Exploring the Roots of Public Participation in the Controversy Over Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Cloning (original) (raw)
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Although public engagement is now part of the business of doing science, there is considerable divergence about what the term means and what public engagement ought to be doing. This paper refl ects on these heterogeneous meanings and agendas through an analysis of focus group data from research on public engagement in stem cell research. Three broad visions of public engagement are identifi ed: as education and information provision; as dialogue; and as participation in policy making. In analysing the implications of these visions three dimensions are highlighted: weakly and strongly structured visions of public engagement; the co production of roles and relationships; and the framing of what is at stake. Each of these has the potential to include or exclude some groups in public engagement. We conclude that social scientists should seek to maintain the plasticity of public engagement as a necessary condition for greater participation and reflexivity in science policy, practice and...
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International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 2005
When it comes to public opinion about controversial issues related to science and technology, many policy makers and scientists assume that increased public understanding of science will lead to increased public support. Yet, instead of a fully informed and deliberative public, past research indicates that it is more likely that the public by nature is 'miserly', with individuals relying on their value predispositions and only the information most readily available to them from the mass media and other sources in order to formulate an opinion about science controversy. Building on this latter 'accessibility' or 'memorybased' model of opinion formation, this study tests the relationship between an increase in available information-or increasing 'awareness'-and public support for embryonic stem cell research. An analysis of national survey data collected in the USA during the fall of and the fall of indicates that although an increase in awareness leads to an increase in support for research, both religious and ideological value predispositions strongly moderate the impact of awareness.
2012
Although public engagement is now part of the business of doing science, there is considerable divergence about what the term means and what public engagement ought to be doing. This paper refl ects on these heterogeneous meanings and agendas through an analysis of focus group data from research on public engagement in stem cell research. Three broad visions of public engagement are identifi ed: as education and information provision; as dialogue; and as participation in policy making. In analysing the implications of these visions three dimensions are highlighted: weakly and strongly structured visions of public engagement; the co production of roles and relationships; and the framing of what is at stake. Each of these has the potential to include or exclude some groups in public engagement. We conclude that social scientists should seek to maintain the plasticity of public engagement as a necessary condition for greater participation and reflexivity in science policy, practice and...
2009
Assessing the Impact of Religious Beliefs on Public Perceptions and U.S. Government Policies: The Case of Embryonic Stem Cell Research. (December 2009) Tomeka Michelle Robinson, B.S., McNeese State University; M.A., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Patricia Goodson This dissertation presents three separate studies designed to provide structure and evidence-based insight into the impact of religious beliefs on public perceptions and U.S. government policies regarding embryonic stem cell research. First, a systematic literature review of nine (n=9) empirical studies that examined individuals‘ religious beliefs and perceptions/utilization of genetic technologies/services will be presented. Based on the finding from the review, there was an equal balance between studies that found that religion was a factor positively affecting intention to submit to genetic testing and those that illustrated a negative association. Secondly, a qualitative examination of college stu...
International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 2008
Research on public attitudes toward controversial science seem to be divided between a camp that relies on a 'scientific literacy model', which states that increase in public knowledge of science is related to increase in public support, and a camp contending that the 'miserly' public will rely on heuristic cues such as value predispositions to form opinions about scientific controversies. In the present study, we argue along the lines of the heuristic-systematic model of information processing that the influences of value predispositions and knowledge on attitude formation can be complementary processes that will supplement cues provided by the media. Using data from a national three-wave panel survey conducted between and , we examine the influence of value predispositions, news media use, and scientific knowledge on attitudes toward a controversial scientific issue: human embryonic stem cell research in the USA. Public attitudes toward stem cell research were shaped by value predispositions and to a lesser extent, cues from the news media. Scientific knowledge played a minor role in influencing attitude toward stem cell research. Religiosity, ideology, and deference to scientific authority moderated the effect that scientific knowledge had on support for stem cell research, with knowledge having a weaker effect on attitudes for the conservatives, and those individuals high on religious beliefs and low on deference to scientific authority.
Policy for Science by Ballot or by Roll Call? Observations from Stem Cell Research Policymaking
Politics and the Life Sciences, 2021
This study compares stem cell research policymaking by legislators and citizens in the United States. First, using exit poll results from a 2006 stem cell research initiative in Missouri, the study finds that deeply held personal values such as religious beliefs and views of abortion predominate in an individual's voting decision on this issue; second, an analysis of voting behavior by senators on the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005 finds that senators make their voting decisions based on their personal policy preferences rather than their constituents' preferences; and third, the complexity of the Missouri citizen initiative is compared with that of the legislation in the U.S. Senate, finding that the language of the citizen initiative is more sophisticated than the language of the legislative act. These findings provide the context for a broader discussion of the role of citizens and legislators in making policy for science.
This dissertation uses the methods of interpretive social science to explore the multidimensional nature of the stem cell controversy, its competing epistemologies, and types of resolution and policy closure that have been sought in the United States and the European Union. It provides a comparative perspective on the social dynamics of public involvement in stem cell research and evaluates efforts by governments and bioethics advisory bodies to integrate dialogue and deliberation in science policy and decision making. The analysis highlights the agenda-setting and framing roles of the print and electronic news media in the public discourse over stem cells and human cloning, including their ability to validate conflicting knowledge claims about stem cell science and frame uncertainty about its clinical promise. I argue that stem cell policy debates are deeply embedded in particular socio-political and cultural contexts, and therefore regulatory responses to the societal challenges arising from this biomedical innovation have largely been shaped by non-epistemic factors (considerations external to science and its epistemologies). In the US, the issue of human embryonic stem cell research was right from the outset framed in terms of the contentious politics of abortion, became caught up in America’s culture wars, and the funding policy debate revived salient political themes of earlier controversies over abortion and fetal transplantation research. By contrast, efforts by EU policymakers to develop a framework for the ethical governance of stem cell technologies and their applications in regenerative medicine were intertwined with fundamental questions of EU federalism, common European cultural values, and the traditional consensus-oriented politics. I claim that in both cases the moral and policy dilemma was brought to a conclusion by non-epistemic procedural closure. By sealing off the debate through legislative and administrative procedures, policymakers have failed to achieve a morally justifiable resolution of the issues central to the stem cell controversy either through the method of consensus closure or on the basis of epistemic (knowledge-based) factors.