Changing relations between science and democracy - and controversies over issues such as climate change, energy transitions, genetically modified organisms and smart technologies - have led to a rapid rise in new forms of public participation and citizen engagement. While most existing approaches adopt fixed meanings of 'participation' and are consumed by questions of method or critiquing the possible limits of democratic engagement, this book offers new insights that rethink public engagements with science, innovation and environmental issues as diverse, emergent and in the making. Bringing together leading scholars on science and democracy, working between science and technology studies, political theory, geography, sociology and anthropology, the volume develops relational and co-productionist approaches to studying and intervening in spaces of participation. New empirical insights into the making, construction, circulation and effects of participation across cultures are illustrated through examples ranging from climate change and energy to nanotechnology and mundane technologies, from institutionalised deliberative processes to citizen-led innovation and activism, and from the global north to global south. This new way of seeing participation in science and democracy opens up alternative paths for reconfiguring and remaking participation in more experimental, reflexive, anticipatory and responsible ways. This ground-breaking book is essential reading for scholars and students of participation across the critical social sciences and beyond, as well as those seeking to build more transformative participatory practices.

The focus of this book is public participation in the governance of science and technology, particularly pertaining to environment and sustainability issues. The past three decades have seen a dramatic rise in diverse forms of participation throughout western democracies, but this book represents the first major attempt to consolidate the research field of critical public engagement studies and practice, working at the interface between science and technology studies (STS), geography, environmental science, and political and democratic theory. Bringing together leading scholars writing on science and society today, the book moves beyond the focus that has dominated the public participation field to date around developing methods and democratic engagement. In doing so, the authors shift the spotlight to participation as an object of study in itself, paying close attention to its social construction, performance, expertise, power and discourse. The book addresses the following key questions:

• What does critical public engagement mean in terms of research and practice?
• What is the nature of public participation expertise and how do technologies of participation get produced, mobilised, and with what effects?
• How is public engagement framed, controlled and governed and how does it construct the public, public issues, and visions of democracy?
• What mediates institutional learning and reflexivity in relation to participation and the public?
• What are the prospects for building more deliberately reflexive, adaptive and responsible forms of participatory governance of science and technology?

In addition to theoretical and conceptual developments, the authors advance empirical understandings relating to these questions through case studies across the domains of emerging technologies (such as nanotechnology and synthetic biology), sustainable energy, and natural hazards. Whilst mapping out critical social science research directions, the book does this in a way that is constructively critical through exploring implications for practices, policies, and institutions of public engagement. "Participation, Science and the Environment" is essential reading for researchers and students of STS, geography, environmental studies and related disciplines, as well as practitioners faced with the challenges of engaging others in, or gaining access to, contemporary science and innovation processes.