Abstract
AbstractThis study contributes to the analysis of civil society and knowledge by examining mobilizations by civil society organizations and grassroots networks in opposition to wireless smart meters in the United States. Three types of mobilizations are reviewed: grassroots anti-smart-meter networks, privacy organizations, and organizations that advocate for reduced exposure to non-ionizing electromagnetic fields. The study shows different relationships to scientific knowledge that include publicizing risks and conducting citizen science, identifying non-controversial areas of future research, and pointing to deeper problems of undone science (a particular type of non-knowledge that emerges when actors mobilize in the public interest and find an absence or low volume of research that could have been used to support their concerns). By comparing different types of knowledge claims made by the civil society organizations and networks, the study examines the conditions under which mobilized civil society generates positive responses from incumbent organizations versus resistance and undone science.
Highlights
ConceptsIn the study of knowledge, technology, and civil society, it is useful to begin with a distinction between social movements and civil society
The term civil society is understood here as a broad category of social organization and social relationship that is distinct from the family, the government, and the private sector. It is based on associational activity and can include clubs, religious groups, churches, charities, and political civil society; frequently, civil society organizations have a special nonprofit tax status
A social movement is a sustained mobilization of “challengers” that are located in the subordinate positions of a social field, that seek fundamental changes in the social field, and that encounter resistance to those changes from the “incumbents” located in the dominant positions of the field
Summary
Undone Science and Smart Cities: Civil Society Perspectives on Risk and Emerging Technologies. The smart city will require new research fields in engineering, computer science, and the social and behavioral sciences to guide technological innovation, regulatory policy, management strategies, and consumer interfaces that accompany the transition. This future smart city will be no different from past cities in at least one respect: it will be a contested space with different views about the design of the new technological systems and different knowledge claims that accompany controversies over design. The study of civil society and smart meters can contribute to general social science knowledge about publics, science, and technology
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