Extended peer community

Short description: Community debating science used for policy

The concept of Extended peer community belongs to the field of Sociology of science, and in particular the use of science in the solution of social, political or ecological problems. It was first introduced by in the 1990s by Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome R. Ravetz.[1] in the context of what would become Post-normal science. An Extended peer community is intended by these authors as a space where both credentialed experts from different disciplines and lay stakeholders can discuss and deliberate.

## Content

An Extended peer community is intended by its creators[2][3] as an arrangement at the science policy interface that helps to expand and assess both the knowledge-base and the value-base of policy-making'.[4]

Post-normal science's extended peer community argues for two kind of extensions: first, more than one discipline is assumed to have a potential bearing on the issue being debated, thereby providing different lenses to consider the problem. Second the community is extended to lay actors, taken to be all those with stakes, or an interest, in the given issue.[3][5]

The lay members of the community thus constituted may also take upon themselves active 'research' tasks; this has happened e.g. in the so-called 'popular epidemiology',[6][7] when the official authorities have shown reluctance to perform investigations deemed necessary by the communities affected - for example - by a case of air or water pollution,[8][9] and more recently ‘citizen science’. The extended community can usefully investigate the quality of the scientific assessments provided by the experts, the definition of the problem, as well as research priorities and research questions.[3][4]

An example of extended peer community in action is offered by Brian Wynne, who discusses the Cumbrian sheep farmers' interaction with scientists and authorities, mobilizing farmers' knowledge of the relevant situation (acid upland moors retaining radioactive deposition from fallout longer than the lowland Oxfordshire meadows on which the official parameters were based).[10][11]

Extended peer communities and Post-normal Science have been suggested to tackle the debate on the policy and regulation of Large Language Models[12] in order to encourage "inclusion of previously marginalised perspectives".

The concept of extended peer community was developed in the context of politicised quality controversies in science[13] (such as 'housewife'[14] or 'popular' epidemiology[7]), early evidence-based medicine (the Cochrane collaboration), and the total quality management ideas of W. Edwards Deming, in particular quality circles. EPC is discussed in a special issue of the journal Science, Technology, & Human Values.[15] For Eugene A. Rosa EPC can help charting "extended facts", meant as local knowledge, understanding, and non academic sources.[16]

## See also

* Post-normal science
* Sociology of scientific knowledge
* Technology and society
* Science studies
* Social construction of technology

## References

1. ↑ Funtowicz, S. O. and Ravetz, J. R., 1991. "A New Scientific Methodology for Global Environmental Issues", in Costanza, R. (ed.), Ecological Economics: The Science and Management of Sustainability: 137–152. New York: Columbia University Press.
2. ↑ Funtowicz, S. O. and Ravetz, J. R., 1992. "Three types of risk assessment and the emergence of postnormal science", in Krimsky, S. and Golding, D. (eds.), Social theories of risk: 251–273. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Funtowicz, S. and Ravetz, J., 1993. "Science for the post-normal age", Futures, 31(7): 735-755.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Carrozza, C. 2015. “Democratizing Expertise and Environmental Governance: Different Approaches to the Politics of Science and Their Relevance for Policy Analysis.” Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 17 (1): 108-126.
5. ↑ Healy, Stephen (1999-09-01). "Extended peer communities and the ascendance of post-normal politics". Futures 31 (7): 655–669. doi:10.1016/S0016-3287(99)00025-7. ISSN 0016-3287. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328799000257.
6. ↑ "Popular Epidemiology and Toxic Waste Contamination: Lay and Professional Ways of Knowing". Journal of Health and Social Behavior ([American Sociological Association, Sage Publications, Inc.]) 33 (3): 267–281. 1992. doi:10.2307/2137356. ISSN 0022-1465.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Brown, Phil. 1997. Popular Epidemiology Revisited. Current Sociology 45 (3). SAGE Publications:137–156.
8. ↑ Fjelland, R. 2016. When Laypeople Are Right and Experts Are Wrong: Lessons from Love Canal. International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry 22 (1):105–125.
9. ↑ "Flint's Water Crisis and the 'Troublemaker' Scientist". https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/magazine/flints-water-crisis-and-the-troublemaker-scientist.html.
10. ↑ Wynne, Brian. 1992. Uncertainty and Environmental Learning, Reconceiving Science and Policy in the Preventive Paradigm. Global Environmental Change 2 (2):111–127. doi:10.1016/0959-3780(92)90017-2.
11. ↑ Wynne, B. 1992. “Misunderstood Misunderstanding: Social Identities and Public Uptake of Science.” Public Understanding of Science 1: 281–304.
12. ↑ House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee inquiry: Large language model (LLM0015). (2023). https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/124038/pdf/
13. ↑ Hulme, Mike (2010). "Claiming and Adjudicating on Mt Kilimanjaro's Shrinking Glaciers: Guy Callendar, Al Gore and Extended Peer Communities" (in en). Science as Culture 19 (3): 303–326. doi:10.1080/09505430903214427. ISSN 0950-5431. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09505430903214427.
14. ↑ Putting scientists in their place: Participatory research in environmental and occupational health, Highlander Research and Education Center, 1989, https://hdl.handle.net/1828/22224, retrieved 29 December 2025
15. ↑ "Where Now for Post-Normal Science?: A Critical Review of its Development, Definitions, and Uses". Science, Technology, & Human Values (SAGE Publications Inc) 36 (3): 287–306. 1 May 2011. doi:10.1177/0162243910385789. ISSN 0162-2439.
16. ↑ "Metatheoretical foundations for post-normal risk". Journal of Risk Research (Taylor & Francis Ltd) 1 (1): 15–44. January 1998. doi:10.1080/136698798377303. ISSN 1366-9877.

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