Science or Human Values? A Decision Focused Approach for Communicating About Cleanup Priorities at Contaminated Sites.* J. L. Arvai, Ohio State University
This exploratory study compares two approaches for involving stakeholders in choices about the environment. Both approaches have as their goal informing non-expert members of the public about key elements of decisions relating to the cleanup of contaminated sites. The first approach focuses on technical information and seeks to improve the available knowledge base so that participants can make choices informed by the best available scientific data. This approach is similar in intent to many of the science-based initiatives in decision making now being undertaken by EPA, DOE and other federal or state agencies. The second approach, in contrast, focuses on values-based information and seeks to improve stakeholders’ ability to make difficult choices in the light of required tradeoffs across a variety of technical and non-technical concerns. The results demonstrate that although both approaches help to increase participants’ level of knowledge, a values-based approach is more successful in terms of meaningfully involving non-expert participants in decisions about what have historically been viewed as primarily technical problems.
*Research was supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, Low Dose Radiation Research Program, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Office of Science, under Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FC07-99ER63879 with Decision Research.
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