Knowledge NBIC - Knowledge Politics and New Converging Technologies - A Social Science Perspective

The KNOWLEDGE NBIC project is a study into the knowledge and anticipated social consequences emerging from the NBIC fields, using a social scientific perspective. We propose to look into the patterns of NBIC knowledge production as well as the actual and potential use of and social resistance to such knowledge. In terms of knowledge production, our attention will focus on charting the institutional settings in which the NBIC fields (that is, the converging science and technology fields biotechnology, nanotechnology, information and cognitive science) are pursued and promoted. Relevant questions include: Who are the key actors involved? How do they figure in the overall ecology of both academic knowledge and socially relevant technologies? What funding mechanisms are used to promote convergence or synergy among different scientific and technological fields? Given the different origins of these fields, when and why did they start to "converge" and to what extent? With respect to the use of and resistance to this knowledge, we will be concerned in particular with the growing moral, political and economic pressure to regulate, to police or even forbid novel knowledge as well as technical devices emerging from NBIC technologies. Such pressures have already become apparent in Europe and elsewhere with regard to biotechnology as well as stem-cell research and similar concerns are beginning to be voiced with reference to nanotechnology. The new convergence technologies can be expected to raise similar if not more accentuated concerns in that they promise an integration of biological reproductive processes, mental mechanisms of learning and information management at the nanoscale. Our activities are exploratory at this stage as very little is as of yet known about the "converging" component of "converging technologies", especially from the social scientific perspective. For this reason, our project will combine exploratory studies with networking activities in order to build up a community interested in this emerging S&T field of study

Weitere Informationen: http://www.converging-technologies.org

Projektbeginn: 2006
Projektende: 2009

Prof. Nico Stehr, Ph.D., FRSC, Ph.D. Jacquelyne Luce, Dr. phil. Alexandra Hausstein

Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen
Karl-Mannheim-Lehrstuhl für Kulturwissenschaften (eingerichtet 07/2004)

Am Seemooser Horn 20
88045 Friedrichshafen

Telefon: +49 7541 6009-1301
Fax: +49 7541 6009-1399
Email: silke.bengel@zu.de
https://www.zu.de/lehrstuehle/kulturwissenschaften/index.php?link=/kulturwissenschaften

Prof. Nico Stehr Ph.D., FRSC, Dr. Alexandra Hausstein, Jacquelyne Luce, Ph.D.

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Comparative Research in the Social Sciences, Vienna, Austria; Dept. of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK; Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche Comparative en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France; Foundation for European Scientific Cooperation of Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland; Interdisciplinary Centre for Technological Analysis and Forecasting, Tel-Aviv, Israel; Institute for Technology Assessment & Systems Analysis, Karlsruhe, Germany

• Europäische Union, EU

Converging Science and Technology Fields, Science, Technology and Society, Knowledge, Social and Political Control, Governance, Experts, Democracy, Science, Technology, Public Policy, Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Information and Cognitive Sciences

• Luce, Jacquelyne: The Politics of Governing Converging Technologies: Perspectives from Industry, Government and Civil Society, 2008 (Knowledge Politics and Converging Technologies Conference. KNOWLEDGE NBIC Project Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 6-7 May).
• Luce, Jacquelyne: Discussant. Policy Recommendations for Converging Technologies, 2008 (Emerging and Converging Technologies (EMCOTEC) final project workshop. European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, 4 March).
• Luce, Jacquelyne: Talking about Governance and Converging Technologies: Discursive Slips and Meaningful Disruptions, 2008 (Office for interdisciplinary Nanotechnology Studies - NanoOffice, Technical University - Darmstadt, Germany, 3 July).
• Luce, Jacquelyne: Transgressive Governance: Articulating Future Possibilities in the Present. , 2008 (38th World Congress of the International Institute of Sociology. Budapest, Hungary, June 26-30).
• Giorgi, Liana, Luce, Jacquelyne: Editorial. Converging Science And Technologies: Research Trajectories and Institutional Settings, Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 2007; Jg. 20 (4): 307-311.
• Hausstein, Alexandra: Wissenstransfer und Wissenschaftlernetzwerke am Beispiel konvergierender Technologien, 2007 (Workshop zur Deutsch-Chilenischen Wissenschaftskooperation, Talca, Chile, 9.-11.November 2007).
• Hausstein, Alexandra: Wissenschaftskooperation und Wissenschaftsregulation am Beispiel des Projektes KNOWLEDGE NBIC, 2007 (DAAD Alumni Seminar, São Paulo, Brasilien, 7.-10. Juni 2007).
• Luce, Jacquelyne: Studying Converging Science and Technologies from Social Science Perspectives, 2007 (Converging Technologies: Research Trajectories and Institutional Settings. KNOWLEDGE NBIC Project Conference, Vienna, Austria, 13-14 May).
• Luce, Jacquelyne: Bypassing Assessment: The Disappearance of 'Nano' in Everyday Life, in: Bora et al. (Hrsg.): Technology Assessment in der Weltgesellschaft, Berlin, Edition Sigma (Gesellschaft - Technik - Umwelt), 2007: 461-464.
• Luce, Jacquelyne: Converging Technologies: Research Trajectories and Institutional Settings in Germany. WP 1 Annex to Deliverable 1. European Commission FP6 Project, www.converging-technologies.org, 2007.
• Luce, Jacquelyne: ‚Enabling’ Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: Speculations on Converging Technologies and Technological Convergence in Germany, 2007 (Society for the Social Study of Science (Montreal, Canada)).
• Hausstein, Alexandra: KNOWLEDGE NBIC, 2006 (Projektmanagementkonferenz, Europäische Kommission, Brüssel, Belgien, 08.06 - 09.06.2006).