Anticipatory Governance, Anticipatory Advocacy, Knowledge Brokering, and the State of Disabled People's Rights Advocacy in Canada: Perspectives of Two Canadian Cross-Disability Rights Organizations
Abstract
Advancements in science, technology and innovation (STI), both conceptualized and emerging, are continuing to impact society as a whole, and disabled people in particular, in numerous ways. How STI advancements should be governed to address the impacts has been discussed for some time and several STI governance frameworks have emerged to tackle this challenge. While each framework may vary by strategy and approach, anticipatory practice (or foresight) and public engagement are two approaches utilized across these different strategies. The purpose of this study was to examine the utility and consequences of anticipatory governance practice (which entails anticipatory practice and public engagement) as an indicator of success for STI governance for disabled people. Using a multiple-case study research design, and the frameworks of Ability Studies and Sherry Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation, my thesis focuses on the views of advocates for disabled people’s rights from two national cross-disability rights organizations in Canada on the practical reality of advocacy in Canada and the capacity of disabled people to engage in and influence discourse on STI governance, especially in an anticipatory way, and what they see as approaches to increase disabled people’s influence on STI governance. I also explore the role of the knowledge broker as a facilitator for collaboration and information exchange to support cross-disability rights organizations in the practice of anticipatory advocacy.
The study’s main conclusion is that the application of anticipatory practices to governance frameworks generates the need for anticipatory advocacy - the capacity and ability to advocate in an anticipatory way to be part of anticipatory governance discourses. However, anticipatory governance is, as a practical reality, a privileged discourse that is limited to those who fulfill certain abilities to participate in this practice. For disabled people and cross-disability rights organizations, anticipatory practices pose many barriers and challenges and much work remains to be done for and by disabled people in order to ensure their meaningful engagement in anticipatory governance practices for STI.
Description
Keywords
Public and Social Welfare, Social Structure and Development
Citation
Diep, L. (2017). Anticipatory Governance, Anticipatory Advocacy, Knowledge Brokering, and the State of Disabled People's Rights Advocacy in Canada: Perspectives of Two Canadian Cross-Disability Rights Organizations (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/24933