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This paper examines some of the science communication challenges involved when designing and conducting public deliberation processes on issues of national importance. We take as our illustrative case study a recent research project investigating public values and attitudes toward future energy system change for the United Kingdom. National-level issues such as this are often particularly difficult to engage the public with because of their inherent complexity, derived from multiple interconnected elements and policy frames, extended scales of analysis, and different manifestations of uncertainty. With reference to the energy system project, we discuss ways of meeting a series of science communication challenges arising when engaging the public with national topics, including the need to articulate systems thinking and problem scale, to provide balanced information and policy framings in ways that open up spaces for reflection and deliberation, and the need for varied methods of facilitation and data synthesis that permit access to participants’ broader values. Although resource intensive, national-level deliberation is possible and can produce useful insights both for participants and for science policy.

Vacant land presents many challenges for older financially distressed cities. Community engagement is a very important element to solve the urban vacant land problem and assist in long term regeneration. This paper reviews what plans, policies, implementation methods, and community engagement process were developed to overcome barriers and challenges to vacant land projects. Most studies reveal that the importance of community engagement process in terms of understanding the problems and potential value of vacant land, redevelopment process, financial support, regulation, and neighborhood organizations participation for vacant land projects. To encourage community engagement to repurpose vacant land, municipalities should have to provide adequate information about vacant land conditions and their potentials in terms of ecological and social value. Code enforcement and tax foreclosure are efficient ways to control vacant land and the abandoned building problem. Tax incentive systems, such as high taxation rates on land but a low rate or no tax at all on infill development on vacant land, tax credits on vacant land forest structure, and rehabilitation abatement on abandoned buildings can increase public investment in vacant land. Local governments should support such efforts by creating community involvement groups, such as neighborhood coordinators, civic leaders, CDCs (Community Development Corporations), and other community-based nonprofit organizations. Community engagement is not specific planning, but it is part of an ongoing process in planning strategies to urban regeneration and renewal vacant land.

Public consultation and engagement processes have become an integral feature of infrastructure development projects in many parts of the world. Regardless of the drivers behind this trend, legislative or otherwise, a key objective of the process is to facilitate information exchange between affected parties. Somewhat simplified, the process is used by the project team to garner support, collect feedback and address grievances for the project, and by a multitude of stakeholders to voice complaints, lobby for change and secure benefits for themselves. It follows that the process, despite intentions otherwise, is commonly characterised by opposing interests and unequal power relationships that lead to antagonistic standoffs between participants. This paper focuses on what takes place within the engagement process and the format through which information is exchanged. In particular, focus is on the material artefacts that are used to facilitate the information exchange. When used effectively, these artefacts act as boundary objects between participants by allowing them to work together across a diverse range of issues. The paper draws on ongoing research that explores how boundary objects are used in the public engagement process in Hong Kong. The study utilises the Latour-Callon model of ÔinteressementÕ to trace how information is translated through boundary objects across a series of engagement events. An argument is put forward highlighting how boundary objects both affect and are affected by power struggles between social groups, and how this in turn affects decision making and goal alignment. In so doing, the notion of the boundary objects possessing inherent properties making them effective communication tools across events is rejected, and replaced by a view that puts more emphasis on how and why they are used by the participants. ; postprint

This conference paper was presented at the 30th Annual ARCOM Conference held on the 1-3rd September 2014 in Portsmouth. ; Public consultation and engagement processes have become an integral feature of infrastructure development projects in many parts of the world. Regardless of the drivers behind this trend, legislative or otherwise, a key objective of the process is to facilitate information exchange between affected parties. Somewhat simplified, the process is used by the project team to garner support, collect feedback and address grievances for the project, and by a multitude of stakeholders to voice complaints, lobby for change and secure benefits for themselves. It follows that the process, despite intentions otherwise, is commonly characterised by opposing interests and unequal power relationships that lead to antagonistic standoffs between participants. This paper focuses on what takes place within the engagement process and the format through which information is exchanged. In particular, focus is on the material artefacts that are used to facilitate the information exchange. When used effectively, these artefacts act as boundary objects between participants by allowing them to work together across a diverse range of issues. The paper draws on ongoing research that explores how boundary objects are used in the public engagement process in Hong Kong. The study utilises the Latour-Callon model of 'interessement' to trace how information is translated through boundary objects across a series of engagement events. An argument is put forward highlighting how boundary objects both affect and are affected by power struggles between social groups, and how this in turn affects decision making and goal alignment. In so doing, the notion of the boundary objects possessing inherent properties making them effective communication tools across events is rejected, and replaced by a view that puts more emphasis on how and why they are used by the participants.

AbstractStakeholder engagement (SE) is considered a best practice in sustainability reporting, as it increases companies' social legitimacy and reputation. Companies have to properly communicate the SE activities, paying attention to the social, cultural, and political factors that affect the perception of stakeholders. This is particularly relevant in the tourism sector, which is a typical multistakeholder context. In the academic literature, few studies have investigated the role of the country‐specific determinants of corporate social responsibility, and none of them adopt a cross‐country approach. The objective of this paper is to analyze the disclosure of SE, observing the content of nonfinancial reports and company websites of all companies belonging to the Global Reporting Initiative database. Cross‐country analysis confirms that European and non‐European firms approach SE activities differently. The research offers a contribution to the development and improvement of company relations with stakeholders from a value cocreation perspective, identifying the areas of interest on which firms can work to advance the SE communication process.

The rise of augmented reality (AR) technology, which overlays digital content to alter customers' views of a physical service setting, using mobile and wearable computing, drives the digital automation of physical services. In particular, it promises to achieve tangibility even in service encounters delivered in digital formats. However, customer engagement with AR is falling short of expectations. Managers lack an integrated framework of AR service automation and therefore tend to focus on the technology rather than on the process of customer engagement with AR service automation. To address this problem, the current study proposes a technology-enabled engagement process that integrates multiple stages of customer engagement, as a service-centric process. To establish that engagement with AR service automation requires the inclusion of service tangibility, as part of the process, the authors decompose the steps of interactive service engagement, the spatial presence of the service, customers' emotional and cognitive engagement with the service, and perceived value-in-use, which lead to emergent behavioral forms of engagement.

Report is an evaluation of the engagement process used in 'SDC Supplier Obligation project : household energy from 2011 : final report'. ; Publisher PDF

As new environmental exposures are continuously identified, environmental influences on health are of growing concern. Knowledge regarding the impacts of environmental exposures is constantly evolving and is often incomplete. In this paper, we describe a multi-phased, multi-stakeholder engagement initiative involving diverse stakeholders with an interest in building a children's environmental health research agenda which would link with and support local practices and policies. The intent of this initiative was to identify priority research issues, themes and questions by implementing a tested Research Planning Model that encompassed the engagement of diverse stakeholders. Here, we describe the model application, which was specifically focused on children's health and the environment. A key component of the model was the ongoing stakeholder engagement process. This included two stakeholder forums, during which participants identified three main research themes (social determinants of health, environmental exposures and knowledge translation) and a short list of research questions. Other key components of the model included the development of a Global Sounding Board of key stakeholders, an Advisory Board and a Scientific Panel with mandates to review and prioritise the research questions. In our case, the Advisory Board and Scientific Panel prioritised questions that focused on environmental exposures related to children's respiratory outcomes. The stakeholder engagement described here is an evolving process with frequent changes of context, sustained by the commitment and dedication of the Children's Environment and Health Research planning team and the Advisory Board. In this article, we share the engagement process, outcomes, successes, challenges and lessons learned from this ongoing experience.
Keywordsstakeholder engagement, children's health, environmental health, health research

An important direction in recent thinking about public understanding of science and technology is embodied in the international trend within many democratic countries towards the promotion of citizen engagement. These developments entail the participation and deliberative involvement by lay publics in planning, decision-making and policy-making situations. In this paper we argue that citizen engagement exercises can usefully be understood as information systems. This characterization leads us to propose that the effectiveness by which such exercises utilize sources of knowledge—what we term their translation quality—should be adopted as a new criterion for their evaluation. We illustrate the applicability of this proposal by analyzing the GM Nation? public debate, a government-sponsored citizen engagement exercise that took place in Britain in 2002—3.

International audience ; An important direction in recent thinking about public understanding of science and technology is embodied in the international trend within many democratic countries towards the promotion of These developments entail the participation and deliberative involvement by lay publics in planning, decision-making and policy-making situations. In this paper we argue that citizen engagement exercises can usefully be understood as information systems. This characterization leads us to propose that the effectiveness by which such exercises utilize sources of knowledge—what we term their —should be adopted as a new criterion for their evaluation. We illustrate the applicability of this proposal by analyzing the public debate, a government-sponsored citizen engagement exercise that took place in Britain in 2002—3.