ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the purposes of public participation. It highlights the relationship between 'experience' and 'expertise'. The move towards enhanced public participation in technical decision-making raises significant questions concerning the form of such 'partnership' and the assumptions upon which this is to be based. The chapter argues that the question of 'what public participation is for' is bound up with issues of the status of expertise and the validity of different kinds of experience. For Harry Collins and Robert Evans, the starting point for any discussion of public participation in technical decision-making must be a clear epistemological distinction between 'experience' and 'expertise'. In order to pursue the questions of experience and expertise and, more broadly, of the purposes of public participation in scientific governance, the chapter considers two public engagement initiatives within the UK—both dealing in questions of biotechnology and the biosciences.
