Representing the Public in Public Engagement: The Case of the 2008 UK Stem Cell Dialogue

Abstract

Efforts to engage the public in science take many forms, yet in many cases, “engagement” is a means toward acceptance rather than true participation. In 2008, the largest ever public engagement (PE) exercise sponsored by UK Research Councils was held. The Stem Cell Dialogue (SCD), designed to identify the range of views and concerns amongst the wider public about stem cell research, was jointly supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Medical Research Council (MRC), and Sciencewise. The SCD revealed high levels of public support for stem cell science and technology, according to the official press release [1], and thus seems to validate the traditional reasons offered for conducting PE around cutting-edge science: that engaging the wider public in dialogue at an early stage can help scientists communicate the motivations for their research, including its expected societal benefits, assuage potential ethical concerns, avert damaging controversies, and secure public acceptance. But, is this instrumental rationale—engagement toward a predetermined goal—sufficient? Can it offer the democratic legitimacy that underlies the recent turn to this type of “upstream” engagement? And does the SCD as it actually unfolded merit the summary finding of public support reported in the press release? In this paper, we draw from our work as official evaluators of the SCD (see Box 1), and recent debates on the purpose of engagement, to ask: how should we understand the “public” in PE; why is PE important for both society and science; and what lessons should we take from actual PE exercises? Box 1. Evaluation Methodology Our evaluation utilised a multi-method approach combining documentary analysis of project materials and scoping documents commissioned by BBSRC/MRC, participant questionnaires, structured observation of the workshops, and semi-structured interviews with seven Oversight Group members (chosen to represent a cross-section of the group and for their continuous involvement) and the three lead dialogue facilitators to explore their assessments of the dialogue in the context of its objectives and of the evaluation criteria. Of 569 questionnaires distributed at the workshops, 208 were returned, giving a response rate of over one-third (36.6%). Questionnaires were coded to enable the matching of responses across the sequence and location of workshops. Two evaluators observed 11 workshops to cover the range of locations and sequence of workshops. Detailed observation notes were taken using an observation protocol adapted from Horlick-Jones et al. [10] that drew attention to the various activities and outputs and whether these could be considered successful against the normative evaluation criteria. Observers also recorded their broader impressions of different aspects of the events. Observer bias was limited by adherence to the protocol and the comparison of data from workshops attended by both evaluators. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS and qualitative data were analysed in accordance with the evaluation criteria. The evaluation was constrained in a number of ways. First, the scale of the budget and the number of person days stipulated by the sponsors precluded a highly detailed evaluation exercise of the extent that would seem appropriate to the sponsors' objectives, especially with regard to longer-term impact. Second, the evaluators were not consulted on their availability to attend the various workshops and were thus reliant on the facilitators, in some instances, to distribute the questionnaires. This meant that we could not be sure that the purpose, importance, and independence of the evaluation were effectively communicated. Third, while the evaluation brief specified access to the public participants for interviews, access was restricted due to the confidentiality/privacy agreements BMRB had with the participants.