| Description |
1 online resource (xiii, 374 pages) |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| 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."--Publisher. |
| Contents |
Why compare? -- Controlling narratives -- A question of Europe -- Unsettled settlements -- Food for thought -- Natural mothers and other kinds -- Ethical sense and sensibility -- Making something of life -- The new social contract -- Civic epistemology -- Republics of science. |
| Note |
Originally published: 2005. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Democracy and science -- Europe.
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Democracy and science. |
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Europe. |
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Democracy and science -- United States.
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United States. |
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Science and state -- Europe.
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Science and state. |
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Science and state -- United States.
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Biotechnology -- Government policy -- Europe.
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Biotechnology -- Government policy. |
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Biotechnology. |
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Biotechnology -- Government policy -- United States.
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Jasanoff, Sheila. Designs on nature. Princeton, N.J. ; Woodstock : Princeton University Press, 2007 9780691130422 (OCoLC)75713508 |
| ISBN |
9781400837311 (electronic book) |
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1400837316 (electronic book) |
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9780691130422 |
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0691130426 |
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