Democratizing Expertise and Enhancing Public Participation in Deliberative Risk Governance: EMF Case in Taiwan

This paper contributes to ongoing discussions on democratizing expertise and building public capacities for deliberative / participatory risk governance of science and technology through an investigation of public participations in risk governance concerning the controversies of electromagnetic fields (EMF) in Taiwan. The author utilizes a qualitative approach, drawing from documentary data and data from two focus groups, as well as in-depth interviews with key actors in this controversy to critically investigate this Taiwan case. This paper reflects on the politics of expert authority permeating practices of public participation. Employing concepts from the sociology of scientific knowledge and STS, the author discovers that extensive tensions taking the form of contestation have arisen from discussing a common problem, such as accuracy of scientific literature translation, to what extent EMF exposure is acceptable, versus containing conflicts around how to define the problem under scientific uncertainty and complexity. In addition, the failure of expert authority reflection on their social value positions has played a key role to understand their less-than-successful defence in the citizen perspective. From this perspective, the author discusses some challenges for democratizing expertise in this Taiwan case and then provide suggestions for better public participation in EMF risk governance.