New knowledge about how scientists understand their role as mediators between policymakers and citizens will be developed. A second major contribution of the project is that it will show how variation in material factors, including environmental conditions and the structure of the industrial sites themselves, shape citizen participation. Research will be carried out through analysis of relevant documents, interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork. Results of this study will contribute to theories of citizen participation in policy relevant science, of environmental governance, and of how scientific cultures shape citizen participation in science. The broader impacts lie in the development of theories of governance that is likely to be of value to policymakers, scientists, citizen groups, and those involved in the governance of chemical industries. The comparative approach used here will provide new knowledge about how and why citizen involvement in the governance of industries with significant environmental impacts works more effectively in some places than in others.