Navigating paradoxes: What roles for experts in public engagement with wicked water issues in the United States?

As public participation in the governance of complex environmental issues grows increasingly en vogue, scholars note how opening decision-making processes that have typically been expert led to public involvement produces a... [ view full abstract ]

As public participation in the governance of complex environmental issues grows increasingly en vogue, scholars note how opening decision-making processes that have typically been expert led to public involvement produces a central paradox. Namely, public involvement is promoted as a means to, on the one hand, reaffirm the primacy of scientific understandings of environmental issues, while on the other, open scientific understandings to public scrutiny to produce more transparent, effective, and acceptable science. While a growing body of literature examines the tensions between scientific and lay knowledge central to this conundrum, what is less explored are the roles played by experts and expertise in the actual spaces of public participation. Here we ask: what roles do experts/scientists and expertise/science play in these spaces? And more specifically, how is the tension between opening science to public scrutiny and promoting science as the arbiter of truth negotiated in these contexts? To examine these questions, we interviewed stakeholders including scientists with a range of experience with public participation initiatives involved with water quality and quantity issues relative to agriculture in 6 sites in 3 states. Our analysis outlines a range of roles and approaches taken to navigate expertise in engagement. We draw from Pielke Jr. (2003) to take steps toward a framework for conceptualizing the roles experts can play in public engagement initiatives around complex water issues. Our aim in doing so is two-fold: first, this framework can provide a practical resource useful for both organizing new engagement activities and navigating ongoing engagements where science and scientific knowledge is central to how engagement participants make sense of issues, opportunities, and challenges. Second, examination of the roles played by experts invites reexamination of how expert involvement with public engagement is conceptualized.