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Short abstract:

In this 're-making and doing' demonstration we showcase methods for mapping ecologies of participation developed in the Public Engagement Observatory of the UK Energy Research Centre, namely comparative case analysis, digital methods, and crowdsourcing through citizen social science.

Long abstract:

Moving beyond mainstream ‘residual realist’ perspectives of participation as discrete, specific and pre-given, constructivist STS scholarship sees participation, publics and public issues as co-produced through the performance of collective practices that interrelate in wider systems. Work on remaking participation in STS has developed the theoretical basis for an ‘ecologies of participation’ approach that conceptualises participation as co-produced through diverse situated collective practices, which interrelate and circulate in wider trans-local spaces of controversy and standardisation, and become stabilised in constitutional settings, such as nation states or other spaces of coherence above and below the state. In this 're-making and doing' demonstration we showcase different methods developed to map ecologies of participation with technoscience and democracy. Specifically, we provide working demonstrations of methods for mapping participation, publics and publics issues developed in the Public Engagement Observatory of the UK Energy Research Centre, namely comparative case analysis, digital methods, and crowdsourcing through citizen social science. We invite participants to engage with these methods for mapping the many different ways that publics are engaging with energy, climate change and net zero. We will prompt open consideration of the comparative differences between these methods for mapping ecologies of participation, including their different entry points, exclusions, uncertainties, and their potentials to transform technoscience, democracy and participation in practice.