Clinical research encounters as a focus of public engagement with science and research

The clinical research encounter is a site of close interaction between research professionals and members of the public, as they jointly perform research, but is not normally considered as a potential site for public engagement. In this paper we adduce theoretical and empirical arguments on the potential of this site for developing a novel mode of engaging publics with science. Our empirical studies use qualitative methods, based primarily on interviews and participant observation. We find that performing in a live experiment offers participants material engagement with science through embodied experience, and generates commitment to the research and to building close working relationships with researchers. Researchers reciprocate, and acknowledge benefits from closer interactions with participants, though remaining partly constrained by their professional acculturation. We argue that the potential of clinical research as an engagement site lies in the combination of material engagement and the conscious commitment by participants to making a contribution to a specific project. Thus the clinical research encounter offers a useful alternative mode of engagement to the language-based paradigm currently dominating work in this field.