Community
is a group of people with shared interests, perceptions,
and values. In our contemporary world broad historical
trends, political and community structures, and the
texture of daily life are all shaped by research, science,
and technology in more profound and subtle ways than
most people realize. The effects of science and technology
extend from relatively obvious environmental repercussions,
such as pollution, to critical social and political
consequences, such as job insecurity, community atrophy,
and ultimately a dysfunctional democracy. Science has
solutions to offer on urgent issues such as energy,
fresh water, food production, and health, but new approaches
are needed to more effectively influence policy-making
and involve all stakeholders in citizen
science. In
order to anticipate and avert the impacts of these
issues,
it
is essential
to interject
community
perspectives
into science and technology decisions. Sustainability
Now! has adapted practical ways to enable
people from all walks
of life
to contribute
to science and technology choices, thereby improving
people’s well-being and the well-being of their
communities. But this requires emphasizing the ways
of doing science as much as the means. The increasing
importance of science in today's world calls for far
greater interaction among all stakeholders and for
a truly global perspective in research.
Community-based
research, within the context of citizen
science,
differs fundamentally from mainstream research
in being coupled relatively tightly with community
groups that are eager to know the research results
and to use them in practical efforts to achieve
constructive social change. Community-based research
is not only usable, it is generally used and,
more than that, used to good effect. Community-based
research also often produces unanticipated and
far-reaching ancillary results, including new
social relationships and trust, as well as heightened
social efficacy. It may thus provide one constructive
response to the growing concern that American
civil society is in crisis and unraveling.
Promoting
community-based research, by making empowerment
through mutual learning universally accessible,
can better direct our extraordinary capabilities
toward our most urgent social and environmental
needs. We can help alleviate suffering, revitalize
democracy and community life, and bequeath future
generations a world better than we found it.
But a new social contract of science will be
needed that encourages greater interaction in
the conduct of citizen science (the public way
of knowing coupled with the expert way of knowing).
This greater interaction requires improved communication
of science to the public and higher levels of
scientific literacy in order for people to influence
how science and technology affect their lives.
Science has to meet the real needs of real people,
respecting individual rights and empowering communities,
to win public and political support. By building
models for doing science in a more interactive
and inclusive way, we can make active partners
of all the parties involved and ensure the full
participation of all potential stakeholders.
As
science encroaches more closely on heavily value-laden
issues, members of the public are claiming a
stronger role in both the regulation of science
and the shaping of the research agenda. Therefore,
we should and can adopt a much more inclusive
approach that engages many different sectors
(communities) assertively in community-based
research that emphasizes the meaning
and usefulness of science. We must
try
to find
common ground through open, rational discourse.
And if the business sector takes note of the
potential benefits of a new relationship between
science and society, then public and private
interests would converge, generating a force
for progress powerful enough to meet the challenges
of today and tomorrow.
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