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1.
Sci Public Policy ; 51(4): 680-691, 2024 Aug.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-39035203

ABSTRACT

In response to calls for public engagement on human genome editing (HGE), which intensified after the 2018 He Jiankui scandal that resulted in the implantation of genetically modified embryos, we detail an anticipatory approach to the governance of HGE. By soliciting multidisciplinary experts' input on the drivers and uncertainties of HGE development, we developed a set of plausible future scenarios to ascertain publics values-specifically, their hopes and concerns regarding the novel technology and its applications. In turn, we gathered a subset of multidisciplinary experts to propose governance recommendations for HGE that incorporate identified publics' values. These recommendations include: (1) continued participatory public engagement; (2) international harmonization and transparency of multiple governance levers such as professional and scientific societies, funders, and regulators; and (3) development of a formal whistleblower framework.

3.
Public Underst Sci ; 26(6): 634-649, 2017 08.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-26769749

ABSTRACT

Public engagement with science and technology is now widely used in science policy and communication. Touted as a means of enhancing democratic discussion of science and technology, analysis of public engagement with science and technology has shown that it is often weakly tied to scientific governance. In this article, we suggest that the notion of capacity building might be a way of reframing the democratic potential of public engagement with science and technology activities. Drawing on literatures from public policy and administration, we outline how public engagement with science and technology might build citizen capacity, before using the notion of capacity building to develop five principles for the design of public engagement with science and technology. We demonstrate the use of these principles through a discussion of the development and realization of the pilot for a large-scale public engagement with science and technology activity, the Futurescape City Tours, which was carried out in Arizona in 2012.


Subject(s)
Capacity Building , Communication , Community Participation , Science/organization & administration , Technology/organization & administration , Arizona , Public Policy
4.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A ; 113(17): 4615-22, 2016 Apr 26.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-21844351

ABSTRACT

Previous research on the determinants of effectiveness in knowledge systems seeking to support sustainable development has highlighted the importance of "boundary work" through which research communities organize their relations with new science, other sources of knowledge, and the worlds of action and policymaking. A growing body of scholarship postulates specific attributes of boundary work that promote used and useful research. These propositions, however, are largely based on the experience of a few industrialized countries. We report here on an effort to evaluate their relevance for efforts to harness science in support of sustainability in the developing world. We carried out a multicountry comparative analysis of natural resource management programs conducted under the auspices of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. We discovered six distinctive kinds of boundary work contributing to the successes of those programs-a greater variety than has been documented in previous studies. We argue that these different kinds of boundary work can be understood as a dual response to the different uses for which the results of specific research programs are intended, and the different sources of knowledge drawn on by those programs. We show that these distinctive kinds of boundary work require distinctive strategies to organize them effectively. Especially important are arrangements regarding participation of stakeholders, accountability in governance, and the use of "boundary objects." We conclude that improving the ability of research programs to produce useful knowledge for sustainable development will require both greater and differentiated support for multiple forms of boundary work.


Subject(s)
Agriculture , Conservation of Natural Resources , Natural Resources , Research , Decision Making , Humans , Negotiating
6.
Environ Sci Technol ; 48(18): 10531-8, 2014 Sep 16.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-25121583

ABSTRACT

Current research policy and strategy documents recommend applying life cycle assessment (LCA) early in research and development (R&D) to guide emerging technologies toward decreased environmental burden. However, existing LCA practices are ill-suited to support these recommendations. Barriers related to data availability, rapid technology change, and isolation of environmental from technical research inhibit application of LCA to developing technologies. Overcoming these challenges requires methodological advances that help identify environmental opportunities prior to large R&D investments. Such an anticipatory approach to LCA requires synthesis of social, environmental, and technical knowledge beyond the capabilities of current practices. This paper introduces a novel framework for anticipatory LCA that incorporates technology forecasting, risk research, social engagement, and comparative impact assessment, then applies this framework to photovoltaic (PV) technologies. These examples illustrate the potential for anticipatory LCA to prioritize research questions and help guide environmentally responsible innovation of emerging technologies.


Subject(s)
Conservation of Natural Resources/methods , Environmental Pollution/prevention & control , Manufactured Materials , Models, Theoretical , Technology/standards , Conservation of Natural Resources/statistics & numerical data , Conservation of Natural Resources/trends , Environmental Pollution/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Policy Making , Risk , Technology/statistics & numerical data , Technology/trends
7.
Soc Stud Sci ; 44(2): 218-42, 2014 Apr.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-24941612

ABSTRACT

Anticipatory governance is 'a broad-based capacity extended through society that can act on a variety of inputs to manage emerging knowledge-based technologies while such management is still possible'. It motivates activities designed to build capacities in foresight, engagement, and integration--as well as through their production ensemble. These capacities encourage and support the reflection of scientists, engineers, policy makers, and other publics on their roles in new technologies. This article reviews the early history of the National Nanotechnology Initiative in the United States, and it further explicates anticipatory governance through exploring the genealogy of the term and addressing a set of critiques found in the literature. These critiques involve skepticism of three proximities of anticipatory governance: to its object, nanotechnology, which is a relatively indistinct one; to the public, which remains almost utterly naive toward nanotechnology; and to technoscience itself, which allegedly renders anticipatory governance complicit in its hubris. The article concludes that the changing venues and the amplification within them of the still, small voices of folks previously excluded from offering constructive visions of futures afforded by anticipatory governance may not be complete solutions to our woes in governing technology, but they certainly can contribute to bending the long arc of technoscience more toward humane ends.


Subject(s)
Government Regulation , Nanotechnology/legislation & jurisprudence , Nanotechnology/trends , Terminology as Topic , United States
8.
9.
Public Underst Sci ; 23(1): 53-9, 2014 Jan.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-24434713

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews efforts of the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University (CNS-ASU) to begin to build capacity for public engagement with science in the United States. First, the paper sets a context in the US of the current challenges to democracy and for science. It then reviews the literature on the accomplishments of the National Citizens' Technology Forum (NCTF) on nanotechnology and human enhancement, held in 2008, as well as some caveats that emerged from that enterprise. It concludes with a brief discussion of two kinds of activities - participation in the World Wide Views process organized by the Danish Board of Technology, and methodological innovations that include more concrete and experiential modes of engagement - that have spun off from the NCTF.


Subject(s)
Community Participation , Science , Arizona , Humans , Nanotechnology/organization & administration , Public Opinion , Science/organization & administration , United States
10.
Minerva ; 50(3): 363-379, 2012 Sep.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-23024398

ABSTRACT

Imagine putting together a jigsaw puzzle that works like the board game in the movie "Jumanji": When you finish, whatever the puzzle portrays becomes real. The children playing "Jumanji" learn to prepare for the reality that emerges from the next throw of the dice. But how would this work for the puzzle of scientific research? How do you prepare for unlocking the secrets of the atom, or assembling from the bottom-up nanotechnologies with unforeseen properties - especially when completion of such puzzles lies decades after the first scattered pieces are tentatively assembled? In the inaugural issue of this journal, Michael Polanyi argued that because the progress of science is unpredictable, society must only move forward with solving the puzzle until the picture completes itself. Decades earlier, Frederick Soddy argued that once the potential for danger reveals itself, one must reorient the whole of one's work to avoid it. While both scientists stake out extreme positions, Soddy's approach - together with the action taken by the like-minded Leo Szilard - provides a foundation for the anticipatory governance of emerging technologies. This paper narrates the intertwining stories of Polanyi, Soddy and Szilard, revealing how anticipation influenced governance in the case of atomic weapons and how Polanyi's claim in "The Republic of Science" of an unpredictable and hence ungovernable science is faulty on multiple levels.

11.
Sci Eng Ethics ; 17(4): 691-7, 2011 Dec.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-21986815

ABSTRACT

While the important challenges of public deliberations on emerging technologies are crucial to keep in mind, this paper argues that scholars and practitioners have reason to be more confident in their performance of participatory technology assessments (pTA). Drawing on evidence from the 2008 National Citizens' Technology Forum (NCTF) conducted by the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University, this paper describes how pTA offers a combination of intensive and extensive qualities that are unique among modes of engagement. In the NCTF, this combination led to significant learning and opinion changes, based on what can be characterized as a high-quality deliberation. The quality of the anticipatory knowledge required to address emerging technologies is always contested, but pTAs can be designed with outcomes in mind-especially when learning is understood as an outcome.


Subject(s)
Community Participation , Concept Formation , Nanotechnology , Social Values , Technology Assessment, Biomedical , Humans
12.
Sci Eng Ethics ; 15(3): 351-66, 2009 Sep.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-19434517

ABSTRACT

Debates over the politicization of science have led some to claim that scientists have or should have a "right to research." This article examines the political meaning and implications of the right to research with respect to different historical conceptions of rights. The more common "liberal" view sees rights as protections against social and political interference. The "republican" view, in contrast, conceives rights as claims to civic membership. Building on the republican view of rights, this article conceives the right to research as embedding science more firmly and explicitly within society, rather than sheltering science from society. From this perspective, all citizens should enjoy a general right to free inquiry, but this right to inquiry does not necessarily encompass all scientific research. Because rights are most reliably protected when embedded within democratic culture and institutions, claims for a right to research should be considered in light of how the research in question contributes to democracy. By putting both research and rights in a social context, this article shows that the claim for a right to research is best understood, not as a guarantee for public support of science, but as a way to initiate public deliberation and debate about which sorts of inquiry deserve public support.


Subject(s)
Bioethical Issues , Biomedical Research , Ethical Theory , Ethics, Research , Government Regulation , Human Rights , Biomedical Research/ethics , Biomedical Research/legislation & jurisprudence , Democracy , Ethical Theory/history , Financing, Government/ethics , Financing, Government/legislation & jurisprudence , Freedom , Government Regulation/history , History, 18th Century , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Human Rights/history , Human Rights/legislation & jurisprudence , Humans , Politics , Social Responsibility , Social Values
13.
Science ; 323(5914): 582, 2009 Jan 30.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-19179510

Subject(s)
Politics , Public Policy , Science
14.
Nature ; 454(7207): 940-1, 2008 Aug 21.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-18719568
16.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A ; 100(14): 8086-91, 2003 Jul 08.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-12777623

ABSTRACT

The challenge of meeting human development needs while protecting the earth's life support systems confronts scientists, technologists, policy makers, and communities from local to global levels. Many believe that science and technology (S&T) must play a more central role in sustainable development, yet little systematic scholarship exists on how to create institutions that effectively harness S&T for sustainability. This study suggests that efforts to mobilize S&T for sustainability are more likely to be effective when they manage boundaries between knowledge and action in ways that simultaneously enhance the salience, credibility, and legitimacy of the information they produce. Effective systems apply a variety of institutional mechanisms that facilitate communication, translation and mediation across boundaries.


Subject(s)
Conservation of Natural Resources , Information Dissemination , Knowledge , Agriculture/methods , Air Pollution/prevention & control , Animals , Communication , Conflict, Psychological , Decision Making , Fisheries , Humans , Interinstitutional Relations , International Cooperation , Oceans and Seas , Public Policy , Research , Technology Transfer , Water Supply , Weather
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