what is lay participation

In this context, lay participation can be seen partially as an insti- tutional arrangement to introduce more accountability, that is, to hold the health care system and providers to

Full Answer

What is lay participation in science?

Much of what is known about lay participation in past science has concerned the collection and circulation of material objects, such as plant and animal specimens.

Who are lay people?

Lay people have a long and varied history of participation in scientific observation, some contributing their skills and experiences to help produce knowledge, others engaging with science in public settings.

What is a historical approach to lay participation?

A historical approach to lay participation allows us to better understand the making of expert-lay relations in science, and it offers a broader, long-term perspective on contemporary debates about that boundary.

What is the lay apostolate?

The Constitution says: “The lay apostolate is a share in the Church’s mission of salvation.” This definition is different from that associated with Pope Pius XI which was that the apostolate of the laity is their participation in the apostolate of the hierarchy.

Extract

Why and how have lay people participated in scientific observation? And on what terms have they collaborated with experts and professionals? We have become accustomed to the involvement of lay observers in the practice of many branches of science, including both the natural and human sciences, usually as subordinates to experts.

Who is a Lay Observer?

In reflecting on the title of this topical issue and the introduction thus far, it has perhaps occurred to readers that determining who counts as a lay observer has not been a simple matter.

Experiential and Cosmopolitan Knowledge

However the boundary between expert and lay has been defined or contested over the years, it has revolved fundamentally around the possession or cultivation of specialized knowledge of one sort or another. Yet, as many of the essays in this issue make clear, lay people also could possess knowledge based on their own experiences.

Public Sites

As noted above, lay participation in scientific observation has occurred in a wide variety of settings. This issue surveys examples ranging from British fireworks displays and Norwegian churches in the eighteenth century to German zoos, Swedish schools, and American museums in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Networking and Citizen Science

While many of the studies of lay participation in scientific observation presented in this issue describe specific sites of public interaction with science – fireworks displays, zoos, museums, and schools – others focus on networks of geographically dispersed sites.

Acknowledgments

This issue originated in a workshop that I helped to organize at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, in June 2007, sponsored by Department II, directed by Lorraine Daston, as part of its multi-year project on the History of Scientific Observation.

Footnotes

1 The steady stream of stories in newspapers and magazines about the extraordinary variety of ways lay people are participating in science suggests that such collaborations are unlikely to abate anytime soon.