Brian Martin, editor Technology and public participation
Technology and public participation Brian Martin, editor
Science and Technology Studies University of Wollongong 1999
First published 1999 by Science and Technology Studies University of Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia ISBN 0 86418 559 6 Permission is granted for unlimited reproduction of portions or all of this text provided • full acknowledgment is given of the source; • no changes are made except with the author’s permission; • no restraint is imposed on further reproduction of the text. This text is available on the web at http://www.uow.edu.au/~bmartin/pubs/99tpp/. The editor can be contacted at the above address or at
[email protected]
Contents 1
Introduction by Brian Martin I. Technologies shaping participation
15
Toys, play and participation by Wendy Varney commentaries by Lynne Bartholomew and Sudarshan Khanna
37
The telephone as a participatory mechanism at a local government level by Lyn Carson commentaries by Ann Moyal, Wendy Sarkissian and Monica Wolf
61
Lap-tops against communicative democracy: international non-governmental organisations and the World Bank by Miriam Solomon II. Public participation processes
85
The politics of jury competence by Gary Edmond and David Mercer commentaries by David Bernstein and Ian Freckelton response by Gary Edmond and David Mercer
113
“Community participation” in urban project assessment (an ecofeminist analysis) by Janis Birkeland commentaries by Bronwyn Hayward and Paul Selman response by Janis Birkeland
143
Coercive psychiatry, human rights and public participation by Richard Gosden commentaries by Chris Bowker, Peter Macdonald and Denise Russell response by Richard Gosden
169
Public participation or public relations? by Sharon Beder commentaries by Gavan McDonell and Ben Selinger III. Technology policy
195
Policy formation and public participation in the management of technological change by Rhonda Roberts
209
Participation in food industry technologies in the age of sustainability by Andy Monk, commentaries by Richard Hindmarsh and Gyorgy Scrinis
231
Gaining a share of the final frontier by Alan Marshall commentary by Robert Zubrin response by Alan Marshall
249
Conclusion by Brian Martin
Introduction Brian Martin* A few hundred years ago, to talk of technology and public participation would have been meaningless to most people. Dramatic changes have occurred in both these areas. The word “technology” today often brings to mind sophisticated things like computers, missiles and genetic engineering. But it also includes everyday items such as chairs, clothes, paper and toothbrushes. For someone w ho lives in a city in an industrialised country, one’s entire life seems to take place within a technological framework: driving a car or taking a train to work in an office building, communicating by telephone and electronic mail, purchasing goods manufactured in factories, eating food processed in other factories, using energy produced in distant plants, perhaps consulting a doctor who uses diagnostic equipment, going home to a house or apartment built from materials mined and processed, and sleeping on a manufactured bed. Humans have developed and used technologies for hundreds of thousands of years, to be sure, from simple wooden implements to baskets and wheels. But since the development of agriculture some thousands of years ago and especially since the industrial revolution a few hundred years ago, technologies have become ever more powerful and pervasive, leading some to say that