Transparency and Accountability in Science and Politics: The Awareness Principle PDF
Preview Transparency and Accountability in Science and Politics: The Awareness Principle
Transparency and Accountability in Science and Politics The Awareness Principle Kjell Andersson Transparency and Accountability in Science and Politics This page intentionally left blank Transparency and Accountability in Science and Politics The Awareness Principle Kjell Andersson ManagingDirector KaritaResearch,Sweden ©KjellAndersson2008 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-54217-4 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noparagraphofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, 90TottenhamCourtRoad,LondonW1T4LP. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthis workinaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2008by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN Houndmills,Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XSand 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,N.Y.10010 Companiesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld PALGRAVEMACMILLANistheglobalacademicimprintofthePalgrave MacmillandivisionofSt.Martin’sPress,LLCandofPalgraveMacmillanLtd. Macmillan®isaregisteredtrademarkintheUnitedStates,UnitedKingdom andothercountries.PalgraveisaregisteredtrademarkintheEuropean Unionandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-35983-7 ISBN 978-0-230-22776-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230227767 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfullymanaged andsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturingprocessesare expectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthecountryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Andersson,Kjell,1947 Transparencyandaccountabilityinscienceandpolitics:the awarenessprinciple/KjellAndersson. p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. 1. Science Socialaspects. 2. Scienceandstate. 3. Decision making Moralandethicalaspects. 4. Politicalscience Decision making. 5. Awareness. I.Title. Q175.5.A534 2008 338.9’26 dc22 2008015057 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 Contents ListofTablesandFigures viii Preface ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 1. TheDemocraticChallenge 6 2. ScienceHasLostItsEthos 10 Theidealsofscientificconduct 10 Thecommercializationofscience 11 Dowehaveresearchcartels? 17 BalancesheetofMerton 18 Atwo-tieredacademy? 20 Narrowexpertframing 23 Expertattitudestowardscitizens 26 Socialconstruction? 29 Scienceinademocraticsociety 31 3. Values,Emotions,InterestsandRationality 33 Whatdowemeanbyvalues? 33 Perceptionandemotions 35 Vestedinterest 37 Theelitistviewofordinarypeople 39 Fourthemes 41 4. RadioactiveWasteManagement 43 Setbacksinnuclearwastemanagementprogrammes 44 ProgressinSweden,FinlandandEurope 50 UnitedStates 56 Somelessonslearned 59 Expertslearnslowly 63 5. RiskAssessmentandRiskManagement 65 Riskinformeddecision-making 65 Canrisksbecomparedandcontrolled? 67 Thecaseofradiationprotection 70 v vi Contents Willthenewapproachprevail? 73 Theevolvingriskconcept 74 Riskperceptionandpolitics 76 Canweincludepublicvaluesinriskassessment? 78 Theprecautionaryprinciple 81 6. BiotechnologyandNanotechnologies 86 ThecaseofGMO 87 Nanotechnologies 94 Whatisahumanbeing? 102 7. GlobalWarming 104 Asolutiontotheglobalwarmingproblem? 106 8. ExamplesfromOtherAreas 109 Foodsafety 109 Cleaning-upandrestorationofcontaminatedsites 111 Thepossibleriskswithmobiletelephones 113 Comment 118 9. LessonsLearned 119 Firsttheme–narrowframing 119 Secondtheme–instrumentalrationality 121 Thirdtheme–commercializationofscience 122 Fourththeme–researchcartelsandknowledgemonopolies 123 Convergingtrends 126 10. InsightsintoDemocraticTheory–andtheAwareness Principle 127 11. AwarenessandTransparency 133 Thethreebuildingblocksforawareness 133 Transparency 135 TheRISCOMmodelinpractice 138 12. PublicInvolvement 141 Publicparticipationprocesses 142 Whatisagoodprocess? 149 Umbrellaprocessesofpublicparticipation 156 Internationalconventions 166 Communicationormanipulation? 170 13. TheDemocraticParadox 175 Legaldemocracy–thenewright 175 Participatorydemocracy–thenewleft 176 Canrepresentativedemocracybevitalised? 181 Contents vii 14. ThePublicSphere–MassMediaandJournalism 184 Theideaofapublicsphere 184 Newsjournalismasentertainment 189 Investigativejournalism 190 Sciencejournalism 191 Mediaconglomerates 193 Civicjournalism 193 Thenewmediaandthepublicsphere 195 Theinfluenceonpolitics 197 Transparencyjournalism 198 15. SettingtheValuesFirst–towardsaNewParadigm 201 16. PrinciplesforNewArenas 205 17. InstitutionalAnchoring 208 Wedon’tneedtostartfromscratch! 208 Learnbydoingorrelyonlegislation? 209 Newinstitutionalsettings 210 Anewsocietalidentity 213 Thepoliticalresponsibility 214 18. FinalRemarks 218 Notes 221 References 230 Bibliography 244 Index 245 List of Tables and Figures Tables 12.1 ThestructureoftheEIAprocessinKalmarcounty 160 15.1 Statusofparadigmshiftinsomeareas 204 Figures 11.1 TheRISCOMtriangle 137 12.1 Contextofpublicparticipationprocesses 152 12.2 Capacityofprocesseswithrespecttoelementsofstretching andhowthepublicisinvolved 152 12.3 Capacityofprocesseswithrespecttoelementsofstretching anddegreeofconsensusbuildingversusbeingadversarial 153 12.4 Modeofpublicinvolvementandamountofconsensus buildingversusadversarialcharacterofstudiedprocedures 154 viii Preface Today our society meets tremendous challenges in many areas such as biotechnology, food safety, energy production, environmental protection andinformationtechnology. Ontheonehandscientificandtechnological advancesofferhugepotentialbenefitsforhealth,qualityoflifeandeconomic development. Ontheothertherearenewriskstotheenvironment, health andsocialjustice.Advancesingenomicsandinformationtechnologychal- lenge basic values such as human integrity and even our perception of life itself. Such issues are only partly of a technical and scientific nature and they constitute sources of social concern and major democratic challenges to the post-modern society. It is critical that they are not met by technocratic decision-makingorsimplylefttomarketforcestosolve,butareinsteaddealt withinarationalandtransparentwaythatallowsconsciousdecision-making withpublicinsightandparticipation.However,ourpolicy-makingstructures don’tseemcapableofdoingthis.Thecoreoftheproblemistheongoingdis- integrationofsocietalstructures.Weusedtorelyonuniversityprofessorsto beneutralwitnessesoffact,mediatobeindependentseekersoftruth,polit- icianstohavefirmvaluesystemsandindustrialiststomakemoney.Nowall thesegroupsseemmoreorlesstobeactorsonthesamemarketofideasand interest. As a result, ordinary citizens lose trust in them and, in the worst case,insocietyitself. Highlevelpolicy-makersareawareofthisstateofaffairsbutthereisalsomuch frustrationsincethereisnosolutioninsight.Theideaofpublicparticipation in decision-making has been launched as a way to restore trust by making citizens more involved. There are quite a number of processes that have been developed for this purpose, however, there is no way to know which one of them is the best alternative in a specific situation. Instead, public participation has become just another area on the market where different processesofparticipationarebeinglaunchedandpromoted. Thisbookarguesthatwemustvitalizeourprocessesfordecision-makingin order to maintain a living democracy. The awareness of societal problems must be increased among both the politicians and the citizens who elect them.Tosomeextent,therenewalmustcreatenewinstitutionalstructures. Equallyimportantly,itwillmeananewwayofthinkingandanewapproach tothecomplexproblemswehavetosolvewithinexistingpoliticalstructures. ix
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