Mhairi Aitken
Biographic Data
| ID | 355819 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mhairi Aitken |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mhairi |
| FAMILY NAME | Aitken |
| SIGNATURE | AITKEN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4654-9803 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 51 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The Resilience of Pandemic Digital Deliberation
Quality deliberation is essential for societies to address the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic effectively and legitimately. Critics of deliberative and participatory democracy are highly skeptical that most citizens can engage with such complex issues in good circumstances and these are far from ideal circumstances. The need for rapid action and decision-making is a challenge for inclusivity and quality of deliberation. Addition…
In pursuit of socially-minded data-intensive innovation in banking
While the field of data ethics is increasingly engaging with the complex socio-technical nature of data practices and their impacts, in the private sector, data ethics continues to be pursued largely through limited instrumental measures. This paper addresses the following research question: How can socially-minded data-intensive innovation be pursued in the private sector? It reports the findings of a series of five focus groups to explore the r…
Establishing a social licence for Financial Technology
Current attention directed at ethical dimensions of data and Artificial Intelligence have led to increasing recognition of the need to secure and maintain public support for uses (and reuses) of people’s data. This is essential to establish a “Social Licence” for current and future practices. The notion of a “Social Licence” recognises that there can be meaningful differences between what is legally permissible and what is socially acceptable. Es…
Who benefits and how? Public expectations of public benefits from data-intensive health research
The digitization of society and academic research endeavours have led to an explosion of interest in the potential uses of population data in research. Alongside this, increasing attention is focussing on the conditions necessary for maintaining a social license for research practices. Previous research has pointed to the importance of demonstrating "public benefits" from research for maintaining public support, yet there has been very little con…
Community benefits from offshore renewables
This paper presents the findings of a research project evaluating community benefit models for offshore renewables. We identify and analyse UK and international case studies of different forms of community benefit, and provide evidence of how such benefits are delivered. In particular we consider the key relationship between the identification of communities, perception of impact, and the apportionment of benefits. In doing so, we develop a range…
Climate Justice Begins at Home
In March 2012 the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed a motion ‘strongly endors[ing] the opportunity for Scotland to champion climate justice’. To date, discussions around climate justice within Scottish policy have largely focussed on international dimensions. Questions remain as to what climate justice means at home in Scotland. This article aims to engage with such questions. It begins with an overview of the theoretical underpinnings of cl…
Changing climate, changing democracy
Climate change has come to hold a central position within many policy arenas. However, a particular framing of climate change and climate science, underpinned by modernist assumptions, dominates policy discourse. This leads to restricted policy responses reflecting particular interests and socio-political imaginaries. There is little public debate concerning this framing or the assumptions underpinning approaches to climate policy. The implicatio…
O2-5.2 Public responses to the Scottish health informatics programme
The Scottish Health Informatics Programme is an ambitious, Scotland-wide research platform for the collation, management, dissemination and analysis of electronic patient records. It is creating a research portal for electronic patient records held by NHS Scotland that will provide rapid, secure access to the type of data required by population health scientists. However, such data linkage and subsequent use raise a range of social and ethical is…
Wind power and community benefits
A three-dimensional view of public participation in Scottish land-use planning
Current planning policies place significant emphasis on the importance of public participation. Through a case study of a planning application for a wind power development in Scotland, this article examines the realities of such policy commitments. It seeks to evaluate to what extent the planning process represents an exercise in participation — entailing empowerment of participants — or rather in social control — through which public participati…
Wind Power Planning Controversies and the Construction of ‘Expert’ and ‘Lay’ Knowledges
UK and Scottish planning policies include commitments to reflect the views of the public. However, this case study of one planning application for a wind farm in rural Scotland highlights the limited role played by lay knowledge within planning processes. The planning application process had two separate stages which structured the roles of lay and expert knowledge differently. Local objectors were able to influence the early planning application…
Wind Power Planning Controversies and the Construction of ‘Expert’ and ‘Lay’ Knowledges
UK and Scottish planning policies include commitments to reflect the views of the public. However, this case study of one planning application for a wind farm in rural Scotland highlights the limited role played by lay knowledge within planning processes. The planning application process had two separate stages which structured the roles of lay and expert knowledge differently. Local objectors were able to influence the early planning application…
Climate Justice Begins at Home
In March 2012 the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed a motion ‘strongly endors[ing] the opportunity for Scotland to champion climate justice’. To date, discussions around climate justice within Scottish policy have largely focussed on international dimensions. Questions remain as to what climate justice means at home in Scotland. This article aims to engage with such questions. It begins with an overview of the theoretical underpinnings of cl…
A three-dimensional view of public participation in Scottish land-use planning
Current planning policies place significant emphasis on the importance of public participation. Through a case study of a planning application for a wind power development in Scotland, this article examines the realities of such policy commitments. It seeks to evaluate to what extent the planning process represents an exercise in participation — entailing empowerment of participants — or rather in social control — through which public participati…
Changing climate, changing democracy
Climate change has come to hold a central position within many policy arenas. However, a particular framing of climate change and climate science, underpinned by modernist assumptions, dominates policy discourse. This leads to restricted policy responses reflecting particular interests and socio-political imaginaries. There is little public debate concerning this framing or the assumptions underpinning approaches to climate policy. The implicatio…
Establishing a social licence for Financial Technology
Current attention directed at ethical dimensions of data and Artificial Intelligence have led to increasing recognition of the need to secure and maintain public support for uses (and reuses) of people’s data. This is essential to establish a “Social Licence” for current and future practices. The notion of a “Social Licence” recognises that there can be meaningful differences between what is legally permissible and what is socially acceptable. Es…
Who benefits and how? Public expectations of public benefits from data-intensive health research
The digitization of society and academic research endeavours have led to an explosion of interest in the potential uses of population data in research. Alongside this, increasing attention is focussing on the conditions necessary for maintaining a social license for research practices. Previous research has pointed to the importance of demonstrating "public benefits" from research for maintaining public support, yet there has been very little con…
Community benefits from offshore renewables
This paper presents the findings of a research project evaluating community benefit models for offshore renewables. We identify and analyse UK and international case studies of different forms of community benefit, and provide evidence of how such benefits are delivered. In particular we consider the key relationship between the identification of communities, perception of impact, and the apportionment of benefits. In doing so, we develop a range…
In pursuit of socially-minded data-intensive innovation in banking
While the field of data ethics is increasingly engaging with the complex socio-technical nature of data practices and their impacts, in the private sector, data ethics continues to be pursued largely through limited instrumental measures. This paper addresses the following research question: How can socially-minded data-intensive innovation be pursued in the private sector? It reports the findings of a series of five focus groups to explore the r…
Wind Power Planning Controversies and the Construction of ‘Expert’ and ‘Lay’ Knowledges
UK and Scottish planning policies include commitments to reflect the views of the public. However, this case study of one planning application for a wind farm in rural Scotland highlights the limited role played by lay knowledge within planning processes. The planning application process had two separate stages which structured the roles of lay and expert knowledge differently. Local objectors were able to influence the early planning application…
Wind power and community benefits
A three-dimensional view of public participation in Scottish land-use planning
Current planning policies place significant emphasis on the importance of public participation. Through a case study of a planning application for a wind power development in Scotland, this article examines the realities of such policy commitments. It seeks to evaluate to what extent the planning process represents an exercise in participation — entailing empowerment of participants — or rather in social control — through which public participati…
O2-5.2 Public responses to the Scottish health informatics programme
The Scottish Health Informatics Programme is an ambitious, Scotland-wide research platform for the collation, management, dissemination and analysis of electronic patient records. It is creating a research portal for electronic patient records held by NHS Scotland that will provide rapid, secure access to the type of data required by population health scientists. However, such data linkage and subsequent use raise a range of social and ethical is…
Changing climate, changing democracy
Climate change has come to hold a central position within many policy arenas. However, a particular framing of climate change and climate science, underpinned by modernist assumptions, dominates policy discourse. This leads to restricted policy responses reflecting particular interests and socio-political imaginaries. There is little public debate concerning this framing or the assumptions underpinning approaches to climate policy. The implicatio…
Climate Justice Begins at Home
In March 2012 the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed a motion ‘strongly endors[ing] the opportunity for Scotland to champion climate justice’. To date, discussions around climate justice within Scottish policy have largely focussed on international dimensions. Questions remain as to what climate justice means at home in Scotland. This article aims to engage with such questions. It begins with an overview of the theoretical underpinnings of cl…
Community benefits from offshore renewables
This paper presents the findings of a research project evaluating community benefit models for offshore renewables. We identify and analyse UK and international case studies of different forms of community benefit, and provide evidence of how such benefits are delivered. In particular we consider the key relationship between the identification of communities, perception of impact, and the apportionment of benefits. In doing so, we develop a range…
Who benefits and how? Public expectations of public benefits from data-intensive health research
The digitization of society and academic research endeavours have led to an explosion of interest in the potential uses of population data in research. Alongside this, increasing attention is focussing on the conditions necessary for maintaining a social license for research practices. Previous research has pointed to the importance of demonstrating "public benefits" from research for maintaining public support, yet there has been very little con…
Establishing a social licence for Financial Technology
Current attention directed at ethical dimensions of data and Artificial Intelligence have led to increasing recognition of the need to secure and maintain public support for uses (and reuses) of people’s data. This is essential to establish a “Social Licence” for current and future practices. The notion of a “Social Licence” recognises that there can be meaningful differences between what is legally permissible and what is socially acceptable. Es…
The Resilience of Pandemic Digital Deliberation
Quality deliberation is essential for societies to address the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic effectively and legitimately. Critics of deliberative and participatory democracy are highly skeptical that most citizens can engage with such complex issues in good circumstances and these are far from ideal circumstances. The need for rapid action and decision-making is a challenge for inclusivity and quality of deliberation. Addition…
In pursuit of socially-minded data-intensive innovation in banking
While the field of data ethics is increasingly engaging with the complex socio-technical nature of data practices and their impacts, in the private sector, data ethics continues to be pursued largely through limited instrumental measures. This paper addresses the following research question: How can socially-minded data-intensive innovation be pursued in the private sector? It reports the findings of a series of five focus groups to explore the r…
Political science (11 works) · Public relations (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Business (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy (5 works) · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Economics (3 works)