Cultures of participation and the advent of the citizen expert in modern democracies

• Applicant: Dr. Eva Krick
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 523307427

The research project deals with the advent of citizen experts in modern democracies, i.e. ordinary citizens that are attributed the double role of an expert and a societal representative and are addressed as ‘service users’, ‘experience-based experts’ or ‘citizen scientists’. Citizen expertise practices promise to tap into idle knowledge resources and involve the people ‘on the ground’ at the same time, thus potentially ‘democratising’ knowledge and decision-making.The project responds to the little research done on the issue and the utter enthusiasm the phenomenon is generally met with. It takes a political science perspective that scrutinizes the democratic legitimacy and knowledge quality of these practices.The leading questions are: In how far do the high expectations associated with citizen expertise hold at closer look? Under which conditions can these practices be both empowering and inclusive as well as enlightening and problem-solving? The project studies citizen expertise practices in three countries that differ substantively in their approaches to public participation and democratic renewal (Norway, Germany and the UK). The empirical analysis comprises an exploration of the different participatory cultures and uses of democratic innovations, a frame analysis of justifications given for public participation, and for citizen expert involvement more specifically, as well as a performance check of cases operating in the climate change and health policy field that is based on interviews and document analysis. In theoretical terms, democratic theories, sociology of knowledge-approaches and institutional and decision-making theories are built on primarily.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants