Abstract
‘Responsible development’ has risen to become a key normative framework for nanotechnology. The technology’s governance landscape is fundamentally structured through a discourse of responsibility, in which political tools such as public engagement, voluntary reporting and soft law are mobilised so as to enable innovation. To call for responsibility has, indeed, become somewhat trite. In this essay we take not the normative demand for responsibility, but its operationalisation, as our analytical focus, arguing that it is important not to underestimate the term’s practical flexibility and discursive multiplicity. To illustrate this point we consider firstly the range of ways in which ‘responsibility’ is articulated within the literature on higher education and sociology of science; and, secondly, how notions of responsible development are understood, and acted upon, in two different US sites: an academic research centre, and the nanotechnology private sector. Through mapping something of the diversity of ‘responsibility’ and the dynamics which shape its various articulations we start to fill out the complexities of operationalising – rather than merely calling for – nanotechnology’s responsible development.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Barben, D., E. Fisher, C. Selin, and D.H. Guston. 2008. Anticipatory governance of nanotechnology: Foresight, engagement, and integration. In The handbook of science and technology studies, 3rd ed, ed. E.J. Hackett, O. Amsterdamska, M. Lynch, and J. Wajcman, 979–1000. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Barbosa, N., and A.P. Faria. 2011. Innovation across Europe. How important are institutional differences? Research Policy 40(9): 1157–1169.
Corolleur, C.D.F., M. Carrere, and V. Mangematin. 2004. Turning scientific knowledge into capital. The experience of biotech startups in France. Research Policy 33(4): 631–642.
Cross, R.T., and R.F. Price. 1999. The social responsibility of science and the public understanding of science. International Journal of Science Education 21(7): 775–785.
Davies, S.R. 2011. Nanotechnology, business, and anticipatory governance. CNS-ASU Report #R11-0004, Center for Nanotechnology in Society. Arizona State University. Tempe, AZ.
Davies, S.R., and C. Selin. 2012. Energy futures: Five dilemmas of the practice of anticipatory governance. Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture 6(1): 119–136.
Davies, S.R., C. Selin, G. Gano, and A. Guimarães Pereira. 2013. Finding futures: A spatio-visual experiment in participatory engagement. Leonardo 46(1): 76–77.
Deichmann, U. 2005. Unholy alliances. Nature 405(6788): 739.
de Ridder-Vignone, K. 2012. Public engagement and the art of nanotechnology. Leonardo 45(5): 433–438.
Drenth, P.J.D. 2006. Responsible conduct in research. Science and Engineering Ethics 12(1): 13–21.
Dupont and EDF. 2007. Nano risk framework. Washington, DC: Environmental Defense – Dupont Nano Partnership.
Durant, J., G. Evans, and G.P. Thomas. 1989. The public understanding of science. Nature 340: 11–14.
European Commission. 2004. Towards a European strategy for nanotechnology. Luxembourg: Commission of the European Communities.
European Commission. 2008. Commission recommendation of 07/02/2008 on a code of conduct for responsible nanosciences and nanotechnologies research. Brussels: European Commission.
Fisher, E. 2007. Ethnographic invention: Probing the capacity of laboratory decisions. NanoEthics 1(2): 155–165.
Forge, J. 2000. Moral responsibility and the ‘ignorant scientist’. Science and Engineering Ethics 6(3): 341–349.
Gilmer, P.J., and M. DuBois. 2002. Teaching social responsibility: The Manhattan Project: Commentary on “the six domains of research”. Science and Engineering Ethics 8(2): 206–210.
Glerup, Cecilie, and Maja Horst. 2014. Mapping ‘social responsibility’ in science. Journal of Responsible Innovation: 1–20. doi:10.1080/23299460.2014.882077
Groves, C., F. Lori, R. Lee, and E. Stokes. 2011. Is there room at the bottom for CSR? Corporate social responsibility and nanotechnology in the UK. Journal of Business Ethics 101(4): 525–552.
Guston, D.H. 2010. The anticipatory governance of emerging technologies. Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society 19(6): 432–441.
Guston, D.H. 2014. Understanding ‘anticipatory Governance.’ Social Studies of Science 44(2): 218–242. doi:10.1177/0306312713508669.
Guston, D.H., and D. Sarewitz. 2002. Real-time technology assessment. Technology in Society 24(1–2): 93–109.
Hagendijk, R., and A. Irwin. 2006. Public deliberation and governance: Engaging with science and technology in contemporary Europe. Minerva 44(2): 167–184.
Hajer, M.A., and H. Wagenaar. 2003. Deliberative policy analysis: Understanding governance in the network society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hammersley, M., and P. Atkinson. 1995. Ethnography: Principles in practice. London/New York: Routledge.
Harvey, A., and B. Salter. 2012. Anticipatory governance: Bioethical expertise for human/animal chimeras. Science as Culture 21(3): 1–23.
Jasanoff, S. 2003. Technologies of humility: Citizen participation in governing science. Minerva 41: 223–244.
Jones, R. 2008. When it pays to ask the public. Nature Nanotechnology 3(10): 578–579.
Karinen, R., and D.H. Guston. 2010. Toward anticipatory governance: The experience with nanotechnology. In Governing future technologies: Nanotechnology and the rise of an assessment regime, ed. M. Kaiser, M. Kurath, S. Maasen, and C. Rehmann-Sutter, 217–232. Dordrecht: Springer.
Kearnes, M.B., and A. Rip. 2009. The emerging governance landscape of nanotechnology. In Jenseits Von Regulierung: Zum Politischen Umgang Mit Der Nanotechnologie, ed. S. Gammel, A. Losch, and A. Nordmann, 97–121. Berlin: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft.
Kearnes, M.B., P. Macnaghten, and J. Wilsdon. 2006. Governing at the nanoscale: People, policies and emerging technologies. London: Demos.
Kjølberg, K.L., and R. Strand. 2011. Conversations about responsible nanoresearch. NanoEthics 5(1): 99–113.
Kowal, J.P. 1980. Responsible science reporting in a technological age. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 10(4): 307–314.
Krupp, F., and C. Holliday. 2005. Let’s get nanotech right. The Wall Street Journal, June 14, p. B2.
Kurath, M. 2010. Nanotechnology governance. Science, Technology, and Innovation Studies 5(2): 87–110.
Leydesdorff, L., and H. Etzkowitz. 1998. The triple helix as a model for innovation studies. Science and Public Policy 25(3): 195–203.
Macnaghten, P., M.B. Kearnes, and B. Wynne. 2005. Nanotechnology, governance, and public deliberation: What role for the social sciences? Science Communication 27(2): 268–291.
McCarthy, E., and C. Kelty. 2010. Responsibility and nanotechnology. Social Studies of Science 40(3): 405–432.
Merton, R.K. 1973. The normative structure of science. In The sociology of science: Theoretical and empirical investigations, ed. R.K. Merton, 223–266. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Michael, M. 2002. Comprehension, apprehension, prehension: Heterogeneity and the public understanding of science. Science, Technology, and Human Values 27(3): 357–378.
National Nanotechnology Initiative. n.d. National nanotechnology initiative. http://www.nano.gov/nanotech-101/what/definition. Accessed 20 Oct 2012.
Owen, R., and N. Goldberg. 2010. Responsible innovation: A pilot study with the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Risk Analysis 30(11): 1699–1707.
Owen, R., P. Macnaghten, and J. Stilgoe. 2012. Responsible research and innovation: From science in society to science for society, with society. Science and Public Policy 39(6): 751–760.
Phelps, R., and E. Fisher. 2011. Legislating the laboratory? Promotion and precaution in a nanomaterials company. Biomedical Nanotechnology 726: 339–358.
Randles, S. 2008. From nano-ethicswash to real-time regulation. Journal of Industrial Ecology 12(3): 270–274.
Responsible Nano Code. 2008. Information on the responsible nano code initiative. London: Responsible Futures.
Roco, M.C., B. Harthorn, D. Guston, and P. Shapira. 2011. Innovative and responsible governance of nanotechnology for societal development. Journal of Nanoparticle Research 13(9): 3557–3590.
Schuurbiers, D. 2011. What happens in the lab: Applying midstream modulation to enhance critical reflection in the laboratory. Science and Engineering Ethics 17(4): 769–788.
Schwarz, A. 2009. Green dreams of reason. Green nanotechnology between visions of excess and control. NanoEthics 3(2): 109–118.
Schot, J., and A. Rip. 1997. The past and future of constructive technology assessment. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 54: 251–268.
Scriebinger, L., and M. Scraudner. 2011. Interdisciplinary approaches to achieving gendered innovations in science, medicine, and engineering. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 36(2): 154–167.
Selin, C., and P. Boradkar. 2010. Prototyping nanotechnology: A transdisciplinary approach to responsible innovation. Journal of Nano Education 1(1–2): 1–12.
Shelley-Egan, C. 2010. The ambivalence of promising technology. NanoEthics 4(2): 183–189.
Shelley-Egan, C., and S.R. Davies. 2013. Nano-industry operationalizations of ‘responsibility’: Charting diversity in the enactment of responsibility. Review of Policy Research 30(5): 588–604.
Stilgoe, J., R. Owen, and P. Macnaghten. 2013. Developing a framework for responsible innovation. Research Policy 42(9): 1568–1580.
Swierstra, T., and J. Jelsma. 2006. Responsibility without moralism in technoscientific design practice. Science, Technology & Human Values 31(3): 309–332.
van der Burg, S. 2009. Taking the “soft impacts” of technology into account: Broadening the discourse in research practice. Social Epistemology: A Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Policy 23(3–4).
Weber, Max. 1949. On the methodology of the social sciences. Glencoe: The Free Press.
Wender, B.A., R.W. Foley, D.H. Guston, T.P. Seager, and A. Wiek. 2012. Anticipatory governance and anticipatory life cycle assessment of single wall carbon nanotube anode lithium ion batteries. Nanotechnology, Law and Business 9(3): 101–118.
Wolpert, L. 2005. The Medawar Lecture 1998 is science dangerous? Philosophical transactions. Royal Society. Biological Sciences 360(1458): 1253–1258.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Davies, S.R., Glerup, C., Horst, M. (2014). On Being Responsible: Multiplicity in Responsible Development. In: Arnaldi, S., Ferrari, A., Magaudda, P., Marin, F. (eds) Responsibility in Nanotechnology Development. The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9103-8_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9103-8_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9102-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9103-8
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)