Designs on Nature

by Jasanoff, Sheila

• ISBN13: 9780691130422
• ISBN10: 0691130426
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-02
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Biology and politics have converged today across much of the industrialized world. Debates about genetically modified organisms, cloning, stem cells, animal patenting, and new reproductive technologies crowd media headlines and policy agendas. Less noticed, but no less important, are the rifts that have appeared among leading Western nations about the right way to govern innovation in genetics and biotechnology. These significant differences in law and policy, and in ethical analysis, may in a globalizing world act as obstacles to free trade, scientific inquiry, and shared understandings of human dignity. In this magisterial look at some twenty-five years of scientific and social development, Sheila Jasanoff compares the politics and policy of the life sciences in Britain, Germany, the United States, and in the European Union as a whole. She shows how public and private actors in each setting evaluated new manifestations of biotechnology and tried to reassure themselves about their safety. Three main themes emerge. First, core concepts of democratic theory, such as citizenship, deliberation, and accountability, cannot be understood satisfactorily without taking on board the politics of science and technology. Second, in all three countries, policies for the life sciences have been incorporated into "nation-building" projects that seek to reimagine what the nation stands for. Third, political culture influences democratic politics, and it works through the institutionalized ways in which citizens understand and evaluate public knowledge. These three aspects of contemporary politics, Jasanoff argues, help account not only for policy divergences but also for the perceived legitimacy of state actions.

Author Biography

Sheila Jasanoff is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Abbreviations and Acronyms	p. xi
Prologue	p. 1
Why Compare?	p. 13
Controlling Narratives	p. 42
A Question of Europe	p. 68
Unsettled Settlements	p. 94
Food for Thought	p. 119
Natural Mothers and Other Kinds	p. 146
Ethical Sense and Sensibility	p. 171
Making Something of Life	p. 203
The New Social Contract	p. 225
Civic Epistemology	p. 247
Republics of Science	p. 272
Chronology	p. 293
Notes	p. 295
References	p. 339
Index	p. 361
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