Expertise in Public Engagement

• In Event: Public Engagement in Science and Technology Policy 2

Abstract

For the past seven years, Boulder, Colorado has sought to meet climate action goals by creating a local electric utility. This process has included both robust community debate and closed-door meetings driven by lawsuits, concern over legal strategy, and bargaining positions. After a close election on whether to continue funding this effort, the city decided to convene a Communications and Engagement Working Group to analyze and provide guidance on engagement strategies on Boulder’s Energy Future at least in part due to recognition, as the city manager wrote in an op-ed, of the "the perception that the city will simply double-down on traditional, one-way communication efforts in hopes of converting opponents of the utility" (Brautigam & Bailey, 2018). This paper draws on ethnographic methods to analyze role conflicts and normative dilemmas of the role of social science in public engagement processes by looking at the interaction and discourse within the working group. Through analysis of meta-communication about public engagement as well as the ways that expertise is constructed within the working group, this site offers insights into how social sciences contribute to public engagement, public engagement is professionalized, and how community members resist the professionalization of public engagement.

Author

• Leah Sprain, University of Colorado Boulder