Initiative Director Janie Hipp attended a workshop last week at the National Science Foundation's division of Social and Economic Science. Janie was joined by other advocates, policymakers, scientists, and educators for a two-day conference focusing on the importance of civic science to the future of a democratic society. The program, sponsored by the University of Iowa and supported by a grant from the NSF, asked participants "to delineate what civic science is, to specify how it differs from citizen science and activist street science, and to generate best practices for civic science." Ultimately, the program organizers hoped to use this discussion to craft professional and educational policy goals.
Civic science focuses on the values that drive scientific inquiry in public policy arenas. As a school of thought, it encourages scientists working in public policy areas to hone their relational skills and grow their ability to think strategically about a scientific inquiry that is interconnected with policy goals. The purpose of this type of civic-minded science is to help scientific discoveries come out of the academy and take root in the real world, where they shape policy and offer solutions to society in a tangible, practical way. As the Initiative's representative at the workshop, Janie was able to advocate for Indian Country and articulate the importance of the philosophy of civic science as applied to food and agricultural production for Tribes.
You can read the workshop write-up here on the Huffington Post Blog, where it was featured earlier this week.
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