Presenting Futures

ISBN-13: 9789048178759 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 308 str.

Erik Fisher; Cynthia Selin; Jameson Wetmore

Opis

Welcome to the ?rst volume of the Yearbook of Nanotechnology in Society Nanotechnology, hailed as "the next industrial revolution" (NSTC 2000) and c- tiqued for being little more than "hype" (Berube 2006), is the site of a great deal of social and intellectual contest. With some ten billion dollars being spent worldwide on nanotechnology research and development annually and a market forecast of trillions of dollars in sales in the medium-term future (Lux Research 2006), nations and ?rms are pursuing nano-related goals with high levels of both effort and - pectations. Yet according to the Woodrow Wilson International Center's web-based Nanotechnology Consumer Products Inventory, most of the more than 500 na- products on the market as of this writing are basic consumer items--cosmetics, clothing, athletic equipment and the like--with modest, incremental improvements on their non-nano counterparts. Nanotechnology is also the site of an increasing amount of scholarship dedicated to understanding the interactions between society and an emerging knowled- based technological endeavor. Searching the Web of Science indices in social s- ence and humanities for nanotech* and nanoparticle*, for example, yields 231 hits 1 since 1990, but 75 percent of these occur in 2004 through 2007. This scholarship attempts to fathom the implications of nanotechnologies for society, as well as the implications for nanotechnologies of society. Some of it is also engaged in dialogue with both the public and with nanotechnology researchers about the hope and the hype described above.

Recenzje

It provides a unique compilation of a major stream of work within nanotechnology in society and its connections in US and W. Europe. It captures and explores many of the tensions surrounding this new enterprise of predicting technologies' futures, while indicating some of the ways this process reproduces past challenges in technoscience and society. The collection includes pieces from an admirable range of 'stakeholders' in nanotechnologies' futures: STS researchers from several countries and a number of institutions representing diverse views about nanotechnologies' potentials for assessment, and a smaller number from science, NGOs, industry, and government. The collection brings together several key US policy documents, as well as scholarly texts, more informal reports, and personal statements-the array of formats is an interesting approach to considering the 'future in the making' that is the nano enterprise and its societal interactions.

Spis treści

Preface David H. Guston Introduction; Erik Fisher, Cynthia Selin, and Jameson M. Wetmore. Contributors 1 Nanotechnology: The Future Is Coming Sooner than You Think; Joseph Kennedy. 2 The Workers’ Push to Democratize Nanotechnology; Guillermo Foladori and Noela Invernizzi. 3 Thinking Longer Term about Technology; Christine Peterson. 4 Constructive Technology Assessment and Socio-technical Scenarios; Arie Rip and Haico te Kulve. 5 Information and Imagination: How Lux Research Forecasts; Mark Bünger. 6 Designing for the Future: Nanoscale Research Facilities; Ahmad Soueid. 7 What Drives Public Acceptance of Nanotechnology? Steven C. Currall, Eden B. King, Neal Lane, Juan Madera and Stacy Turner. 8 Nanologue; Volker Türk. 9 Anticipating the Futures of Nanotechnology: Visionary Images as Means of Communication; Andreas Lösch. 10 Winners of Nano-Hazard Symbol Contest Announced at World Social Forum, Nairobi, Kenya; ETC Group. 11 Your Children, Their Children…; Agilent Technologies. 12 Developing Plausible Nano-Enabled Products; Ira Bennett. 13 Nanotechnology for Chemical and Biological Defense 2030 Workshop and Study; Margaret E. Kosal. 14 Nanotechnologies for Tomorrow’s Society: A Case for Reflective Action Research in Flanders, Belgium; Lieve Goorden, Michiel van Oudheusden, Johan Evers, and Marian Deblonde. 15 Communications in the Age of Nanotechnology; Griffith A. Kundahl. 16 How Can Business Respond to the Technical, Social and Commercial Uncertainties of Nanotechnology? Hilary Sutcliffe. 17 Manufactured Nanoparticle Health and Safety Disclosure [Draft Report]; City of Berkeley CommunityEnvironmental Advisory Commission. 18 A Framework for Responsible Nanotechnology; Scott Walsh and Terry Medley. 19 Contemplating the Implications of a Nanotechnology 'Revolution'; Georgia Miller. 20 Nanotechnology: Challenges and the Way Forward; Meyya Meyyappan. 21 Technology Assessment of Nanotechnology: Problems and Methods in Assessing Emerging Technologies; Ulrich Fiedeler. 22 Compressed Foresight and Narrative Bias: Pitfalls in Assessing High Technology Futures; Robin Williams. 23 Science Fiction, Nano-Ethics, and the Moral Imagination; Rosalyn W. Berne. Index.

Blurb

The ideas and imagery about the future that characterize nanotechnology today are shaped by multiple values and agendas which influence public investments,business strategies, infrastructure design, and public debate. Presenting Futures highlights a variety of ways that nanotechnology actors think about and seek to shape the future. It brings together social scientists, humanists, government officials, activist groups, designers, and public relations professionals into a multifaceted and at times conflicting dialogue through press releases, government reports, and advertisements taken from the front lines of the political discourse over nanotechnology, as well as original writings that situate nanotechnological futures within broader contexts. The chapters in this volume document various approaches to the future and how contemporary cultural conceptions about science, technology, and society are created and ultimately influence our own cognitive frames, social contests, and material practices.

More than a catalogue of visions, the Yearbook is designed to give social scientists, natural scientists, and the general public an opportunity to explore, reflect on, and ultimately critique these futures. In asking not so much what the future of nanotechnology may be, but rather how different social groups and organizations imagine and anticipate it, the Yearbook offers a series of starting points for exploring the role of the future in the present.