Monika Kurath
Nanotechnology Governance
Accountability and Democracy in New Modes of Regulation and Deliberation
Science, Technology & Innovation Studies, Vol. 5 (2009), No. 2, pp. 87-110
Abstract
Current discourses in science, technology and innovation policy describe a shift from
formal, governmental, or statutory regulation to non-hierarchical, informal, and cooperative
self-regulatory approaches. They narrate a turn from government to governance,
described as a “governance turn.” Governance as a new and popular mode
of regulation, deliberation and shared responsibility is often linked to favored attributes
of science and technology development, and policy making such as democracy
and responsibility. This article analyzes the connection between governance
and ideas of accountable and democratic science and technology development in
the case of nanosciences and nanotechnologies. For this purpose, soft law measures,
self-regulatory initiatives, and public engagement projects in Europe and the
U.S. were analyzed using the concept of social robustness (Nowotny et al. 2001).
The study showed that most of the analyzed governance approaches and engagement
projects only partially met aspects of social robustness, and that the governance
and deliberative turn in science and technology policy has not led, so far,
to greater democracy and responsibility in nanoscience and nanotechnology development.
As a consequence, the delegation of techno-political decision making to
less socially robust governance approaches might lead to a vacuum in science and
technology policy and affect not only academic knowledge production but also the
innovative force of a society.
