Subject: COMMUNITY RESEARCH + CITIZEN PANEL NEWS (Loka Alert 5:5) Loka Alert 5:5 (30 Sept. 1998) Please Repost Where Appropriate (1) ** NEWS FLASH!! **: COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH IN _THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION_ + (2) CITIZEN PANEL UPDATES & RESOURCES Friends and Colleagues: This is one in an occasional series of electronic postings on democratic politics of research, science and technology, issued free of charge by the nonprofit Loka Institute. If you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Loka Institute's E-mail list, please send a message to: . Please pass this alert on to others who would be interested, and invite interested friends and colleagues to subscribe too. Thank you! This Loka Alert includes a **NEWS FLASH** on community-based research, and updates on Citizen Panels (also known as "consensus conferences"). Cheers to all! --Dick Sclove The Loka Institute, P.O. Box 355, Amherst, MA 01004-0355 USA Tel. +(413) 559-5860; Fax +(413) 559-5811 E-mail: resclove@amherst.edu (personal) E-mail: Loka@amherst.edu (shared) Web (**NEW!!**): www.loka.org P.S. Please address replies to this Alert to . (Replies sent to are swallowed by the Internet ghost and digested unread.) ***************************************************************** CONTENTS (1) ** NEWS FLASH!! **: Community-Based Research in _The Chronicle of Education_ ................... (1 page) (2) Citizen Panels: Updates & Resources................ (1-1/3 pages) (3) About the Loka Institute (including Internships).................................... (1/2 page) ***************************************************************** (1) ** NEWS FLASH!! ** COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH IN _THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION_ (Sept. 18, 1998) The September 18 issue of the _Chronicle of Higher Education_ includes two major articles inspired by the Loka Institute's July 1998 study of "Community-Based Research in the United States." The complete _Chronicle_ articles are available from the Loka Institute home page at . (You can also download a free copy of Loka's study via this Web page). The _Chronicle_ articles discuss several organizations and case studies covered in the Loka Institute study, including Yellow Creek Concerned Citizens of Kentucky; West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc.; Chicago's Policy Research Action Group; and the now-famous community-based research efforts that identified a serious childhood leukemia cluster in Woburn, Massachusetts. The _Chronicle_ articles also quote a number of "heavy hitters" weighing in on behalf of community-based research, including Dr. Anne Petersen of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (a funder of Loka's Community Research Network project): Excerpt from: Colleen Cordes, "Community-Based Projects Help Scholars Build Public Support," in _The Chronicle of Higher Education_, Sept. 18, 1998, pp. A37-A38: "When you bring research to the level of people, they're going to have a much better idea of what science can do for them," says Anne C. Petersen, former deputy director of the National Science Foundation and now a senior vice-president of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.... Ms. Petersen...would like to see the National Science Foundation join [the list of federal agencies that fund community-based research.] The N.S.F., she says, has a "superb track record" of developing and evaluating innovative models for research and education. With a well-designed pilot study, she says, it could do the same for community- based studies. The new _Chronicle_ articles -- coupled with the front-page _Christian Science Monitor_ story on community-based research that ran on July 24th (also available from the Loka Web page), as well as other news stories that are in the works -- are all direct outgrowths of the Loka Institute's Community Research Network project. This is a convincing demonstration of the efficacy and impact that can result as individual community- based research programs join forces to establish a transnational Community Research Network (CRN). (To learn more about or join the CRN, please visit the Loka homepage ). ***************************************************************** (2) CITIZEN PANELS: UPDATES & RESOURCES (A) IMPACT EVALUATION: As long-time Loka Alert subscribers know, back in April 1997 the Loka Institute and several institutional partners organized the first U.S. pilot Citizen's Panel for deliberating on science and technology policy. Modeled on a Danish-style "consensus conference," the topic of our Citizen's Panel was "Telecommunications and the Future of Democracy" (see: ). Professor David Guston of Rutgers University has recently completed an independent impact evaluation of this event. Download a free copy of his study (No. 5 in the Bloustein School Working Paper Series 9/3/98) from: . (B) A MULTILINGUAL CONSENSUS CONFERENCE: Will it ever be possible to organize a transnational Citizens' Panel? Early indications are favorable: In May 1998 the Technology Assessment Program of the Swiss Science Council organized a Danish-style consensus conference on the topic "Electricity and Society." Because Switzerland is a multilingual nation, the conference was conducted in French, German and Italian, using simultaneous translation. A brief abstract of the conference conclusions is available on the Web at: . The full conference report, entitled "PubliForum: 'Electricity and Society': Citizen Panel Report" has also been translated into English. For information on obtaining a copy, contact Swiss project leader Danielle Buetschi: Tel. +[41] 31-323-09-43 Fax +[41] 31-322-80-70 E-mail: (C) DANISH CONSENSUS CONFERENCE INFO ON THE WEB: The Danish Parliament's Board of Technology, which invented the consensus conference process for citizen-based policy deliberation over a decade ago, has recently begun translating many of its Web pages into English. For documents describing the consensus conference methodology, go to: . The laypanel reports from a number of Danish consensus conferences are available at: . (D) A STUDENT-BASED CITIZENS' PANEL: In March 1998 undergraduate students at McMaster University in Canada helped organize a mini-consensus conference on the topic of mandatory student use of laptop computers. The "laypanel" was composed of McMaster faculty, staff and students; the "expert" panel was composed of 6 undergraduate McMaster students in Science, Technology & Public Policy. A report of their work, which was inspired partly by the Loka Institute's pilot Citizens' Panel, is available on the Web at: . Prof. Bob Hudspith reports that the budget for this mini-consensus conference was $1,825: Budget: Honorarium for panelists $775. Honorarium for moderator 200. Posters, room set-up, misc 500. Hospitality services (the panel met over dinner) 350. ____ $1825 (For comparison, full-scale -- i.e., nationwide -- European consensus conferences have typically cost U.S.$100,000 - 200,000.) ***************************************************************** (3) ABOUT THE LOKA INSTITUTE (A) The Loka Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making research, science and technology responsive to democratically decided social and environmental concerns. TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE LOKA INSTITUTE, to participate in our on-line discussion groups, to order publications, or to help please visit our Web page: . Or contact us via E-mail at . (B) INTERNSHIPS AND VOLUNTEERS: The Loka Institute has filled its intern positions for the winter of 1998, but we continue to welcome new volunteers. We are now accepting applications for student interns, work-study students, and volunteers for the spring of 1999 and beyond. We are a small but internationally influential nonprofit organization, and the activities in which interns are involved vary from research assistance, writing, organizing conferences, and project development to managing our Internet lists and Web pages, database development, and helping with clerical and other office work, etc. If you are interested in working with us to promote a democratic politics of science and technology, please send a hard copy resume along with a succinct letter explaining your interest and the dates you are available to: The Loka Institute, P.O. Box 355, Amherst, MA 01004, USA. (C) TO LEARN MORE about the Loka Institute's concerns and vision, see Loka founder Richard Sclove's book, _DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY_ -- recipient of the 1996 Don K. Price Award of the American Political Science Association as "the year's best book on science, technology and politics". For a paperback copy, contact your local bookseller, Guilford Press (in the U.S. telephone toll free 1-800-365-7006; or, from anywhere, fax Guilford Press in the U.S. at +1-212-966-6708 or E-mail: ), or order on the Web from . "Mr. Sclove is refreshing in the way he rejects ideas so nearly universally held that most people have never thought to question them." -- _New York Times Book Review_ ###