Design principles of dialogue about science and technology and the design frictions they reveal: Towards a demo-technical analysis

Dialogue about science and technology is a public technology whose design is contested by multiple social actors. Despite the importance of this design contestation in avoiding stagnation, it usually is relegated to the background without sufficient analytical attention. This article employs a critical interpretive review (CIR) to identify how the specialised literature is challenging the dominant designs of public dialogue with technoscience and the design frictions that arise among these ideas. By analysing 95 articles, this study identifies ten design principles grouped into three themes: adaptive design, publics and interaction making, and technoscience making. The analysis reveals significant design frictions both within and between these principles, such as push-and-pull between adapting designs to local contexts or for political embedding and the drive for methodological standardisation. Ultimately, this article proposes a demo-technical analysis approach to interrogate how seemingly neutral technical design decisions materialise specific democratic norms, encouraging more engagement with design frictions as a productive force to counteract stagnation and revitalise democratic practice. • Participation acts as a technology whose design is not neutral but embodies specific democratic ideals. • The article maps design principles of participation within the academic literature, focusing on the frictions among them. • It identifies ten principles, under the themes of adaptive design, public and interaction-making, and technoscience-making. • A demotechnical analysis can examine technical principles and democratic ideals in tandem.