But do they deliver? Participatory agenda setting on the test bed

Aaron Rosa,Niklas Gudowsky,Philine Warnke

doi:10.1186/s40309-018-0143-y

Abstract

In this contribution, we investigate how results produced in a large-scale participatory agenda setting process differ from results of expert-based foresight studies with a similar aim of informing EU research and innovation (R&I) policy. After providing a theoretical positioning and an overview of the EU-wide participatory agenda setting process CIMULACT—Citizen and Multi-Actor Consultation on Horizon 2020, we describe our developed analytical approach that includes five analytical steps and calculation of three metrics. By comparative reading, analysis and scoring of 16 expert-based foresight reports, we produced data for the metrics that allow for discerning between (a) how many of the analyzed foresight reports cover a respective topic from CIMULACT, (b) how well this basic coverage aligns qualitatively, and (c) comprehensive comparison of each CIMULACT topic with respect to all surveyed reports. To discern differences, we chose those results (research topics) from CIMULACT that were also sufficiently covered by expert-based reports. Our findings suggest that such citizen-based, multi-actor co-created policy advice qualitatively differs considerably from that elicited by expert-based reports, in terms of direction and focus of the proposed R&I agenda.

Highlights

Images of the future shape the expectations of what tomorrow’s tomorrows will bring
First and second of these groups are research topics that are unique to expert-based foresight studies and CIMULACT, respectively
This research strand found little resonance within the expert studies, and yet serves to orient the rest of the CIMULACT research topic towards a broader, and perhaps more meaningful, goal with respect to the relationship between the citizenry and governance. In this contribution, we provided an overview of method, results, and theoretical positioning of a large-scale participatory agenda setting process (CIMULACT)

Summary

Introduction

Images of the future shape the expectations of what tomorrow’s tomorrows will bring They do so by influencing mind-sets, decisions, actions, and the allocation of funds [1, 2]. Progress in science and technology is a major driver for shaping the possibility space of futures, and simultaneously effecting the expectations of various actors. Those future-oriented actions and decisions impact the lives of many people, yet traditionally very few actor groups set the agenda, or have the opportunity to implement their expectations, for instance via research and innovation policy programming. Stakeholder engagement has become a norm over the course of the past two decades [3] This shift towards democratizing knowledge production has had a long development, described for instance as the participatory

Objectives

Results

Conclusion