The 2009 conference is hosted by The Science Shop, Queen's University Belfast

Roundtable C:  Living Knowledge 101

Saturday 29th August 2009

11.00-12.00

Venue: to be confirmed

Chair: To be confirmed

Presenter:

Khan Rahi

"Living Knowledge 101" Loka Institute, USA.

Rick Worthington (in absentia)

Format:

This roundtable will explain the LK 101 concept, provide space to ask questions about lessons-learned and scenarios and, finally, will test the validity of the concept and identify potential partners to engage in the project.

Context:

In the past three decades, mainstream policies and practices in science and technology have been increasingly contested by diverse groups worldwide, particularly through the application of a variety of tools of engagement at the grassroots level.  These alternative practices include community-based research, movements in opposition to megaprojects such as nuclear power or GMOs, engaging citizens in nanotechnology, and peer-to-peer networks like seed exchanges.  Two corollaries of these trends are (1) the evolution of civil society organizations as research performers in fields where they have traditionally been limited to service delivery and/or policy advocacy, and (2) collaborations of community and university, with uneven breakthroughs within the academy. 

Science shops have been the most effective and enduring institution for forming creative knowledge exchange partnerships among these players.  At the current juncture, they face two challenges:  First, like most popular challengers to the centers of knowledge production since the Scientific Revolution, they have been actively fending off the marginalizing responses frequently launched by defenders of the status quo.  Second, the policy activism associated with their work has gravitated toward local projects and regulatory issues rather than policies toward research, science and technology.  This leaves the underlying dynamics of scientific and technological change inaccessible to ordinary citizens.

Living Knowledge 101 is a proposed project that aims to support the development of formal curricula and learning programs by practitioners in the participatory science and technology arena.  Text and video resources that can be used for such development will be organized in thematic forms as basic descriptions, analyses, and debates around different participatory practices; and in modules focused on the various industrial sectors in which ordinary citizens experience science and technology, e.g., agri-food, health, energy, communication technology, etc. 

Questions:

• What are the lessons learned about tools for engagement at grassroots level?
• How can LK 101 best support the development of curricula?
• How can technical resources best be used for this?