Drama, Talk, and Emotion

Omitted Aspects of Public Participation

Bibliographic Data

ID5337218
AuthorsMatthew Harvey (0000-0001-9163-4313, University of Edinburgh, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume34
Issue2
Pages139-161
Publication date2009-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243907309632
OpenAlexW2172160539
LanguageEN
Citations received21
References cited42

This article argues that the quantitative and quasi-experimental approach to evaluating public participation exercises is deficient in at least two respects. First, casting participants in instrumental terms excludes that participants have an experience and that this may be dramatic and emotional. If people are to be invited, even obliged, to participate, then this experience should be considered in event evaluation. Second, current evaluation frameworks tend not to be sensitive to what actually happened in terms of the actions of participants and how these influenced the proceedings and outcome, thus ignoring that such events are fora where positions, values, decisions, and so forth are constructed and constrained rather than simply reported. This article considers the possible contribution of dramaturgical, discourse and conversation analytic, and ethnographic and phenomenological approaches to evaluating participation exercises and illustrates their potential with data gathered during the U.K. "GM Nation?" public debate

Conversation · Drama · Epistemology · Ethnography · Literature · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology

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