Anticipation on Societal Embedding of Nanotechnologies in the Domains of Food & Health: An Emerging Super Heuristic?

Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy 2009This presentation was part of the session : Roundtables on Organizations of Science and InnovationThe introduction and societal embedding of new and emerging technologies such as nanotechnologies is a challenge and requires dedicated work. In particular the Collingridge Dilemma puts a challenge. But it has to be extended because challenges also play at a collective level. The development and embedding of new technologies involves a heterogeneous and interdependent set of actors. Strategies of trial-and-error and anticipation on embedding are ways to cope with these challenges, but are dependent on strategic interactions between actors on the sectoral level - a "game of societal embedding" - rather than only on individual actors' assessment of technologies and their impacts. In the case of high uncertainties associated with new and emerging technologies games of embedding can be reduced to waiting games. Interestingly, waiting games are productive as they provide legitimacy for dedicated actors and forums (institutional entrepreneurs and field-configuring events) developing new rules and practices to structure embedding of these emerging technologies - which can then break through such waiting games. This paper examines games of embedding, including their possible reduction to waiting games, in the food packaging and drug delivery sectors.Technology Foundation STW; TA NANONE

Emerging Technologies and Waiting Games

While nanotechnologies are expected to generate wonderful benefits for food packaging, there is reluctance in the uptake of these promises. Still, things are changing and there are dedicated attempts – by institutional entrepreneurs – to shape future embedding of these new technologies. Thus one can examine the evolution of sectoral changes before the actual introduction of new and emerging technologies, which is relevant for studies on emerging technologies and industrial change processes. The main question of this paper is how institutional entrepreneurship linking up with emerging nanotechnologies in the food packaging sector has evolved and contributed to changes at the sectoral level. To do so, I mapped instances of institutional entrepreneurship and constructed a narrative of the evolution of these initiatives, taking a broad view of institutional entrepreneurship-in-context. I found a pattern of a succession of waves of initiatives which contributed to an evolving patchwork of rules and practices. This patchwork will, eventually, shape societal embedding of nanotechnologies in the food packaging sector

Toepassing van nieuwe sensoren vereist brede samenwerking en gestructureerde discussies

Sensoren zijn een veelbelovende optie voor het beheersen en controleren van waterkwaliteit. Innovatie en implementatie van sensoren wordt momenteel belemmerd door onduidelijkheden over prestaties van sensoren en behoeften van gebruikers. Er wordt niet altijd onderscheid gemaakt tussen de verschillende toepassingsgebieden van sensoren, waardoor appels met peren worden vergeleken. Daarnaast zijn er onduidelijkheden over de implementatie van sensoren, bijvoorbeeld over hun acceptatie als wettelijk toegestane monitoringsmethode. In dit artikel stellen wij een indeling in vier hoofdrichtingen van sensortoepassingen voor als leidraad in discussies, en pleiten wij ervoor dat waterbedrijven, onderzoekers en ontwikkelaars ook drinkwaterlaboratoria, toezichthouders en beleidsmakers betrekken in die discussie

Sectoral demand articulation:The case of emerging sensor technologies in the drinking water sector

Demand articulation plays a central role in innovation processes as it reduces uncertainties for innovating firms and offers guidance in innovation processes. Studies into demand articulation processes have mostly focused on users and user-producer interactions and paid less attention to the role of the broader environment in which users and producers are embedded. We conduct an exploratory case study into demand articulation regarding emerging micro & nanotechnology-based sensor technologies for drinking water applications. We trace the occurrence and dynamics of demand articulation processes at a sectoral level. We show that demand articulation processes at the level of a sector fulfill an important function in guiding demand articulation processes of individual and organizational actors. We develop a process model of sectoral demand articulation and discuss the relevance of sectoral contexts in explaining the direction of demand articulation processes

Anticipatory Interventions and the Co-Evolution of Nanotechnology and Society

In contrast with earlier emerging technologies, in the case of nanotechnology there is a lot of anticipation sourrounding how it might, or should, become embedded in society. These ‘anticipatory interventions’ not only affect ongoing processes in the present, but also provide directions for the future development and embedding of nanotechnologies. This move toward anticipation of embedding of nanotechnologies is itself part of a more general move toward ‘reflexive co-evolution of science, technology and society’. I focus on the analysis of dynamics in ‘anticipatory interventions’ at the level of domains of application and discuss emerging patterns in reflexive co-evolution. Methodologically, I use interventions as ‘windows on the world’: they allow me to see what is happening in terms of emerging patterns in embedding processes. One ‘window’ is opened by following ‘anticipatory interventions’ by institutional entrepreneurs and forums and assessing what they add up to. Another ‘window’ is opened by conducting Constructive Technology Assessment workshops supported by scenarios. I examine ‘anticipatory interventions’ in two contrasting domains: the application of nanotechnologies for food packaging technologies and for drug delivery systems. Striking across all of my studies is that actors take into account broader aspects of societal emgedding than one would expect on the basis of their position in a sector. One emerging pattern already visible in the present is that pro-active activities to bridge promotion and control of nanotechnologies do not occur ‘across the board’, but in a distribution of labour to shape societal embedding of nanotechnologies. While the substance of anticipations will differ between domains, the reduction of uncertainties via emerging rules and the promotion of anticipatory coordination are general and acknowledged routes for interventions. A second pattern is the ohenomenon of ‘games of societal embedding’. Actors engage in strategic interactions concerning societal embedding. Waiting games are one specific example, which were very visible in my domain studies. Future development are still open-ended. I developed two scenarios, where anticipation of embedding becomes recognized and institutionalized, or is backgrounded in the end. At the moment, however, my observations and analysis indicate that reflexive co-evolution of nanotechnology and society if here to stay