Modern polis or policy dead end? A few cautionary notes about public meetings and science cafes as tools for policy making

Discusses the increasing use of public meetings such as science cafes,consensus confereces, and other kinds of public meetings for citizen engagement as tools for policy making and engaging the public on emerging technologies. While these kinds of forums can serve as important input mechanisms, they also seem to be far more popular to academics and policymakers then to the general public, and are likely to be plagued by participatory inequalities. In order to make these kinds of forums successful, organizers need to try and find a way to make sure a balanced discussion ensures that does not favor particular viewpoints or social groups.