From experiments to ecosystems? Reviewing public participation, scientific governance and the systemic turn

Abstract

The article discusses a recent systemic turn in public participation in science studies. It reviews the main lines of criticism brought forward in science, technology and society towards public participation in science discourse and argues that much of it refers to the field’s preoccupation with isolated, stage-managed minipublics. It then discusses a series of efforts in science, technology and society, and other fields to study public participation in a more systemic or holistic perspective. The article advances the argument that there are different ways of conceptualizing such a perspective, not all of which are well equipped to account for contestation, conflict and power. We distinguish between an aggregative approach, deliberative systems theory, an eco-systemic and a decentred governance approach and argue that the latter allows us to study the complexities of public participation without relying on a normative concept of system and account for power relations that may structure the field of public participation.