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Society, Religion and Technology Project Church of Scotland Looking at the ethics of technology for a New Millennium

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Contact for the Centre for Human Ecology : Tel. 0131 624 197

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As part of the UK-wide GM Nation debate, Edinburgh citizens will tomorrow evening debate the controversial issues of GM crops. But it will be a debate with a difference - playing a card game. The event takes place at 18:30-21:00 on Wednesday 18 June, at Edinburgh City Chambers and is promoted by the Church of Scotland’s Society Religion and Technology Project and the Centre for Human Ecology.

The publicity and format of the official UK GM debate have been much criticised. The organisers of the Edinburgh event want to do things better. They have chosen a new way of democratic discussion called DEMOCS, devised by the New Economics Foundation (NEF). DEMOCS stands for DEliberative Meetings Organised by CitizenS. It is designed as a way for informal groups of people to discuss critical issues in their own homes or workplaces, but which can also feed their opinions into policy making. It was used as part of a recent Government consultation on genetic testing kits.

"We want to take the GM debate back to the people and hear from the ordinary public. The DEMOCS game provides a way of discussing a complex issue informally round a table, without needing specialist knowledge," says Dr Donald Bruce of the Society Religion and Technology Project who has worked with NEF to produce a game tailored to UK GM debate. While the game draws from some of the official GM Nation information, it also goes beyond where important issues needed more imaginative exploration. "We believe Edinburgh could get a better debate."

There will be brief introductory talks by proponents and opponents of GM - Dr Elaine Booth from the Scottish Agricultural College in Aberdeen and Dr Ulrich Loening, of the Centre for Human Ecology. But most of the evening will be given over to playing the DEMOCS game. Participants play using cards which contain basic factual information, widely differing arguments about GM, and various scenarios to stimulate discussion over 2 hours. These help formulate views of the players and promote discussion. At the end they are invited to share their views, and also feed these back to the Government by filling in the official questionnaire.

GM crops and food represent one of the most controversial issues of our times. Feelings run high and opinions are strongly contested. Yet among the public at large there is evidence of a lot of confusion and uncertainty, as to who and what to trust among the various competing voices. In the Democs game we do not see this issue as a contest between campaign groups seeking to persuade a passive public to join their respective side.  We wish to hear the values, beliefs and concerns of ordinary people, who may see the issues in a more complex fashion than ‘for’ and ‘against’. We want the people’s voice to matter.

For further information, see SRT's suite of pages on the Ethics of GM crops and food. For general information about DEMOCS, see the New Economics Foundation website, or SRT's recent paper The DEMOCS Project - Playing Games to Improve Democracy given in Stockholm on 13 June at the Valdor 2003 conference on risk, values and public participation in decision making.