Abstract
In response to calls for a research and innovation system that is more open to public scrutiny, we have seen a growth of formal and informal public engagement activities in the past decades. Nevertheless, critiques of several persistent routines in public engagement continue to resurface, in particular the focus on expert knowledge, cognitive exchange, risk discourse, and understandings of public opinion as being static. In an attempt to break out of these routines, we experimented with an innovative engagement format that employs situated speculative prototyping to support citizens in contextualizing and discussing developments regarding—in this case—nanotechnology. This format invites participants to imagine and critically reflect on technological futures through collaborative prototyping and story-writing. In this paper, we outline five reconstructed contextualization patterns in which participants engaged during the format’s exercises and use these to assess the value of the format in the current engagement landscape. We show that situated speculative prototyping has potential in the realm of informal public engagement initiatives, taking an explorative approach, but also warn of ‘the designer fallacy’ as a prominent pitfall of prototyping that could reproduce techno-scientific framings and obstruct critical reflection on technological directions and implications if not treated with caution.
Highlights
The need for public dialog and inclusive deliberation on the social and ethical implications of emerging technologies is increasingly recognized [1]
This paper aims to explore how situated speculative prototyping by citizens can help them to contextualize new and emerging technologies, such as nanotechnology
Our public engagement experiment has shown that the use of situated speculative prototyping has the potential to help participants contextualize new and emerging technologies, such as nanotechnology, and becomes a good extension to static risk–benefit or acceptance-rejection dichotomies
Summary
The need for public dialog and inclusive deliberation on the social and ethical implications of emerging technologies is increasingly recognized [1]. Rapid developments in fields such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, cognitive science, and information technology have spurred enthusiasm about their potential to contribute to addressing major global issues, but have raised concerns about unexpected and less desirable ways in which these innovations could affect our lives Both technical uncertainties (e.g., gaps in empirical knowledge on effects, risks, and long-term impacts) and moral ambiguity (e.g., different views on what constitutes desirable impacts and acceptable risks) make it challenging to deal with new and emerging technologies in terms of policy-making [2]. It is the combination of both formal and informal engagement opportunities from which a culture of inclusion can develop
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