Jan C. Schmidt
Knowledge Politics of Interdisciplinarity: Specifying the type of interdisciplinarity in the NSF's NBIC scenario
Abstract
Post-industrial and late-modern knowledge societies demand interdisciplinarity in order to facilitate knowledge production. 'Interdisciplinarity' is one of the most popular catchwords used in present-day knowledge politics. This paper aims to clarify the various meanings of interdisciplinarity in order to distinguish different kinds of knowledge politics. The objective is to show which specific type of interdisciplinarity is involved in the NSF's scenario on converging technologies - one of the most prominent kinds of knowledge politics. I argue that the NSF's knowledge politics is based on what I call 'techno-object interdisciplinarity'. This type of interdisciplinarity will be explicated and contrasted with the research program of the European Commission on converging technologies (CTEKS initiative). I will show that the main difference between the two kinds of knowledge politics about converging technologies the focus on object interdisciplinarity on the one hand and problem-oriented interdisciplinarity on the other. I will argue in favor of an explicit normative discourse and conclude that a critical reflection on, and revision of goals and purposes should guide knowledge politics towards our common future.
Jim Whitman
The Challenge to Deliberative Systems of Technological Systems Convergence
Abstract
This paper addresses the capacity of our deliberative systems to comprehend and judge the practical implications of technological systems convergence (CT) against criteria ranging from ethics to the timely framing of prohibitive and/or regulatory mechanisms. Our established regulatory systems (which themselves require deliberation as part of their routine functioning) have become stressed in the face of technological advances - a notable example of which is the backlog of patent applications generated by new developments in bioinformatics. A much wider range of legal, ethical, environmental and relational concerns are likely to be similarly stressed by the sheer speed of CT scientific advances, their practical developments and social adaptations. The problems are likely to be much more fundamental than can be addressed by institutional streamlining, since there are limits to the rate at which any society can adapt to change on a coherent basis. The 'transformative' potential of CT needs to be understood from this perspective.
Brice Laurent
Diverging Convergences: Competing Meanings of Nanotechnology and Converging Technologies in a Local Context
Abstract
Nanotechnology has become an important topic in public research programs in developed countries, especially with regards to its convergence with other emerging technologies. Based on the case of Grenoble, France, where nanoelectronics and nano-biotechnology research projects have been led since the late 1990s, and have been opposed by activist groups, this paper explores the construction of meanings granted to nanotechnology and, more generally, to the convergence of technologies. I describe two opposed visions of converging technologies, and show that these visions are constructed in the context of pre-existing oppositions in the local context, and larger scientific and political issues. These two visions articulate different meanings of convergence. I then turn to the mechanisms that were designed to engage a dialogue with the public in Grenoble. I show that these engagement mechanisms actually reinforced the oppositions, and that potential intermediaries (including social scientists) failed to act as mediators.
Karen Kastenhofer
Converging Epistemic Cultures? A Discussion Drawing on Empirical Findings
Abstract
Convergence of research fields under a new techno-scientific paradigm is currently being discussed among scholars of social studies of science and technology, and in the context of research funding programmes and frameworks of science and technology policy. Mostly, these discussions refer to the macro-scale and adopt a broad understanding of convergence. The present paper introduces a focus on epistemic cultures and raises the question of what convergence might imply on the micro-level of everyday research practices. Relative similarities and differences of various epistemic cultures are indicated, drawing upon empirical investigations. Three forms of scientific change over time are distinguished (convergence, divergence and emergence) and three modes of convergence are further elaborated (cooperation, integration and assimilation). On this conceptual basis the thesis is put forward that the emergence of new technosciences is driven by the technological visions and realities of recent (bio)scientific developments. These, in turn, result in a fundamental reconfiguration of science and its role in society.
Bernd Beckert, Clemens Blümel and Michael Friedewald
Visions and Realities in Converging Technologies: Exploring the Technology Base for Convergence
Abstract
This paper analyses the relation between visions and real technology developments in the debate on converging technologies (CT). Based on the analysis of the main documents of the CT debate, a structuring of CT into eight application areas is advanced. The eight application and technology development areas are described in more detail. The analysis shows that convergence is actually happening in different technology fields but that research in most areas does not explicitly refer to the convergence concept. We also found that, within the respective fields, the distance between visions and real developments is quite different. In the field of brain enhancement, one of the most prominent within the CT debate, the gap between visions and the state of the art is greatest.
Ismael Raflos
Strategies for Knowledge Acquisition in Bionanotechnology: Why are Intersiciplinary Practices Less Widespread than Expected?
Abstract
Discourses on convergent technologies claim that fields such as bionanotechnology are interdisciplinary and, therefore, require specific organizational forms, such as laboratories with researchers from many different disciplinary backgrounds. However, empirical investigations challenge the intrinsic interdisciplinarity of these emergent fields, and some analysts criticize the discourses as prescriptive. In order to investigate actual laboratory practices in bionanoscience, this article explores the dynamics of knowledge integration and the knowledge acquisition strategies of 10 research projects in two research specialities, namely biomolecular motors and lab-on-a-chip. The research shows that knowledge integration is, in fact, very asymmetrical: typically, a project will use materials and techniques from various disciplines at a standard level of know-how, but focus its research effort on the unique expertise of the home laboratory. Furthermore, projects use various strategies to acquire knowledge: interdisciplinary practices involving deep collaborations and exchanges between distinct disciplines at either the personal or institutional level are only one strategy to acquire knowledge and, indeed, not the most common. The majority of projects combine different strategies, including service collaboration, limited recruitment and in-house learning. These observations can be explained by a trade-off between the benefits of cognitive diversity set against the costs of team cohesion and learning.
