Problematic Publics: A Critical Review of Surveys of Public Attitudes to Biotechnology

This article discusses a range of recent major surveys of public attitudes toward biotechnology. The authors identify a number of problematic features of the surveys: the use of predominantly consumerist rather than civic conception of public discourse; the assumption of a unitary "general public," a "cognitive deficit" approach to public understanding of science; and the presumption of a politically neutral and instrumentalist model of science and technology. The authors then examine some alternative approaches to exploring perceptions of biotechnology among a diversity of interested publics, including more focused dialogical surveys, consensus conferences, and parliamentary inquiries.