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Nanotechnology and Global Equality
Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd, Nov 2011, Pages: 350
This book argues that the overall trajectory currently pursued through nanotechnology provides little hope for a more equitable world. The author bases his argument on the failure of nanotechnology's development to embody the reflexivity necessary for addressing the legitimate requirements of development. His research aims to place nanotechnology's emergence within a historical and global context and develop a useful, interpretive framework through which to assess relevant claims. Furthermore, the book seeks to synthesise debates about nanotechnology, development and the global South, establish greater clarity about the nature of global engagement with nanotechnology research and development, and explore a range of perspectives about the global implications of the trajectories currently pursued through nanotechnology.
The work draws on three main claims: firstly, that our current global trajectory creates greater inequity and is ultimately unsustainable for both the North and South; secondly, that 'development' is a global problem that requires consideration of the impacts of technological change across the North-South divide; and thirdly, that technological development must be interpreted as a social process if its implications for Southern development are to be understood.
Through a review of secondary literature, the author identifies and tests key themes around which he proposes reflexivity needs to occur: technological capacity, appropriateness and governance. To consider the trajectories pursued through nanotechnology in relation to these themes, he uses an exploratory mixed methods design, consisting of two sequential phases. To establish a broad basis for analysing the consequences of nanotechnology's development, the author first assesses quantitative data surrounding national engagement, conference participation and nanotechnology patenting. To explore matters more deeply, in the second, qualitative phase, he analyses the perspectives of 31 Thai and Australian 'key informants', supported by surveys of Thai nanotechnology practitioners.
Through this work, the author finds that there are a number of commonly agreed characteristics about nanotechnology, but that simultaneously there are substantially different ways of conceptualising it. The result is large variation in the perceived implications for capacity, such as the expected entry costs and infrastructural requirements of nanotechnology research and development. While there is evidence of widespread engagement and feasible entry points for some Southern countries into the emerging fields of research and development, innovative capacity is shown to be increasingly centralised and disengaged from 'the local', although the gaps are now as much South-South as North-South. In terms of appropriateness, nanotechnology is seen as offering numerous technical advantages, such as user-friendliness, but any inherent benefits are set against numerous imponderables relating to nanotechnology's risks and implications, as well as economic imperatives that can mean nanotechnology is oriented away from Southern needs. In terms of governance, Southern approaches are found to largely focus on supporting innovation at the expense of meaningful public engagement and flexible trajectories.
Overall, an increasing concentration of influence, simplistic hype and a largely 'managed' process of public engagement suggest the maintenance and possible exacerbation of inequalities associated with other forms of technological innovation, such as biotechnology. Furthermore, debates surrounding nanotechnology and development remain so polarised that new forms of reflexive engagement seem unlikely. However, the author concludes that, while the trajectories currently pursued through nanotechnology provide little hope for a more equitable world, there is interesting new ground to explore at the periphery, such as through 'open source' development, pro-poor innovation, and new consideration for participatory practices, such as real-time technology assessment. Such boundary areas, the author argues, may offer future hope that nanotechnology can embody a process of reflexive development. The field may then, as Schumacher proposed in 1973, open up 'a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and the beautiful'.
Key Features:
1. Provides a thorough critique of the debates and proposals made for nanotechnology's ability to address questions of global inequity.
2. Provides the reader with both an introductory and in-depth look at nanotechnology and its global implications.
3. Includes an extensive bibliography for further reading.
Readership
Policymakers; researchers in science, technology and society; philosophers of science; futurists and scientists with a wider interest in the implications of their work
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