Please join the Department of Communication and Culture on Friday, March 2, 2012 to hear Jennifer Medlock and Professor Edna Einsiedel’s talk entitled “Enacting citizenship through public engagement: the case of WWViews Canada”. The presentation is part of the Department of Communication and Culture’s Triple C Speaker Series and will take place in the Department’s Faculty Lounge, SS217 from 12:00 to 1:00pm. It will be followed by a reception.
Abstract
In this presentation, we explore the notion of citizenship in the Canadian arm of a bold engagement initiative called World Wide Views on Global Warming (WWViews), which involved approximately 4000 citizens from 38 countries worldwide. Organizers described the goal of this first-ever global public consultation as bringing the views of "world citizens" into UN-level negotiations on climate policy. A growing body of work on participation has documented how planning and design choices enable and constrain participants in acting as "citizens" within consultation events - choices such as the framing of the issue for discussion, the timing in the policy cycle, the length of the engagement process, and the kind of deliberation techniques used. What has received less attention in the literature, and is the focus for our presentation, is how lay participants themselves understand their role as "citizens" in public engagement, particularly in the context of a global issue like climate change that transcends traditional state boundaries. Through pre/post questionnaires, transcripts of deliberations, and interviews with participants six months following the event, we explore: 1) what meaning "citizenship" had for participants in the context of WWViews; and, 2) how they ultimately took up, rejected and/or transformed the "citizen" roles ascribed to them by organizers.
Bios
Edna Einsiedel is a Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Calgary. Her research interests are in the social assessments of emerging technologies and the role of publics and stakeholders in public policy deliberations and decision-making on these technologies. Her work has focused on life science technologies including biotechnology and genomics. She has received research support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR), Genome Canada, and the Stem Cell Network.
Jennifer Medlock is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Communication and Culture. Her research focuses on the role of public engagement initiatives in the governance of science and technology issues.