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Paper short abstract

STS has long emphasised opening up knowledge and decision-making. Yet less attention has been given to how to 'close down' well. We propose a post-foundational exploration that combines critique with constructive ways of composing provisional, contingent yet democratic collective groundings.

Paper long abstract

Facing now the challenge of ‘the limits of inclusion’ should not be surprising. Over the past three decades, Science and Technology Studies and democratic theory have converged around a shared commitment to opening up knowledge and decision-making processes. Through a post-foundational critique of the naturalisation and opaque mediations of politics, scholars and practitioners have challenged the authority of technocratic expertise and narrow forms of democratic representation. Yet the emphasis on inclusion and openness leaves a persistent question insufficiently addressed: what does ‘closing down’ well mean from a post-foundational standpoint?

Drawing on ongoing work towards a collaborative interdisciplinary process titled “Democracy in-the-making”, we propose a two-edged post-foundational approach to this challenge. First, a critical orientation that continues to denaturalise and contest hegemonic closures by exposing their exclusions and power asymmetries. Second, a constructive or associational orientation that focuses on how heterogeneous actors, including ‘the merits’ of expert knowledge, and interests can be composed into provisional yet binding collective arrangements.

We argue that more work is needed to explicate and experiment with how this stabilisation process ought to occur. As a starting point, we propose grounding concepts that allow us to address two levels of the challenge: 1. How to ‘do’ normativity post-foundationally? And 2. What qualities can support democracy in this current historical challenge (this Zeitenwende)? By examining these potential supporting concepts, we can reframe the problem of inclusion and consider how, post-foundationally, to open up and close down in tandem, thereby putting our own expert knowledge to use for democracy.