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Policy decision-making, public involvement and nuclear energy: What do expert stakeholders think and why?
Journal of Responsible Innovation
Abstract and Figures
Despite new governmental initiatives aiming to engage the general public in
policymaking related to nuclear energy, little is known about how expert stakeholders involved in the decision-making process perceive such activity. This study examines how a series of social, cognitive and communication factors influences expert stakeholders’ attitudes toward public participation in policy decisions related to nuclear energy. Specifically, using data from a survey of 557 experts identified through content analyses of public meeting records, we find that among those perceiving public opinion as being split, not-for-profit stakeholders (e.g. governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations) are more likely to think public involvement is important than scientists and stakeholders from the private sector (e.g. industry and lobbying groups). The perception of a split public for the issue of nuclear energy seems to be driven by frequent use of online media (e.g., blogs and social networking websites). Implications of the findings with respect to promoting meaningful stakeholder participation in making policy decisions are discussed.
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... However, we know from earlier and related science governance movements -(e.g. Public Understanding of Science; ELSI: Ethical, Legal and Social Issues of science) that engagement is not always a role fully embraced by publicly funded scientists (Li et al. 2015). Some studies show scientists as unwilling to engage with non-academic audiences because they doubt the technical capacity of 'lay audiences', while other studies highlight cultural and organisational constraints (Li et al. 2015;Horst 2013). ...
... Public Understanding of Science; ELSI: Ethical, Legal and Social Issues of science) that engagement is not always a role fully embraced by publicly funded scientists (Li et al. 2015). Some studies show scientists as unwilling to engage with non-academic audiences because they doubt the technical capacity of 'lay audiences', while other studies highlight cultural and organisational constraints (Li et al. 2015;Horst 2013). Where RRI practices are concerned, it is likely that tensions may exist in the types of roles and responsibilities which scientists are willing and able to assume (Henkel 2005). ...
... The extent to which civil society and citizens are engaged in digital agriculture, and the extent to which scientists are willing to engage this group of actors, is worth reflecting on. It's a democratic right for the public to have a say in decisions that affect them, and their contribution ensures a more rounded, diverse collection of knowledge resulting in decisions being made which have a better chance of conforming to local needs and priorities (Li et al. 2015). It is well documented that traditionally scientists have struggled with the idea of engaging the general public in the research process, because of personal beliefs or due to organisational constraints (Li et al. 2015;Horst 2013;Carrier and Gartzlaff 2020). ...
Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has been highlighted as necessary for the governance of digital agriculture. The current study explores the readiness of publicly funded researchers in Ireland to engage in RRI activities in digital agriculture. In-depth one-to-one interviews were carried out with 15 scientists and research funders to understand how perceived emergent risks in digital agriculture are being addressed and to reflect on the extent to which responses align with RRI principles. Thematic Analysis identified three themes: (1) Cultural impacts: Addressing unintended consequences of technology; (2) Farm-level impacts: Ensuring user-friendly technologies; and (3) Perceived roles and responsibilities of scientists. There was evident alignment to the values underpinning RRI; however, an integrated RRI approach in digital agriculture may encounter challenges. There is a need to consider how RRI exercises and dimensions are framed, introduced and subsequently supported in science and academia.
... The European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter: ECtHR) has implemented the Aarhus convention as a specific aspect of the right to express a proper and informed opinion according to article 10 European Convention on human rights (hereinafter: ECHR) and of the right to respect family and private life, according to article 8 ECHR, especially for protecting the right to a healthy life. In this sense, the European Court of Human Rights referred to it in seven court decisions: Taşkin A key case in the field of a nuclear plant at the European Court of Human Rights is the case of Balmer-Schafroth and others versus Switzerland, Strasbourg, 26 August 1997 17 . In this case the Court ruled that the effect on the population of the measures, which the Federal Council could have ordered to be taken, remained hypothetical. ...
... Modern international environmental law does not only recognize duties to prevent harm or risk when real danger is suspected, but also that preventive measures are required as well in case of potential risks. The precautionary principle ensures that a substance or activity posing a 17 The applicants in Balmer-Schafroth were 10 Swiss nationals, living in a zone within four and five kilometres from the nuclear power station at Muhleberg in the Canton of Berne. The Bernische Kraftwerke AG, a company that had operated the power station since 1971, applied in November 1990 for an extension of its operating license for an indefinite period and for the permission to increase production by 10%. ...
... We should bear in mind that the stakeholders' interests could be changed over time [15]. Indeed, many authors point out the necessity and benefits of public participation in the process of siting nuclear plants, see Kojo [16], Li [17] and Lee [18]. As this literature shows (also from the case of waste repository in Yucca Mountain in the US) good public participation is conditio sine qua non for successful project. ...
Nuclear events and problems in siting procedures of nuclear plants poses problems of timely information and the question of proper and trustful information. This paper is divided into three parts.
In the first part, the right to information and the Aarhus convention are analysed. The basic rights of the public in the field of environmental matters are presented and discussed. Such rights are also examined through the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. The second part deals with the problem of possible conflicts between the right to information (and environmental information) and obligations from NPT. The third part proposes some solutions to provide a balance between the obligation of giving information and the obligation of protecting certain information under the NPT.
... Articulation JRI articles that we associate with this scholarly style tend to engage in various types of theoretical inquiry, including philosophical (Nordmann 2014), phenomenological (Kiran, Oudshoorn, and Verbeek 2015), sociological (Dickel and Schrape 2017), poststructuralist (Torgersen and Fuchs 2017), institutional , moral psychological (Umbrello 2018), hermeneutic (Grunwald 2020), conceptual (Jacko 2020), political economic (Papaioannou 2020), and organizational and business management (Garst et al. 2022), among others. More broadly, articles pertaining to this style engage in the development of frameworks, concepts, models, methods, thought experiments, scenarios, and other theoretical, conceptual, and analytical resources (e.g., Ganzevles, van Est, and Nentwich 2014;Li et al. 2015;Demers-Payette, Lehoux, and Daudelin 2016;Daimer et al. 2021;Stahl et al. 2021;Popa and Blok 2022;). Here, we highlight a handful of topical themes that can be discerned within this style and that have been features of the journal from its early beginnings. ...
... Empirical studies also analyze perceptions, expectations, views, discourses, attitudes, and beliefs of relevant actors, stakeholders, and social groups regarding the normative governance and practices of research and innovation. These may, for instance, examine views on responsibility among scientific researchers (Frankel 2015;Sand and Jongsma 2020;Moon and Kahlor 2022); experts, administrators, and policy makers (Li et al. 2015;Carrier and Gartzlaff 2020;Ruder and Kandlikar 2023); business professionals and entrepreneurs (Li, Owen, and Shaw 2023); citizens, consumers, and civil society groups (Capurro et al. 2015;Akin et al. 2019;Forsberg et al. 2023), as well as others involved or implicated in research and innovation undertakings. ...
... Public opinion research probably receives the most pointed criticism about constructing its public, and yet survey research can certainly abide by norms of responsibility. Li et al. (2015) describe a survey that 'examines how stakeholders with specialized knowledge and professional experiences develop their attitudes toward public participation as a function of institutional identity, perception of public opinion, and media use' (Li et al. 2015, P). That is, they constitute an elite public and query it about its potential constitution of a lay public. ...
Nuclear energy facility development in China has become controversial amid widespread environmental concerns. The present study examines how environmental beliefs influence public acceptance of nuclear energy in the context of China. In the current study, we test the mediation effect of nuclear engagement and test place attachment as a moderator based on cognitive-affective processing system theory. Our data have been obtained from an online survey, using a sample consisting of 516 individuals with experience in the public participation activities in Chinese nuclear power plant projects. The empirical results show that environmental beliefs are positively and significantly correlated to public acceptance of nuclear energy through the individuals’ nuclear engagement. Place attachment negatively and significantly moderates the direct impact of environmental beliefs on nuclear engagement. In the meantime, the mediating effect of nuclear engagement is weaker when place attachment is high. Significant practical implications are provided in our study for the Chinese governmental authorities.
Purpose of Policy Brief: This policy brief stems from the ‘Practical Approaches to Participation’ workshop, held in October 2003 at the Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen. The aim of the workshop was to
facilitate a critical dialogue on participatory approaches to environmental decision-making by bringing together practitioners, policy-makers, researchers and people who have taken
part in participatory processes. Despite the increasing demand for participatory processes, experience illustrates that following best practice guidance, without addressing wider issues of organisational and political context, will not guarantee satisfactory outcomes. This policy brief challenges the ‘toolkit’ approach to participation and focuses on the constraints to applying existing best practice approaches.
Key Messages
Drivers: The demand for participation reflects broader social trends, particularly the quest for sustainable development, the support for partnership working and the challenge to traditional democracy, resulting in the desire for a greater civic voice. Drivers are both ‘top down’, coming from global and national legislation, and ‘bottom up’, coming from citizen groups.
Level of participation: Involving people varies from informing them of a decision, through to giving citizens full control. The difference between these levels is the relative balance of power and control
between the participants and the instigators.
Methods for participatory processes: Recognising the most appropriate level of public involvement has implications for the selection of the most suitable methods and tools.
Benefits of participation: Participatory processes can help with defining the problem and identifying the solution from a wide variety of viewpoints, increasing our understanding of the interlinked
nature of problems facing society. Participatory processes can improve implementation, as a decision or a policy will be more effective if a broad coalition of stakeholders support the proposal and work together to deliver it. Participatory processes can increase public trust, as openness to conflicting claims and views increases the credibility of the final decision and encourages an active civil society.
Implications for participatory environmental management: Most environmental problems are complex, uncertain, extend over large spatial and temporal scales and may be irreversible. Therefore, environmental decision-making should be informed by a plurality of perspectives, be able to respond to changing circumstances and encourage civic responsibility and individual behavioural change. Participatory approaches assist with conflict resolution, which often underpins environmental management dilemmas, through seeking a shared definition of the problem and a collective solution.
Constraints to participation: Workshop delegates struggled to find unmitigated success stories to share and highlighted problems encountered when implementing participatory processes. These can be summarised as: increasing ‘consultation fatigue’ and public cynicism; working within boundaries set by ‘non-negotiable’ organisational or legislative structures; ensuring adequate and appropriate representation; building capacity of participants; managing expectations; attracting sufficient resources; obtaining a consensus or managing dissenting views; and choosing the appropriate scale for the process.
Conclusions
Potential ways forward and concluding recommendations can be summarised as the need to:
1. Reflect on why people distrust participation and learn from the past
2. Choose the appropriate level of public involvement
3. Ensure all stakeholders have equal access and capacity to participate
4. Bear in mind that local conditions are also affected by global issues
5. Recognise multiple perspectives and the validity of different agendas
6. Develop enabling agencies that support civic democracy
7. Develop a professional network to build capacity within organisations and provide critical evaluation for participatory processes
The media environment is changing. Today in the United States, the average viewer can choose from hundreds of channels, including several twenty-four hour news channels. News is on cell phones, on iPods, and online; it has become a ubiquitous and unavoidable reality in modern society. The purpose of this book is to examine systematically, how these differences in access and form of media affect political behaviour. Using experiments and new survey data, it shows how changes in the media environment reverberate through the political system, affecting news exposure, political learning, turnout, and voting behavior.
Previous research assessed media reporting on nuclear accidents and risks, whilst studies about the Fukushima accident focused on the impact of the Internet on coverage of the incident. However, little research has addressed news framing or comparisons of the perceptions of journalists in relation to reporting nuclear accidents. The aim of this study is to apply framing analysis to news content in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today about the Fukushima accident. It explores the question of how journalists view reporting on complex events. Content analysis of these three newspapers shows that conflict, responsibility, and economic consequences were the most frequently used frames. According to the journalists interviewed, the biggest problem was the inability to assess information due to contrary positions held by experts. It is argued that the Fukushima accident was framed as a conflict of experts and officials` opinions, utility and government officials` responsibility, and economic consequences for the United States. Adherence to professional norms of objectivity and impartiality was signified as the best approaches to risk reporting.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 264 pages (£20.00 hardcover) ISBN: 0521632943 This book is a timely examination of web users' behaviour and the ways in which it affects others participating among the different electronic environments available. The Internet is a technology that has expanded rapidly over relatively few years and millions of users are interacting with each other using the new medium without having considered how this communication differs in quantity and quality from more established information channels. Using examples from previously established research in the field of social psychology and more recent studies on various aspects of the Internet phenomenon, the author considers how human behaviour is influenced by the peculiar characteristics of the new 'Web-World'. After a brief introductory chapter where some of the Internet jargon is usefully demystified, there follow two related chapters on how people 'invent' themselves on the Web, discussing role-playing, impression formation and management, and identity experiments. They examine how users attempt to overcome the lack of the usual non-verbal cues in face-to-face communication and add socioemotional expressiveness to their online personas. The author also discusses how this process of online self-projection can become altogether delusional, deceptive and dangerous as participants morph between generational, gender and personality profiles. The following two chapters examine the dynamics of group behaviour online. They illustrate the psychological phenomena of conformity, polarization, conflict and co-operation occurring in mailing lists, e-mail traffic, news and discussion groups and chat rooms. Surprisingly, much of group behaviour online has similar social regulation as their real life counterparts.
This article provides a critical and global overview of current research into public opinion about science and technology (S&T). Although several sets of high-quality data exist, there remains a lack of international coordination and irregular release of new data in forms that can be widely used. The article highlights a range of key challenges that those involved in collecting and reporting public opinion data about S&T can address to provide society with a more comprehensive and more integrated picture of attitudes and understanding about S&T around the world.
Several recent strands of work within science studies, risk analysis, the public understanding of science, and environmental policy analysis have focused on the significance of lay knowledge and expertise. In case after case, it has been suggested that “expert” accounts of physical reality have conflicted with local people's knowledge and that rather than local knowledge being routinely inferior and defective, it has commonly proven more sensitive to local “realities.” These cases have become favored sites for studying public discontents with expert knowledge. Though the primary style of analysis in this emerging tradition has consisted of the case study, two conceptual schema for clarifying this topic have recently been proposed by Funtowicz and Ravetz and by Wynne. This paper uses a case study in the local understanding of an air-quality model to undertake a conceptual and empirical assessment of these contrasting analytical frameworks.
