Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
8EXPERTISE,THE
DEMOCRATISATION OF
KNOWLEDGE AND
PARTICIPATORY
DECISION-MAKING:
UNDERSTANDING THE
NATURE OF SCIENCE
In the previous chapter, I discussed mass mediated representations of nature,
taking the example of how climate change science has been reported in
'quality' newspapers. I ended with some brief observations about the need
for newspaper regulation designed to serve the 'public interest'. There's a
lot more I could say about press regulation - it's a manifestly important
topic. 1 In this final chapter, however, I want to focus on the governance
of science. If the news media, and the mass media more generally, is a
crucial passage-point for non-media representations of nature, then science
remains the largest producer of these non-media representations. It's at the
heart of a wider phenomenon we call 'expert knowledge'. More than the
words and images of poets and advertisers (say), we tend in the long run
to pay far greater attention to what scientists tell us about the world (as
do political decision-makers). They speak to us in a range of specialised
idioms and produce cognitive knowledge in the main, though with impor-
tant implications for our ethical (and aesthetic) practices. While scientists'
claims typically come to us courtesy of news and current affairs outlets
(as the previous chapter indicated), the way scientists manage their activi-
ties is every bit as important for us as the way news industry regulation is
undertaken.
This much was obvious for the residents of Kissidougou, in the case
explored in Chapter 6 . But what about situations like that recounted in
Chapter 4 - namely the case pertaining to human genetics and 'biosocial-
ity'? In these situations, science confronts us with very important insights
(and technologies) that we're invited , though not compelled , to take seriously
as citizens and/or consumers. These insights only intrude on our lives to
the extent we let them. Here, the power of science is, if you like, softer
than it was for inhabitants of the Guinea forest-savannah transition zone,
unless and until it's acted upon by governments in the form of law and
 
 
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