Embedding New Technologies into Society: A Regulatory, Ethical and Societal Perspective (PDF)

In today’s world, integrating any new technology into society is a challenging task. The constantly evolving scientific technology landscape presents a variety of unquantifiable risks and undefined developmental trajectories, which can hinder innovation and success. The good news is that stakeholders can now use various tools to bridge the gap between science and innovation on one side and social and societal dimensions on the other. This book, comprising leading researchers from the domains of law, philosophy, political science, public administration and natural sciences, demonstrates how constructive technology assessment, regulatory governance and societal scenarios can be employed by different stakeholders to successfully embed emerging technologies such as nanotechnology and synthetic biology into society.

Despite the promised potential benefits of new technologies, government, industry and the epistemic community are still struggling to balance the risks and concerns associated with new technologies. Nevertheless, there is a growing body of literature that has looked into these challenges from various cultural, scientific and jurisdictional dimensions. More work needs to be done to evaluate the successes and failures of embedding emerging technologies and their associated products into society.

This edited volume is significant and timely as it draws insights and experiences from real-world experiments designed to anticipate the societal embedding of emerging technologies, supported by a robust theoretical underpinning,