The crisis of representation is felt in both social sciences and democracy. I describe the main features of this crisis and sketch the outlines of a possible way out. Starting from an optimistic viewpoint on what social sciences might accomplish once evolved to a next level, I present a scale for social research that facilitates new ideas about democracy and discuss the notion of ‘public’ as a collection of people that can be identified after an event, because they share common experiences during the event. These experiences are expressed in narratives. The method I propose is based on narrative research and transdisciplinary meaning production. The research process is democratic and the outcomes offer opportunities for social change.
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Basten (2010). Researching Publics. In In 't Veld (ed.) Knowledge Democracy – Consequences for Science, Politics and Media. Heidelberg: Springer.
