Engineering and Experimenting with Democracy - WS 16/17
Lehrender
Modul
Zuordnung
Seminar
Laurie Waller
Citizen Participation and Technical Democracy
MA Architektur/ MA Urban Studies/ MA Industrial Design
3 ECTS
Content Do science and technology need to be democratised? Can parliaments deal with complex issues as diverse as GMOs, fracking, nuclear waste or air pollution? Is there such a thing as "technical democracy"?
This course will introduce students to some challenges that science and technology raise for contemporary democracies. In this course students will explore a range of participation methods, including citizen juries and consensus conferences, developed to democratise science and technology. The course will look at both the practical design of these participation methods and the democratic political theories informing them. The course will focus on debates in the field of science and technology studies (STS), but will also draw on democratic theory from across the 20th century.
In workshops students will critically explore the design and practice of a range of participation methods. These workshops will draw on a range of materials from activists, designers, policy makers and social scientists that have been used to experiment with novel forms of participation. Alongside the workshops, students will attend a series of seminars that will critically explore theories of "technical democracy". Students will learn to design and critically assess experimental participation methods and evaluate their role for democratic politics and governance.
1. Broad theoretical and historical understanding of "participation" as a democratic problem.
2. Learn to distinguish between a range of contemporary approaches to participation and their relation to democratic forms and procedures.
3. Critically evaluate the concept of "technical democracy" in relation to debates about democracy in the field of science and technology studies (STS).
4. To assess the design and public value of participation experiments.
Englisch
1. Method focused workshops Students will take part in workshops examining the design and practice of a range of contemporary participation methods developed by activists, policy makers, social scientists and designers. Through close analysis and discussion, students will evaluate the aims of methods designed to democratise science and technology, how they relate to existing participation processes and more generally to the theory and history of democracy.
2. Theory-focused seminars In seminars students will explore the democratic theory informing the design of the participation methods discussed in the workshops. Students will be expected to read the compulsory readings and come prepared for critically discuss the concept of "technical democracy"
Lippmann, W. (1930). The phantom public. New York: Macmillan. Chapters 1&6
'Prologue' in Callon, M., Lascoumes, P., & Barthe, Y. (2011). Acting in an Uncertain World: An Essay on Technical Democracy. (G. Burchell, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
