During the conference we will discuss five main conference themes divided into numerous sub-themes.
1.University engagement with communities
2.Citizens’ science and social movements
3.Research policy from local to global : towards science in society
4.Innovation and citizens – added values for communities
5.Participatory processes in science and technology
1) University engagement with communities
The role of universities today ; How to embed community based research in universities (methods, strategies ; research projects, students education) ;
Community Based Research and changes in higher education ;
Strategic discussion on science shops and university engagement ;
How academic education can support becoming a citizen scientist ;
Methods for rewarding academic researchers who are involved in Community Based Research ;
PICRIs1 – the French example of university-community research alliances ;
The dichotomy between technology and knowledge transfer to industry and to communities
2) Citizens’ science and social movements
Access of citizens to knowledge production and use (social forums, farmers movements, women movements, etc.) ;
What does ‘citizen science’ and ‘participatory action research’ mean today? ;
Popular epidemiology and risk communication ;
Social movements as part of the knowledge production system ;
Democracy and technological change (role of technology in creating and perpetuating power relations) ;
Vulnerable populations, orphan research domains and the scientific community ;
Towards pluralist expertise ;
The responsibility of scientists
3) Research policy from local to global : towards science in society
Scientific policy : new actors, new experiences, new methods ;
Ways of building and strengthening relationships between Community ; Based Research practitioners and local policy makers ;
How to develop the relationships between Science Shops and the EC ;
How to influence the policy context for CBR and Science Shop work at local, regional and international levels ;
Ways of influencing research agendas at a European level to meet the needs of Community Based Research and CSO’s ;
Which role for citizens in the definition of research policies?
The stakes of the European Framework Programme 7 ;
Recent reports on the issue of governance of science (European and national levels) ;
To negotiate nanotechnologies in Europe – participatory experiences and political recommendations
4) Innovation and citizens – added values for communities
Cooperative productions and the role of citizens in the production of knowledge (free software movement, patients’ organisations, farmers’ seeds movement, Wikipedia, etc.) ;
Innovation, intellectual property rights and public good ;
Now modes of innovation and peer-to-peer production ;
Pluralism and reversibility in innovation policies ;
Sustainable development
5) Participatory processes in science and technology
Critical analyses of participatory methods : consensus conferences, citizens juries, scenario-workshops : what good practices, what links to political decisions, what limites and obstacles? ;
Experiences of public debates on techno-scientific choices ;
Deliberative democracy and scientific stakes