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Paper long abstract:

The involvement of stakeholders in policy making may be implemented in a diversity of ways, also according to the various conceptions of science-policy-society interaction.

The evolution of the studies on this interaction moved towards a greater complexity, from models as 'linear model' (Logar 2011), 'elitist view' (Mazuzan 1988), 'technocratic vision' or 'modern model', towards the inclusion of more actors and variables (Jasanoff, 2004), considering the different perspectives and values that shape stakeholders' arguments ('framing model') and stressing the dependence on the context (Funtowicz 2006).

We present some results of a Delphi study performed with Italian researchers, politicians, doctors and journalists, in which the panellists' underlying models of science-policy interaction are brought out and discussed. The study has been developed in the framework of the REPOPA European project.

The Delphi panel was composed by 18 people (9 men and 9 women) and was consulted by means of a 2-step semi-structured questionnaire. In the first step the panellists were asked to rule on the issue of the production and use of research knowledge for policy making, the participation of citizens, the minority points of view not gathering the unanimous consensus of the scientific community. Following the 'framing model', different disciplines themselves become competing stakeholders. Although the linear models as the technocratic vision seem to be by no means surpassed in our Delphi we experienced the emergence of different and even contrasting models within the same individual conceptions.