Cafs juniors

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Cafés  juniors 

• Pablo Jensen (CNRS)
• café  Sciences et Citoyens   (Lyon, F)
• (pablo.jensen_at_wanadoo.fr)

Newcastle, May 22, 2004
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From delegative to dialogical democracy

• delegative democracy trust
• elections, experts
• danger technocracy, lobbies, opinions ?
• dialogical democracy negotiation
• opens research of a 'common world'
• danger representation ?

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After years of trust in confined science (in
labs)
Global impact of science (techno-nature)
Critical attitude of citizens
Participative research
Active education
Scientific cafés
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Participative research

• Science shops (NL, UK)
• National Breast Cancer Coalition (USA)
• Öko-Institut e.V. (Germany)
• ARUC (Canada)
• Consensus Conferences
• France ??

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Community-University Research Alliances (Canada)

• promote sharing of knowledge, resources and
  expertise between universities and the community
  
• enrich research and teaching methods in
  universities
• Example  Partnering for sustainable resource
  management . Collaboration between Cities of
  British Columbia, Chuzghun Resources Corporation,
  University of Northern British Columbia...

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Spirit of philo cafés (conviviality,
openness, debate between equals)
Global impact of science (curiosity, concerns)
cafés  Sciences et Citoyens  (Lyon, October
1997)
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What is a (Lyons) café des sciences?

• Appetizer time (645 pm)
• A given topic (pain, vaccines, madness)
• Guests experts
• scientists (human and unhuman sciences)
• business, citizen organizations, religious
• concerned public (NGO) ? wiser discussion

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Junior cafés
Supported by Government, Rhône-Alps region, Lyon
University and (symbolically) CNRS
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PEDAGOGICAL AIM  A REASONABLE SKEPTICISM

• Change perception of science science in action
• Learn to argue using information, develop
  autonomy
• Meet the people who are shaping our world 
  scientists, businessmen, politicians, NGOs
• Information about scientific issues in a
  convivial way
• Exchange views on environment, health, new
  technologies issues...

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METHODOLOGY (1)

• Pupils prepare their Café with teachers and
  our advice, they
• choose a topic,
• define the important issues
• define three profiles of complementary guests
• NB For us, a junior café is not  a single
  speaker giving a short talk discussion 
• They advertise the café within their school
• We find appropriate guests

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METHODOLOGY (2)

• The cafeteria is transformed in a  school-free 
  place

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METHODOLOGY (3)

• The discussion is lead by a teacher, or better
  by one or two pupils
• From 50 to 100 pupils, debate for 2 hours
• Schools are free to adapt this scheme to their
  specific organization

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Junior cafés in France

• 1999 3 cafés in Lyon (55 by now)
• 2001 Rhône-Alpes Chambéry ( 20), Valence,
  Grenoble, Saint-Etienne (7 each)
• 2002 Dijon (4), Paris (gt 3), Strasbourg
•  Health  cafés by INSERM (physicians)
• Certainly many others

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Reasons for success

• Conviviality
• Students choose the subject ! (laundry-free
  clothes)
• multidisciplinary approach
• Sciences uncertain disagreements, possible to
  argue (Rhône pollution)
• BUT
• Time consuming to find 3  good  guests
• Real cost 400 euros each

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Active education

• SCOPE Project (http//scope.educ.washington.edu/gm
  food/)
• Science Controversies On-line Partnerships in
  Education
• Follow a controversy through Internet
• Argue for one choice with scientific facts

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Going further...

• Forums Etudiants Citoyens
• Involve future experts university students
• Deeper preparation
• Mediators between experts and public during the
  café
• Three such forums so far, mainly on sustainable
  development