Biobanking, public consultation, and the discursive logics of deliberation: five lessons from British Columbia.
Genomics-related "deliberative" public consultations are all the rage. Drawing from theories of deliberative democracy, run by social scientists, governments and non-profit organizations globally, these events can produce valuable insights and governance solutions. There is a danger, however, of "deliberation" being viewed by its new practitioners as a homogenous "tool" due to a marked lack of analysis of the discursive processes at play. This paper addresses this gap, employing the discourse theory of Laclau to analyze small and large group deliberation at a public consultation on biobanking in British Columbia (BC), Canada, during 2007. Ethnographic and transcript analysis reveals small group deliberation to be a two-stage process, operating according to two different discursive logics. The paper concludes with five lessons for theorists and practitioners of deliberative public engagement with science.
W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics, University of British Columbia, Canada. walmsleh@interchange.ubc.ca
Heather
H
Walmsley
D018070:Biological Specimen Banks; D001955:British Columbia; D003256:Community Participation; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D011640:Public Policy