The unique characteristics of emerging technologies _ their diverse applications, the myriad concerns raised by new technologies, the need for public engagement, and the issue of effective coordination between governance players _ create the need for n
Nanotechnology has been the subject of extensive ‘assessment hype,’ unlike any previous field of research and development. A multiplicity of stakeholders have started to analyze the implications of nanotechnology: Technology assessment institutions around the world, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, re-insurance companies, and academics from science and technology studies and applied ethics have turned their attention to this growing field’s implications. In the course of these assessment efforts, a social phenomenon has emerged – a phenomenon the editors define as assessment regime. Despite the variety of organizations, methods, and actors involved in the evaluation and regulation of emerging nanotechnologies, the assessment activities comply with an overarching scientific and political imperative: Innovations are only welcome if they are assessed against the criteria of safety, sustainability, desirability, and acceptability. So far, such deliberations and reflections have played only a subordinate role. This book argues that with the rise of the nanotechnology assessment regime, however, things have changed dramatically: Situated at the crossroads of democratizing science and technology, good governance, and the quest for sustainable innovations, the assessment regime has become constitutive for technological development. The contributions in this book explore and critically analyse nanotechnology’s assessment regime: To what extent is it constitutive for technology in general, for nanotechnology in particular? What social conditions render the regime a phenomenon sui generis? And what are its implications for science and society?
This book deals with questions of democracy and governance relating to new technologies. The deployment and application of new technologies is often accompanied with uncertainty as to their long-term (un)intended impacts. New technologies also raise questions about the limits of the law as the line between harmful and beneficial effects is often difficult to draw. The volume explores overarching concepts on how to regulate new technologies and their implications in a diverse and constantly changing society, as well as the way in which regulation can address differing, and sometimes conflicting, societal objectives, such as public health and the protection of privacy. Contributions focus on a broad range of issues such as Citizen Science, Smart Cities, big data, and health care, but also on the role of market regulation for new technologies.The book will serve as a useful research tool for scholars and practitioners interested in the latest developments in the field of technology regulation. Leonie Reins is Assistant Professor at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT) in The Netherlands.
Government “of the people, by the people, for the people” expresses an ideal that resonates in all democracies. Yet poll after poll reveals deep distrust of institutions that seem to have left “the people” out of the governing equation. Government bureaucracies that are supposed to solve critical problems on their own are a troublesome outgrowth of the professionalization of public life in the industrial age. They are especially ill-suited to confronting today’s complex challenges. Offering a far-reaching program for innovation, Smart Citizens, Smarter State suggests that public decisionmaking could be more effective and legitimate if government were smarter—if our institutions knew how to use technology to leverage citizens’ expertise. Just as individuals use only part of their brainpower to solve most problems, governing institutions make far too little use of the skills and experience of those inside and outside of government with scientific credentials, practical skills, and ground-level street smarts. New tools—what Beth Simone Noveck calls technologies of expertise—are making it possible to match the supply of citizen expertise to the demand for it in government. Drawing on a wide range of academic disciplines and practical examples from her work as an adviser to governments on institutional innovation, Noveck explores how to create more open and collaborative institutions. In so doing, she puts forward a profound new vision for participatory democracy rooted not in the paltry act of occasional voting or the serendipity of crowdsourcing but in people’s knowledge and know-how.
A growing problem of interest in the field of science and technology policy is that the next generation of innovations is arriving at an accelerating rate, and the governance system is struggling to catch up. Current approaches and institutions for effective technology assessment are ill suited and poorly designed to proactively address the multidimensional, interconnected societal impacts of science and technology advancements that are already taking place and expected to continue over the course of the 21st century. This book offers tangible insights into the strategies deployed by well-known, high-profile organizations involved in anticipating the various societal and policy implications of nanotechnology and synthetic biology. It focuses predominantly on an examination of the practices adopted by the often-cited and uniquely positioned Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies in the United States, as well as being informed by comparisons with a range of institutions also interested in embedding forward-looking perspectives in their respective area of innovation. The book lays out one of the first actionable roadmaps that other interested stakeholders can follow when working toward institutionalizing anticipatory governance practices throughout the policymaking process.
The more integrated technology becomes in our everyday lives and businesses, the more vital it grows that its applications are utilized in an ethical and appropriate way. Ethical Governance of Emerging Technologies Development combines multiple perspectives on ethical backgrounds, theories, and management approaches when implementing new technologies into an environment. Understanding the ethical implications associated with utilizing new advancements in technology is useful for professionals, researchers, and graduate students interested in this growing area of research.
This book examines the European governance of emerging security technologies. The emergence of technologies such as drones, autonomous robotics, artificial intelligence, cyber and biotechnologies has stimulated worldwide debates on their use, risks and benefits in both the civilian and the security-related fields. This volume examines the concept of ‘governance’ as an analytical framework and tool to investigate how new and emerging security technologies are governed in practice within the European Union (EU), emphasising the relational configurations among different state and non-state actors. With reference to European governance, it addresses the complex interplay of power relations, interests and framings surrounding the development of policies and strategies for the use of new security technologies. The work examines varied conceptual tools to shed light on the way diverse technologies are embedded in EU policy frameworks. Each contribution identifies actors involved in the governance of a specific technology sector, their multilevel institutional and corporate configurations, and the conflicting forces, values, ethical and legal concerns, as well as security imperatives and economic interests. This book will be of much interest to students of science and technology studies, security studies and EU policy. Chapter 11 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
While it is a truism that emerging technologies present both opportunities for and challenges to their host communities, the legal community has only recently begun to consider their significance. On the one hand, emerging information, bio, nano, and neurotechnologies challenge policy-makers who aspire to put in place a regulatory environment that is legitimate, effective, and sustainable; on the other hand, these same technologies offer new opportunities as potentially powerful regulatory instruments. In this unique volume, a team of leading international scholars address many of the key difficulties surrounding the regulation of emerging technological targets as well as the implications of adopting technology as a regulatory tool. How should we rise to the challenge of regulating technologies? How are the regulatory lines to be drawn in the right places and how is the public to be properly engaged? How is precaution to be accommodated, and how can the law keep pace with technologies that develop ahead of the regulatory environment? How readily should we avail ourselves of the opportunity to use technology as a regulative strategy? How are we to understand these strategies and the challenges which they raise? To what extent do they give rise to similar policy problems accompanying more 'traditional' regulatory instruments or generate distinctive challenges? While the criminal justice system increasingly relies on technological assistance and the development of a 'surveillance society', is a regulatory regime that rules by technology compatible with rule of law values?
New technologies often appear to be beyond the control of any governing systems. This is especially true for transformative technologies. This book examines the deep governing structures of transformative technology and innovation in an effort to identify which actors can be expected to act when, under what conditions and to what effect.
The application of digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) to reform governmental structures, politics, and public administration is widely and perhaps naively viewed as the twenty-first century "savior," the enlightened way to reinvigorate democracy and improve the quality of citizen services. In this timely and thorough analysis, Michael Milakovich examines the assumptions underlying the ‘e-government revolution’ in light of the financial exigencies facing many commercial enterprises, governments and other organizations. Computer-driven information and communications technologies are impacting all aspects of public sector service delivery worldwide and many governments are moving away from an agency-centric toward a more citizen-centric approach to offering online services. This book explores the transition from electronic government (e-gov) to digital or d-governance, emphasizing the importance of citizen participation and information technology to accomplish the change. The chapters concentrate on strategies for public administration organizational transformation and their implications for improved and measurable government performance. Digital self-governance is a broader umbrella-term referring to the networked extension of ICT relationships to include faster access to the web, mobile service delivery, networking, teleconferencing and use of multi-channel information technologies to accomplish higher-level two-way transactions. The shift from bureaucracy-centered to customer-centric service orientation is viewed as a means to restore public trust and improve service quality: Digital governance is the next step for governments at all levels to reduce costs, meet citizen expectations, and achieve economic recovery goals.