Citizen participation in the governance of science-based industries can improve the quality of policy and science by providing insights that are not always seen or understood by policymakers or scientists. Such participation is especially important in the governance of industries with significant actual and potential effects on the environment, such as nuclear power and chemical production. Yet much of what is understood about the forms and outcomes of citizen participation is based on single case studies. We also know very little about how scientists' professional cultures, and the materiality of science-based industries, including their layout and their environmental effects, mediate between citizen participation and the governance of the environmental effects of science-based industries.
This study uses theories and evidence from Science and Technology Studies to carry out a comparative study of citizen participation in the governance of chemical industries in three major chemical regions: Ludwigshafen, Germany; Porto Marghera, Italy; and the chemical corridor in Louisiana, USA. The research will demonstrate how national-level variation in regulatory and legal structures, in national and professional science cultures, and the material structures and practices of each site shape citizen effects on policy-relevant environmental knowledge. New knowledge about how scientists understand their role as mediators between policymakers and citizens will be developed. A second major contribution of the project is that it will show how variation in material factors, including environmental conditions and the structure of the industrial sites themselves, shape citizen participation. Research will be carried out through analysis of relevant documents, interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork. Results of this study will contribute to theories of citizen participation in policy relevant science, of environmental governance, and of how scientific cultures shape citizen participation in science.
The broader impacts lie in the development of theories of governance that is likely to be of value to policymakers, scientists, citizen groups, and those involved in the governance of chemical industries. The comparative approach used here will provide new knowledge about how and why citizen involvement in the governance of industries with significant environmental impacts works more effectively in some places than in others.
