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Center for Biology and Society, School of Life Sciences, and Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes |
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Research
Genetics, genomics, and health
Democracy and science |
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Democracy and science Recent years have witnessed increasing calls for the democratization of science. Colleagues in the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes, Dave Guston and Dan Sarewitz, have been especially influential. Guston makes the point clearly:
"Democratizing science does not mean settling questions about Nature by plebiscite, any more than democratizing politics means setting the prime rate by referendum. What democratization does mean, in science as elsewhere, is creating institutions and practices that fully incorporate principles of accessibility, transparency, and accountability. It means considering the societal outcomes of research at least as attentively as the scientific and technological outputs. It means insisting that in addition to being rigorous, science be popular, relevant, and participatory" (Guston 2004).
The development of systems bioethics is undertaken in this spirit, and our efforts at community outreach and engagement in Phoenix and beyond are meant to facilitate the democratization of science and science policy.
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