Maria Powell
Biographic Data
| ID | 6553987 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maria Powell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maria |
| FAMILY NAME | Powell |
| SIGNATURE | POWELL M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Beyond Engagement Exercises
Exercises intended to engage laypeople in deliberations about emerging scientific and technological issues have become very popular in recent decades. These exercises are typically organized by political or intellectual elites, and often assessed in a top-down fashion as well. This paper disrupts that pattern by using a mix of complementary qualitative approaches to explore the experiences of citizen participants in a large exercise on emerging t…
Virtual deliberation? Prospects and challenges for integrating the Internet in consensus conferences
Consensus conferences have functioned well in small, relatively homogeneous countries such as Denmark. In the geographically sprawling and socially diverse United States, however, meaningful citizen deliberation and decision-making on science and technology depends upon the ability to bring more participants “into the room.” The National Citizens’ Technology Forum, held in March 2008, responded to this need by integrating panels of citizens from …
Imagining Ordinary Citizens? Conceptualized and Actual Participants for Deliberations on Emerging Technologies
In this paper, we explore conceptualizations of ‘ordinary’ citizens common in public engagement forums on emerging technologies and assumptions from deliberative theory that ordinary people are more likely to be appropriately ‘changed’ through deliberative processes facilitated by experts. Looking at a large US public forum event [the National Citizens Technology Forum (NCTF)], we asked: What were the goals for this exercise and how did they shap…
Participatory Paradoxes
Mechanisms to engage lay citizens in science and technology are currently in vogue worldwide. While some engagement exercises aim to influence policy making, research suggests that they have had little discernable impacts in this regard. We explore the potentials and challenges of facilitating citizen engagement in nanotechnology from the “topdown,” addressing the following questions: Can academics and others within institutions initiate meaningf…
Building citizen capacities for participation in nanotechnology decision-making
Research suggests that deliberative experiences may improve citizens' perceptions of their abilities to participate meaningfully in political and societal issues. Previous studies, however, have not looked in depth at citizens' perceptions after participating in consensus conferences. In this case study, drawing on in-depth interviews with participants of a consensus conference on nanotechnology, we consider the following questions: 1) How do cit…
Meaningful Citizen Engagement in Science and Technology
Citizen engagement in scientific and technological issues is in vogue in recent years, and a variety of projects intended to engage citizens in science and technology is occurring worldwide. However, few academics and governments attempting to “engage in engagement” are clear about their goals and desired outcomes, and whether or not the processes they facilitate are likely to meet these ends. What are the goals—explicit and implicit—of instituti…
New risk or old risk, high risk or no risk? How scientists' standpoints shape their nanotechnology risk frames
This exploratory case study compares risk frames of scientists who are developing new nanotechnologies (upstream scientists) with those of scientists who might later study the health effects of these technologies (downstream scientists). It is based on a series of in-depth interviews with scientists at a major research university in the United States. Interviews reveal some substantial differences in risk frames among upstream and downstream scie…
Exploring lay uncertainty about an environmental health risk
How do laypeople perceive uncertainties about environmental health risks? How do risk-related cognitions and emotions influence these uncertainties, and what roles do sociodemographic and contextual factors, risk judgments, and information exposures play? This study explores these questions using secondary analyses of survey data. Results suggest that uncertainty reflects individual-level emotions and cognitions, but may also be shaped by a varie…
A Toolkit for Democratizing Science and Technology Policy
A widely touted approach to involving laypeople in science and technology policy-related decisions is the consensus conference. Virtually nothing written on the topic provides detailed discussion of the many steps from citizen recruitment to citizen report. Little attention is paid to how and why the mechanics of the consensus conference process might influence the diversity of the participants in theses fora, the quality of the deliberation in t…
Imagining Ordinary Citizens? Conceptualized and Actual Participants for Deliberations on Emerging Technologies
In this paper, we explore conceptualizations of ‘ordinary’ citizens common in public engagement forums on emerging technologies and assumptions from deliberative theory that ordinary people are more likely to be appropriately ‘changed’ through deliberative processes facilitated by experts. Looking at a large US public forum event [the National Citizens Technology Forum (NCTF)], we asked: What were the goals for this exercise and how did they shap…
Meaningful Citizen Engagement in Science and Technology
Citizen engagement in scientific and technological issues is in vogue in recent years, and a variety of projects intended to engage citizens in science and technology is occurring worldwide. However, few academics and governments attempting to “engage in engagement” are clear about their goals and desired outcomes, and whether or not the processes they facilitate are likely to meet these ends. What are the goals—explicit and implicit—of instituti…
New risk or old risk, high risk or no risk? How scientists' standpoints shape their nanotechnology risk frames
This exploratory case study compares risk frames of scientists who are developing new nanotechnologies (upstream scientists) with those of scientists who might later study the health effects of these technologies (downstream scientists). It is based on a series of in-depth interviews with scientists at a major research university in the United States. Interviews reveal some substantial differences in risk frames among upstream and downstream scie…
Exploring lay uncertainty about an environmental health risk
How do laypeople perceive uncertainties about environmental health risks? How do risk-related cognitions and emotions influence these uncertainties, and what roles do sociodemographic and contextual factors, risk judgments, and information exposures play? This study explores these questions using secondary analyses of survey data. Results suggest that uncertainty reflects individual-level emotions and cognitions, but may also be shaped by a varie…
A Toolkit for Democratizing Science and Technology Policy
A widely touted approach to involving laypeople in science and technology policy-related decisions is the consensus conference. Virtually nothing written on the topic provides detailed discussion of the many steps from citizen recruitment to citizen report. Little attention is paid to how and why the mechanics of the consensus conference process might influence the diversity of the participants in theses fora, the quality of the deliberation in t…
Building citizen capacities for participation in nanotechnology decision-making
Research suggests that deliberative experiences may improve citizens' perceptions of their abilities to participate meaningfully in political and societal issues. Previous studies, however, have not looked in depth at citizens' perceptions after participating in consensus conferences. In this case study, drawing on in-depth interviews with participants of a consensus conference on nanotechnology, we consider the following questions: 1) How do cit…
Meaningful Citizen Engagement in Science and Technology
Citizen engagement in scientific and technological issues is in vogue in recent years, and a variety of projects intended to engage citizens in science and technology is occurring worldwide. However, few academics and governments attempting to “engage in engagement” are clear about their goals and desired outcomes, and whether or not the processes they facilitate are likely to meet these ends. What are the goals—explicit and implicit—of instituti…
Participatory Paradoxes
Mechanisms to engage lay citizens in science and technology are currently in vogue worldwide. While some engagement exercises aim to influence policy making, research suggests that they have had little discernable impacts in this regard. We explore the potentials and challenges of facilitating citizen engagement in nanotechnology from the “topdown,” addressing the following questions: Can academics and others within institutions initiate meaningf…
Imagining Ordinary Citizens? Conceptualized and Actual Participants for Deliberations on Emerging Technologies
In this paper, we explore conceptualizations of ‘ordinary’ citizens common in public engagement forums on emerging technologies and assumptions from deliberative theory that ordinary people are more likely to be appropriately ‘changed’ through deliberative processes facilitated by experts. Looking at a large US public forum event [the National Citizens Technology Forum (NCTF)], we asked: What were the goals for this exercise and how did they shap…
Beyond Engagement Exercises
Exercises intended to engage laypeople in deliberations about emerging scientific and technological issues have become very popular in recent decades. These exercises are typically organized by political or intellectual elites, and often assessed in a top-down fashion as well. This paper disrupts that pattern by using a mix of complementary qualitative approaches to explore the experiences of citizen participants in a large exercise on emerging t…
Virtual deliberation? Prospects and challenges for integrating the Internet in consensus conferences
Consensus conferences have functioned well in small, relatively homogeneous countries such as Denmark. In the geographically sprawling and socially diverse United States, however, meaningful citizen deliberation and decision-making on science and technology depends upon the ability to bring more participants “into the room.” The National Citizens’ Technology Forum, held in March 2008, responded to this need by integrating panels of citizens from …
Political science (8 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Climate Change Communication and Perception (6 works) · Engineering (6 works) · Engineering ethics (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Politics (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Deliberation (4 works) · Psychology (4 works)