"The ethical imperatives of dialogue for public engagement in technoscience"

 

The need for public engagement over the use of science and technology is agreed in international documents, including the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. The field of Science, Technology and Society (STS) research has widely argued for empowering citizens in relation to science and technology. This theme section will explore the ethical dimensions of strategies for engaging the public in techno science innovation and governance, and the understanding that informs those strategies in the Asia-Pacific region. This collection of papers is based on themes developed at two events held in Tokyo in August 2010. The first was a meeting of Japanese and New Zealand STS scholars which focused on nano-foods and dialogue engagement. The second, a session on engaging the public in technoscience in the Asia-Pacific region held at the international STS conference run by the Asia Pacific STS Network.

 

This theme section will highlight the Asia-Pacific region as a new focus of inquiry, thus departing from the traditional global focus on the US and Europe. The Asia-Pacific is an emergent and important area in world politics, trade, and technoscience development. It also offers a valuable new arena for discussion on the intersection of technoscience and society. Emergent technoscience governance requires the development of new practices, different institutional arrangements, new networks, forms of public participation, novel management of risk, and communication about techno scientific innovation. This theme section will explore these issues with a focus on the Asia-Pacific and will address the ethical dimensions for strategies to improve social and environmental outcomes in this region.

 

The papers selected will describe a variety of engagement interventions in real world settings involving citizens, interest groups, scientists, experts, industry, government and indigenous peoples. Many modern technologies - such as nano-foods, EMF emitting technologies, life sciences technologies, biomedicine, pollution control or waste water treatment - raise significant ethical issues which need to be considered in the design of technologies by scientists and industry, and in the policy/regulatory control of such technologies. Ethical issues frequently surface through processes of public engagement, often demanding at least as much attention as the technical dimensions which are usually the main focus of risk assessment or technology assessment.

 

Contributions to this theme section will discuss new designs for public engagement which reorgnise the need for dialogue between the developers, end users and regulators of technology. Public engagement interventions are in themselves a form of ethical practice in technosciece governance, but the techniques and outcomes of engagement do not always meet the standards and principles implied by ethical governance. Collectively, these papers will address the practices required for ethical engagement processes, and the ethical dimensions embedded in new technologies, which are frequently raised by public and other stakeholders. Contributors are also invited to reflect on the ethical responsibilities of STS researchers involved in designing or assessing public engagement interventions, and on how research projects and engagement processes can respond to and more effectively incorporate ethical dimensions in the future.

 

 

To discuss the suitability of your manuscript please contact the Editor-in-Chief, Darryl Macer (d.macer(at)unesco.org), or one of the guest editors, Tomiko Yamaguchi (tyamaguc(at)icu.ac.jp) and Karen Cronin (Karen.Cronin(at)esr.cri.nz).