How can a wider public participate in political decision-making, when it comes to science-driven issues like environmental, health or energy policy? In light of the plethora of contemporary crises, this question has become one of the most pressing political concerns of our time. In recent debates, two historical narratives stand out, each tracing the origins of the current crises to the Cold War. Some have argued that the current situation is a “crisis of expertise”. From this perspective, the delegation of political decision-making to scientific experts led to a cacophony of conflicting expertise in the public sphere. Others have pointed to a “crisis of truth” associated with the “counter-epistemologies” of the “alternative” milieus of the 1970s and 1980s, which allegedly destroyed a common belief in a social and natural “reality” and thus contributed to the rise of right-wing populism, anti-science attitudes and conspiracy theories.

The project is based on the assumption that both narratives capture certain crucial elements, but only scratch the surface of a much more complex shift in the relationships between science and politics during the Cold War. It thus investigates the history of participation from the perspective of history of science and knowledge. Firstly, the project aims to prepare an ERC Consolidator grant application on the basis of three policy fields: 1) urban and spatial planning, 2) feminist health movement and 3) Western European development policy. The project will focus on the social formats and media of participation developed in these contexts, such as self-help groups and alternative educational institutions. Secondly, it will carry out outreach activities by engaging with publication initiative that appear in the hybrid publication series “cache” (print and online: www.cache.ch, Open Access) published by Zurich-based intercom Verlag.