Why we need chaos, silence and boredom in public and patient engagement

Everyone seems to agree that public engagement with science, technology and medicine is important. It enables public dialogue, promotes robust outcomes for research, and empowers citizens and patients.

But what should such engagement look like?

In this talk Dr Davies argues that we have focused on some characteristics of productive citizen and patient engagement while pushing others into the background. It might go against all our instincts, but sometimes what we need is to acknowledge the chaos of engagement ecosystems, welcome uncomfortable silences, and interrogate ‘failures’ like boring events.