Les Américains ont-ils accepté les OGM ?: Analyse comparée de la construction des OGM comme problème public en France et aux Etats-Unis

How can one explain that the use of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in food and agriculture poses a problem in France, where they are hardly used, yet seems to be taken for granted in the US, where their use is widespread ? Many observers see this as a sign that American consumers have accepted transgenic foods, due to a different attitude to risks, food and nature. The present article rejects that explanation. It presents a comparative analysis of the trajectory of GMOs as a public problem in France and the US, showing that very similar arguments were put forward by opponents to GMOs on both sides of the Atlantic, and that conflicts between opponents and defenders have focussed on the same issues : (i) food labeling ; (ii) the link between the choice of a technique (GMOs) and that of an economic system (intensive agriculture, capitalism) ; and (iii) the appropriate framework for evaluating risks. But whereas in France (and more generally in Europe), opponents’ arguments crystallized during specific key controversies, and contributed towards the definition of the cognitive and normative dimensions of GMOs as a public problem, this did not occur in the US. Three factors seem to explain this difference : (i) very different regulatory choices made in the late 1980s (based on processes in Europe and on products in the US) ; (ii) the fact that the usefulness of transgenic plants is perceived negatively in France whereas their association with the intensive export agriculture project is perceived positively in the US ; and (iii) the growing influence of a broader, “constructive” framework for risk analysis in Europe, whereas in the US regulatory authorities continue to base their legitimacy on the ideology of “sound science

À la recherche d’une « démocratie technique ». Enseignements de la conférence citoyenne sur les OGM en France

This article presents an analysis of the consensus conference on GMO’s held in France in 1998. Centred on the experience of the citizen panel, it also discusses criticisms expressed by various actors in France about this conference, most of which related to the lack of representativeness of a panel of citizens with no prior knowledge or interest in the issue at stake. Our analysis of the deliberations and report of the panel reveals the reflexive endeavour undertaken by these citizens with respect to their own role and representativeness. We show how the members of the panel addressed, from the start, the issue of their role in relation to that of the experts and in the decision-making process; how they constructed their collective identity on the basis of their own definition of their role and how this in turn determined how they interacted with the experts and stakeholders invited to the public conference and the nature of their recommendations. We argue that the work conducted by the citizen panel inaugurates a new form of active representation, which is of a very different nature to representation by elected politicians and to “figurative” representation by professional institutions, trade unions and other non-governmental organisations. This novel form of representation enables the exploration of scientific and technical aspects together with social aspects, from the perspective of “ordinary citizens”. It is indeed the “ordinary” character of the panel members that is relevant, because the essence of the operation is to inform decision-makers about the views of those who do not speak out and who do not feel represented by political parties, trade unions, or environmental and consumer NGOs. The article demonstrates how these cognitive and political processes were intrinsically intermeshed in the activities of the panel. The extent and nature of this socio-technical exploration was, however, constrained by some aspects of the consensus conference method itself and we discuss ways in which these could be overcome. On the basis of this analysis, the article addresses two more general issues: the relationship between this type of participatory technology assessment initiative and NGO mobilisations and the link with decision-making processes

Quantifying the value of ecosystem services: a case study of honeybee pollination in the UK

There is concern that insect pollinators, such as honey bees, are currently declining in abundance, and are under serious threat from environmental changes such as habitat loss and climate change; the use of pesticides in intensive agriculture, and emerging diseases. This paper aims to evaluate how much public support there would be in preventing further decline to maintain the current number of bee colonies in the UK. The contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to obtain the willingness to pay (WTP) for a theoretical pollinator protection policy. Respondents were asked whether they would be WTP to support such a policy and how much would they pay? Results show that the mean WTP to support the bee protection policy was £1.37/week/household. Based on there being 24.9 million households in the UK, this is equivalent to £1.77 billion per year. This total value can show the importance of maintaining the overall pollination service to policy makers. We compare this total with estimates obtained using a simple market valuation of pollination for the UK

The declining representativeness of the British party system, and why it matters

In a recent article, Michael Laver has explained ‘Why Vote-Seeking Parties May Make Voters Miserable’. His model shows that, while ideological convergence may boost congruence between governments and the median voter, it can reduce congruence between the party system and the electorate as a whole. Specifically, convergence can increase the mean distance between voters and their nearest party. In this article we show that this captures the reality of today’s British party system. Policy scale placements in British Election Studies from 1987 to 2010 confirm that the pronounced convergence during the past decade has left the Conservatives and Labour closer together than would be optimal in terms of minimising the policy distance between the average voter and the nearest major party. We go on to demonstrate that this comes at a cost. Respondents who perceive themselves as further away from one of the major parties in the system tend to score lower on satisfaction with democracy. In short, vote-seeking parties have left the British party system less representative of the ideological diversity in the electorate, and thus made at least some British voters miserable

L’experience francaise de l’evaluation technologique interactive des recherche sur les vignes transgeniques

Dans cet article, les auteurs présentent une réflexion sur les jugements de légitimité de l’organisation de la démocratie participative en relatant l’expérience originale qu’ils ont conduite en 2001 et 2002 en France, dans le domaine de la recherche agronomique. Mise sur pied par l’un des trois grands organismes publics de recherche nationaux (l’INRA) qui souhaitait ouvrir la délibération sur sa recherche à des acteurs extérieurs, cette expérience pilote de coconstruction d’un programme de recherche sur les vignes transgéniques permet d’interroger non seulement les conditions de la production, par un groupe hybride (chercheurs, professionnels de la vigne et du vin et citoyens ordinaires), d’un avis argumenté sur des questions technoscientifiques, mais aussi les modalités de sa réception dans l’espace public et dans les milieux concernés : en l’occurrence, le monde agricole et plus particulièrement vitivinicole, ainsi que le monde associatif de la lutte anti-OGM

Taking roles in interdisciplinary collaborations: Reflections on working in post-ELSI spaces in the UK synthetic biology community

Based on criticism of the “ethical, legal and social implications” (ELSI) paradigm, researchers in science and technology studies (STS) have begun to create and move into “post-ELSI” spaces. In this paper, we pool our experiences of working towards collaborative practices with colleagues in engineering and science disciplines in the f eld of synthetic biology. We identify a number of dif erent roles that we have taken, been assumed to take, or have had foisted upon us as we have sought to develop postELSI practices. We argue that the post-ELSI situation is characterised by the demands placed on STS researchers and other social scientists to f uctuate between roles as contexts shift in terms of power relations, af ective tenor, and across space and over time. This leads us to posit four orientations for post-ELSI collaborative practices that could help establish more fruitful negotiations around these roles

Five rules of thumb for post-ELSI interdisciplinary collaborations

In this paper we identify five rules of thumb for interdisciplinary collaboration across the natural and social sciences. We link these to efforts to move away from the ‘ethical, legal and social issues’ framework of interdisciplinarity and towards a post-ELSI collaborative space. It is in trying to open up such a space that we identify the need for: collaborative experimentation, taking risks, collaborative reflexivity, opening-up discussions of unshared goals and neighbourliness

Low-Power consumption Franz-Keldysh effect plasmonic modulator

In this paper we report on a low energy consumption CMOS-compatible plasmonic modulator based on Franz-Keldysh effect in germanium on silicon. We performed integrated electro-optical simulations in order to optimize the main characteristics of the modulator. A 3.3 dB extinction ratio for a 30 µm long modulator is demonstrated under 3 V bias voltage at an operation wavelength of 1647 nm. The estimated energy consumption is as low as 20 fJ/bit

Making Sense of Family Deaths in Urban Senegal: Diversities, Contexts, and Comparisons

Despite calls for cross-cultural research, Minority world perspectives still dominate death and bereavement studies, emphasizing individualized emotions and neglecting contextual diversities. In research concerned with contemporary African societies, on the other hand, death and loss are generally subsumed within concerns about AIDS or poverty, with little attention paid to the emotional and personal significance of a death. Here, we draw on interactionist sociology to present major themes from a qualitative study of family deaths in urban Senegal, theoretically framed through the duality of meanings-in-context. Such themes included family and community as support and motivation; religious beliefs and practices as frameworks for solace and (regulatory) meaning; and material circumstances as these are intrinsically bound up with emotions. Although we identify the experience of (embodied, emotional) pain as a common response across Minority and Majority worlds, we also explore significant divergencies, varying according to localized contexts and broader power dynamics