This site represents the continuing learning of the Public Participation and Engagement Learning Community at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We hope to share ideas and projects, as well as useful tools and successful strategies for fully engaging the public in deliberative, democratic processes. Join the dialogue! Share your experiences!
The ethics of participatory mapping is once again a frequent topic on list serves, with accusations that a current participatory mapping project in Mexico is unethical, what do you think?
This is a very interesting -- and somewhat disturbin -- article. The issues being raised may be legitimate, as the history of the US in Latin America demonstrates. Yet, there may also be a more benign purpose to the mapping that is being filtered through suspicious lenses.
The key to effective public participation, it seems to me, is reponsible transparency -- those seeking to engage others should be forthright about their funding, their goals, the expected disclosure of results, etc. From an informed consent position, communities can then negotiate the terms under which they provide data. Still, regardless of a community's preferences, higher levels of government may demand 'participation' in non-democratic ways.
Of course, the more we betray the trust of those we seek to engage, the less likely they will want to participate in any future events, to our mutual detriment.
This is a very interesting -- and somewhat disturbin -- article. The issues being raised may be legitimate, as the history of the US in Latin America demonstrates. Yet, there may also be a more benign purpose to the mapping that is being filtered through suspicious lenses.
ReplyDeleteThe key to effective public participation, it seems to me, is reponsible transparency -- those seeking to engage others should be forthright about their funding, their goals, the expected disclosure of results, etc. From an informed consent position, communities can then negotiate the terms under which they provide data. Still, regardless of a community's preferences, higher levels of government may demand 'participation' in non-democratic ways.
Of course, the more we betray the trust of those we seek to engage, the less likely they will want to participate in any future events, to our mutual detriment.
-Harry
Well said Harry!
ReplyDelete