Science Communication webinar with Dr James Riley

Description

Dr James Riley – Upstream engagement with cellular agriculture: citizens, contestations, and responsible innovation

The last 10 years have seen rapid growth in the field of cellular agriculture. This collection of emerging approaches to food production includes tissue engineering to produce cultivated meat and precision fermentation to produce proteins and other ingredients traditionally sourced through conventional agriculture. Proponents of cellular agriculture argue that the technologies can help solve some of the most pressing crises of the Anthropocene. Within this innovation system, publics are often framed as consumers, and the science communication challenge as one of convincing them that such approaches are needed, safe and should be trusted.

Drawing on work from the EPSRC-funded Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub (CARMA), the seminar will situate citizen and stakeholder engagement within wider traditions of science communication – dialogue, deliberation, responsible innovation and upstream engagement. It will explore how sustained public engagement opens up questions that extend beyond individual consumption, including sustainability, ethics, access, corporate power, transparency and regulation.

The seminar will also reflect on the contestations that emerge around public engagement within innovation systems. Drawing on examples from CARMA, it will consider how public perspectives are interpreted and responded to, and how older deficit assumptions are continually reinvented within contemporary innovation systems.

We look forward to welcoming you to this event!