RESEARCH, TRUST AND POLICY workshop
Call for abstracts, dl 31 May
4-5 Oct 2018, University of Helsinki

In this workshop we explore the role of trust in research and policy. When people trust one another, they can depend upon each other both epistemically and socially. Trust is a crucial element in communication and transfer of knowledge, and, when scientists work close to policy, they are expected to be trustworthy in the eyes of citizens and policy makers. The importance of trust becomes visible when either scientists or policy makers and citizens are faced with distrust.

This two-day workshop explores the connection between science, trust and policymaking. In policymaking people and groups with diverse backgrounds, values and interests communicate with each other in order to make decisions. When building trusting relationships, scientists, policymakers and laypeople are faced with many questions: How to build trust and trustworthiness among people? How can citizens assess the trustworthiness of scientific experts? What do scientists need to do in order to earn the rational epistemic trust of citizens? In the workshop, we are interested in having both theoretical and empirical papers exploring these topics.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
– Creating and maintaining trust relationships between policymaking and science
– How policy considerations bring forward new desiderata about trust in scientific experts
– The sources of trust and distrust in science and scientific experts
– How and to what extent we can empirically measure trust in science
– How developments in scientific practice bring forward new considerations about trust in science
– The role of communities in epistemic quality management in science/policy relationships
– The value-free ideal and policy
– How much should extra-scientific considerations, such as cost-effectiveness, count in scientific judgment
– Inductive risk and moral trust
– Individual as opposed to collective dimension of trust (i.e., can collective entities be trusted?) and how the distinction relates to policy

Invited speakers:

Maya J. Goldenberg (University of Guelph)
Katherine Hawley (University of St Andrews)
Johanna Nurmi (University of Turku)
Judith Simon (University of Hamburg)
Pia Vuolanto (University of Tampere)

Call for Papers:

Up to four contributed papers will be accepted for presentation at the workshop. We invite submission of short abstracts before May 31, 2018. Please send abstracts of maximum 500 words to “evidenceandexpertise@gmail.com”. All submissions will be notified shortly thereafter.
If you have any question please contact Sofia Blanco Sequeiros at “sofia.blancosequeiros@helsinki.fi”.

Organizers:
Anita Välikangas (University of Helsinki)
Carlo Martini (UniSR and University of Helsinki)
Local Organising Committee:
Anita Välikangas (University of Helsinki), Sofia Blanco Sequeiros (University of Helsinki), Jesse Kuokkanen (University of Helsinki), Pekka Tolvanen (University of Helsinki)
Scientific Committee:
Kristina Rolin (University of Helsinki)
Pekka Mäkelä (University of Helsinki)

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/212946492636195/

https://evidencecausationargumentation.wordpress.com/rtp-workshop-research-trust-and-policy/