Celsius | School of Communications
Celsius 2009
A two-day symposium on cultural, political, ethical and other social interactions around new sciences and emerging technologies took place at Dublin City University on 22-23 January 2009. The symposium was hosted by the Celsius research group and was the fourth in a series of annual meetings at DCU on science-in-society issues.
Prof Alan Irwin, Copenhagen Business School, New sciences, new risks, new science governance
In his opening presentation, Alan Irwin drew attention to the emphasis in EU science policy on competition and innovation in the knowledge economy. These emphases, like that on risk, were reshaping the social role of experts, Irwin argued. Sketching the changing models of science governance, he said "the public" seemed to have a bigger role in the current models, but policy-makers had a limited view of the public, either focused on extremist views or on the media.
Prof Mark Brake, University of Glamorgan, Wales, Nuclear power, before it was new
In a session that offered two views on nuclear energy, Mark Brake went back to the early 20th century and to the writings of H G Wells in order to demonstrate how literature was a significant site for the negotiation of new sciences. Wells, he said, could be considered the inventor of the atom bomb, and certainly his literary speculations were known to the physicists who did devise the weapons used in 1945. Many other science fiction authors, through the 20th century, had explored the military applications of nuclear energy and the possible effects of the use of nuclear arms.
Physicist Miles Turner described nuclear fusion as a "renewed science", but one that required internationally co-ordinated political decision-making for its potential to be realised. While energy production from nuclear fusion remained far from commercial at present, the scientific and technical issues were less than the political issues. The international ITER programme may cost �30 billion and take to 2030 to produce a reactor that produces ten times more energy that it consumes. A commercial prototype reactor may be ready by 2040.
Prof Dietram Scheufele, University of Wisconsin, USA, How publics make sense of nanotechnology
Dietram Scheufele also touched on political and commercial contexts in his presentation on public attitudes to nanotechnology. But his pre-recorded video talk focused on the relation between citizens' "religiosity" and their attitudes to nanotechnology and to its moral acceptability. His study matched the average ranking in selected countries of the importance of god in individuals' lives with the responses to surveys on nanotechnology.
View presentation online by saving and opening in a chosen movie player
http://nanosoc.wisc.edu/dublin09/Dublin%20%28with%20video%29.mp4
Dr Padraig Murphy, School of Communications, DCU, Discourses and discourse sites of nanotechnology
Continuing on nanotechnology, Padraig Murphy presented an outline of the "discourse sites" he had identified as distinct arenas of public communication around this new science and its health and other social implications. He questioned whether the framing of nanotechnology could be shared across sites.
Biological applications of nanotechnology that raised ethical issues featured most prominently in a presentation on fiction films by Donal O Mathuna and Pat Brereton. Taking a small number of recent films as examples, they discussed how the films' narratives might be considered a negotiation of the possibilities of bio- and nanotechnology.
Public attitudes to these new sciences have been the subject of many national and international surveys, and Suzanne de Cheveigné asked how much could be learned from the long series of Eurobarometer surveys about Europeans' attitudes to these and other new sciences. The surveys assumed that all individuals have information, opinions and attitudes on the topics, although it is not clear, she claimed, that they do, or even that they should have. Other issues concerning these surveys included the form and content of some questions, inconsistent translations, and the questionable proposition that the various views in a country can be averaged to present a picture of that country.
Brian Trench, School of Communications, DCU, New sciences in a "new country" - the Irish paradox
Brian Trench, New sciences in a ‘new country’ (powerpoint presentation)
Brian Trench presented a case for seeing Ireland as a "new country", in which all science is more or less "new". Having discussed briefly Irish ambitions for S&T, he examined evidence from 15 national and international surveys for public engagement with this policy. Despite the turn to science, the Irish population shows itself, over 30 years of European surveys, as among the least attentive to or interested in S&T among EU member states, but also the most open to answering "don't know".
Prof Bert Gordijn, Ethics Institute, DCU, Ethical issues in tissue engineering
Bert Gordijn took the case of tissue engineering to illustrate how a model for prospective ethical analysis of new sciences might be developed, based on considerations of the value of the goals of the research, the contribution of continuing research to reaching those goals, and the avoidability or justifiability of any ethical problems. Gordijn noted that some of these ethical problems were large, such as those relating to the moral status of the embryo, but he suggested that interdisciplinary research groups could engage in ethical reasoning around them.
Drawing on work done in New Zealand and Britain, Fiona Coyle explored how publics have made sense of the "politicised" science of stem cell research. The studies presented sought to capture something of people's everyday talk on such an issued, and demonstrated the emotional ambivalence of many participants, but also the influence of specific and personal contexts on the positions taken.
The participation in the symposium of several international speakers was made possible by a conference grant from the DCU Office of the Vice-President for Research. A conference dinner was provided courtesy of the DCU Foresight Unit.