Deliberating Differently

In an effort to create a more inclusive, sustainable, and integrated public engagement experience, researchers at the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University (CNS-ASU) developed Futurescape City Tours (FCTs). Begun as a pilot in Phoenix in 2012, in 2013 the FCT expanded its scale to include engagements in St. Paul, Portland, Springfield (MA), Edmonton (Canada), and Washington, DC, in addition to Phoenix. In each city, participants, stakeholders, and experts considered the relationship among emerging technologies, urban environments, and sustainability. Combining a walking tour, photography, guided deliberation, behind-the-scenes expeditions, and informal conversations with city planners, policymakers, researchers, and civic leaders, FCTs attempt to embed participants' values into local systems of innovation. The seminar will examine "material deliberations" as the work participants do to place knowledge into context (values, desires, emotions) through a close look at the experiences of participants from Washington DC. We argue that visual forms of communication are powerful means of facilitating critical dialogue and representing citizens' values, desires, concerns, and curiosities about emerging technologies. Preliminary data suggest that visual representations allow participants to formulate more complex, critical, and creative thinking. Featuring Kathryn De Ridder-Vignone, Former CNS Postdoctoral Researcher and David Tomblin, Director, Science, Technology and Society Program, A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park.