TY - JOUR
T1 - Wickedness, reflexivity, and dialogue
T2 - Toward a multivalent bioenergy
AU - Wright, Wynne
AU - Eaton, Weston M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge the contributions of anonymous reviewers in helping to improve this manuscript. Research upon which this article is based was conducted with funding from the Department of Energy administered by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, grant number PO1693. Additional funding was provided by Michigan AgBioResearch.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2014/5/4
Y1 - 2014/5/4
N2 - Bioenergy development is intensifying and is often accompanied by contentious social issues. This article provides a reflexive account of scholarship intended to advance citizen engagement around bioenergy through the practice of deliberative dialogue. Using a case from our work in Michigan, USA, we conceptualize bioenergy as a wicked problem - one that is ill-structured, socially complex, tentative, and eschews a definitive way forward that avoids clear outcomes. Problems are made tame, however, when complexity, diversity, and indeterminancy are obscured. Simultaneously holding in tension the diversity of meanings and values held by actors can reduce the likelihood of taming wicked problems, which is central to a democratic science. Thus, we argue for a multivalent approach to bioenergy. Deliberative dialogue is one technique that can engage citizens and achieve multivalency, yet, it, like any method, requires rigorous reflexivity. This reflexive exercise demonstrates how the normative biases of researchers can obscure or stifle multivalency.
AB - Bioenergy development is intensifying and is often accompanied by contentious social issues. This article provides a reflexive account of scholarship intended to advance citizen engagement around bioenergy through the practice of deliberative dialogue. Using a case from our work in Michigan, USA, we conceptualize bioenergy as a wicked problem - one that is ill-structured, socially complex, tentative, and eschews a definitive way forward that avoids clear outcomes. Problems are made tame, however, when complexity, diversity, and indeterminancy are obscured. Simultaneously holding in tension the diversity of meanings and values held by actors can reduce the likelihood of taming wicked problems, which is central to a democratic science. Thus, we argue for a multivalent approach to bioenergy. Deliberative dialogue is one technique that can engage citizens and achieve multivalency, yet, it, like any method, requires rigorous reflexivity. This reflexive exercise demonstrates how the normative biases of researchers can obscure or stifle multivalency.
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U2 - 10.1080/17597269.2014.913900
DO - 10.1080/17597269.2014.913900
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84938867908
VL - 5
SP - 219
EP - 232
JO - Biofuels
JF - Biofuels
SN - 1759-7269
IS - 3
ER -