Fern Wickson

UiT The Arctic University of Norway

There is a growing demand to incorporate social, economic and ethical considerations into biotechnology governance. However, there is currently little guidance available for understanding what this means or how it should be done. A framework of care-based ethics and politics can capture many of the concerns maintaining a persistent socio-political...

Biotechnology is diversifying rapidly through the development and application of new approaches to genome editing and ongoing research into synthetic biology. Proponents of biotechnology are enthusiastic about these new developments and have recently begun calling for environmental movements to abandon their campaigns against Genetically Modified O...

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault provides a backup of seed collections from genebanks around the world. It’s unique character has made it iconic in the public imagination as a ‘Noah’s Ark’ for crop plants. Its remote location and strict controls on access have, however, also lent it an air of mystery, swirling with conspiracy theories. In this paper,...

Maize is one of the world’s five staple cereals and its traditional varieties constitute a global resource critical to future agricultural development. Fifteen years ago, claims that transgenes had spread into traditional landrace maize in Mexico started an international discussion on the scale and significance of transgene flow from genetically mo...

Volume 12 of NAMMCO Scientific Publications is based on an open call for new knowledge (from across all disciplines) relevant for the conservation and management of marine mammals in the North Atlantic. This volume is dedicated to Gísli Arnór Víkingsson (1956-2022), in acknowledgement of his contribution to the work of the NAMMCO Scientific Commit...

Volume 12 of the NAMMCO Scientific Publications series - Marine Mammals in the North Atlantic - is a collection of papers edited by Albert Fernández Chacón, Heleen Middel, and Fern Wickson. The North-East Atlantic and the waters of NAMMCO member countries host a diverse marine mammal community whose dynamics are influenced by multiple environmenta...

Over two decades later, gene flow research as it pertains to genetically engineered crops is still going strong, even in the face of the absence of ecological disasters in the nearly 30 years of widescale biotech crop commercialization. Nonetheless, ecological timeframes are within the study scope of the sort of research performed to date covered i...

To support sustainable management of apex predator populations, it is important to estimate population size and understand the drivers of population trends to anticipate the consequences of human decisions. Robust population models are needed, which must be based on realistic biological principles and validated with the best available data. A team...

Technological changes embedded in the processes of agrarian modernization have profoundly reshaped agricultural environments , practices, discourses and institutions worldwide. This article explores how social-ecological relations shift in agricultural practices following the introduction of modern seed varieties , including hybrid and genetically...

Walrus are an important food, income and cultural resource for Arctic Indigenous communities. After heavy exploitation from commercial hunting caused dramatic population crashes, a range of management measures have been developed and applied across the North Atlantic. This has included widespread bans on commercial hunting, regulation of subsistenc...

Native maize conservation rests on the custody of traditional and indigenous small-scale farmers, but their traditional practices and way of life are challenged by multiple forces associated with globalization, international trade and neoliberal agricultural policies. Through participatory art-based research with two indigenous communities in Oaxac...

The need for appropriate science and regulation to underpin nanosafety is greater than ever as ongoing advances in nanotechnology are rapidly translated into new industrial applications and nano-enabled commercial products. Nevertheless, a disconnect persists between those examining risks to human and environmental health from nanomaterials. This d...

Ensuring the sustainable development and use of NZVI for in situ remediation requires the incorporation of a multitude of factors and criteria, including those related to technology performance, cost, potential impacts to the environment and human health, as well as ethical, social, and legal concerns. This chapter provides an overview of these fac...

There has been a persistent conflict over agricultural biotechnology, and existing governance institutions relying on traditional processes of scientific risk assessment have failed to address the sociopolitical dimensions of this disagreement. Although there are demands to incorporate socioeconomic impact (SEI) assessment into regulatory deliberat...

On 28 April 2018 the European Parliament voted for a complete and permanent ban on all outdoor uses of the three most commonly used neonicotinoid pesticides. With the partial exception of the state of Ontario, Canada, governments elsewhere have failed to take action. Below is a letter, signed by 232 scientists from around the world, urgently callin...

The integration of creative arts-based methods into scientific research offers a host of advantages, including the ability to capture the complex texture of lived experience, explore interconnections between nature and culture, support nonhierarchical relations, and communicate insights in engaging and empowering new ways. In this article, we descr...

The desire to guide research and innovation in more ‘responsible’ directions is increasingly emphasised in national and international policies, the funding of inter- and trans-disciplinary collaborations and academic scholarship on science policy and technology governance. Much of this growth has occurred simultaneously with the development of nano...

The flow of transgenes into landraces and wild relatives is an important biosafety concern. The case of transgene flow into local maize varieties in Mexico (the center of origin of maize) has been intensively debated over the past 15 years, including legal, political, and environmental disputes fanned by the existence of a significant scientific co...

Nature is perceived and valued in starkly different and often conflicting ways. This paper presents the rationale for the inclusive valuation of nature’s contributions to people (NCP) in decision making, as well as broad methodological steps for doing so. While developed within the context of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosy...

“Safety by design” (SbD) is an intuitively appealing concept that is on the rise within nanotoxicology and nanosafety research, as well as within nanotechnology research policy. It leans on principles established within drug discovery and development (DDD) and seeks to address safety early, as well as throughout product development. However, it rem...

The attempt to have coexistence between organic, conventional and Genetically Modified (GM) crops has generated unresolved frictions between agri-food models based on different practices, values, worldviews and cultures. This paper explores forms of everyday resistance that have emerged against the domineering power and spread of GM maize in Spain,...

Agricultural biotechnology continues to generate considerable controversy. We argue that to address this controversy, serious changes to governance are needed. The new wave of genomic tools and products (e.g., CRISPR, gene drives, RNAi, synthetic biology, and genetically modified [GM] insects and fish), provide a particularly useful opportunity to...

Excerpted from Annex II: Stepwise approach to “assessing diverse conceptualizations of multiple values of nature and its benefits, including biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and services”: a summary and directions to the guidance document (Preliminary Guide, Annex III). This summary provides an introduction to the guidance document and illustrate...

The Conversation: http://theconversation.com/why-europe-will-let-member-states-opt-out-of-gm-crops-50873

Over the past twenty years, agricultural biotechnologies have generated chronically unresolved political controversies. The standard tool of risk assessment has proven to be highly limited in its ability to address the panoply of concerns that exist about these hybrid techno/organisms. It has also failed to account for both the conceptual and mater...

Insect resistance is the second most common trait globally in cultivated genetically modified (GM) plants. Resistance is usually obtained by introducing into the plant's genome genes from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) coding for insecticidal proteins (Cry proteins or toxins) that target insect pests. The aim of this study was to examine...

Risk analysis (encompassing risk assessment, management, and communication) is touted internationally as the most appropriate approach for governing nanomaterials. In this article, we survey existing criticisms of risk assessment as a basis for regulatory decision making on emerging technologies, particularly highlighting its exclusion of key socie...

Resumen: El discurso sobre el riesgo domina las sociedades industriales modernas y se destaca especialmente en las discusiones relativas a la aceptación de nuevas tecnologías. Para un avance tecnológico responsable, la opción típica es la toma de decisiones basada en “una sólida evaluación científica del riesgo”. A pesar de las serias limitaciones...

A broad community of independent scientific researchers and scholars challenges recent claims of a consensus over the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In the following joint statement, the claimed consensus is shown to be an artificial construct that has been falsely perpetuated through diverse fora. Irrespective of contradictory ev...

document available at: http://www.ipbes.net/images/documents/plenary/third/information/INF_7/IPBES_3_INF_7.pdf

To the Editor Within nanoecotoxicology, various scientific tensions exist in dynamic interplay. For example, exploratory and curiosity-driven basic research competes with strategic-, applied- and regulatory-oriented approaches; research done within a paradigm of environmental chemistry must rival with a biological one; and research focused on well...

Modern society is characterised by rapid technological development that is often socially controversial and plagued by extensive scientific uncertainty concerning its socio-ecological impacts. Within this context, the concept of 'responsible research and innovation' (RRI) is currently rising to prominence in international discourse concerning scien...

The concept of ‘responsible innovation’ (RI) or ‘responsible research and innovation’ (RRI) is rapidly gaining currency. However, a persistent critique is that without more concrete elaboration, the interpretive flexibility of the concept is so broad as to effectively render it meaningless. The articulation of quality criteria and indicators theref...

To support responsible research and innovation, Norway is currently pursuing a model in which scholars from the social sciences and/or humanities are integrated into scientific or technological research. In this presentation I will reflect on my own experience working as an integrated scholar in ecotoxicology laboratories studying the controversial...

In research and teaching on ethical aspects of emerging sciences and technologies, the structure of working environments, spaces and relationships play a significant role. Many of the routines and standard practices of academic life, however, do little to actively explore and experiment with these elements. They do even less to address the importan...

The move towards engaging ethicists on the laboratory floor as an approach to encouraging responsible research and innovation has focused largely on engaging with scientists actively involved in technology development. The case study described in this chapter adopts a slightly different orientation. The laboratory at the centre of this case study i...

This paper discusses entanglements of science and ethics in the regulation of genetically modified crops. Using the 2009 German ban of genetically modified maize MON810 and debates concerning the quality of science cited to support it, the paper highlights how values are tacitly embedded in science for policy and how ethical questions permeate the...

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-7984.2012v11n20p171 Invenções científicas e tecnologias, como a nanotecnologia, interagem com sistemas ecológicos e sociais complexos em vários níveis e têm o potencial de causar consequências ímpares e sem precedentes. Isso traz desafios para abordagens de avaliação de risco convencionais, as quais pressupõem que nã...

Good evening good people of planet earth and welcome to the program! Tonight we are chatting with Sam Willis, founder and spokesperson for the new political party standing at this year's global election. They are calling themselves the “Intellectual” party and claiming to bring a shade of “White” to the political spectrum. Welcome to the program Sa...

Our respondents, eight current or former members of the EFSA GMO panel, focus on defending the EFSA's environmental risk assessment (ERA) procedures. In our article for EMBO reports , we actually focused on the proposed EU GMO legislative reform, especially the European Commission (EC) proposal's false political inflation of science, which denies t...

Anglerfish are predators that live in the eternal darkness of the deep oceans and have a distinctive way of catching their prey. They use a long light-emitting filament that extends from their head to lure organisms in the darkness. Those attracted to the shimmering light and movement are then unwittingly caught in front of the anglerfish’s wide-op...

While public engagement is internationally considered to be crucial for successful governance of nanotechnologies (NT), it has not necessarily been clear what the relationship is (or should be) between these engagement efforts and the more traditional governance practice of scientific risk assessment. This paper therefore carries out a literature r...

How can innovation in nanotechnology be balanced with responsible governance? Responsible innovation and responsible governance are broad concepts that mean different things to different groups. This paper presents the results of a roundtable with academics and policymakers from Europe and the U.S. held at the 2011 Society for the Study of Nanoscie...

In this paper, we present a study of Science and Technology Studies (STS) perspectives on public engagement, specifically focusing on the gap between theory and practice. In aiming to develop a conceptual map of this gap, we identify five top topics of tension. These are related to the general questions of: “Why should we do public engagement?,” “W...

Transdisciplinary approaches to research are increasingly touted for the messy social and environmental problems of our time. Such problems transcend disciplinary boundaries, are intertwined with sociopolitical context, and require participation of stakeholders to generate socially acceptable outcomes. A substantial barrier to transdisciplinary (TD...

It is essential to recognize the heterogeneous nature of 'the public' in engagement activities and to treat people as citizens rather than as mere laypersons, consumers or stakeholders.

In discussions of nanotechnology, it has become increasingly common to emphasise the importance of 'responsible governance'. This study focused on the issue of environmental governance and was specifically interested in critically exploring the relationship between nature and nanotechnology. It began by characterising a range of narratives commonly...

The governance of emerging technologies is frequently constructed around risk assessment processes. However, when risk assessment as a decision‐making tool is applied to controversial fields such as genetic modification, stem cell research and nano‐scaled science and technology, inherent uncertainties and conflicting social values arise to challeng...

In this paper we present findings from an experiment involving both scientists working at the nanoscale and philosophers interested in this emerging field of research. Early career scientists working at the nanoscale were asked to read, discuss and debate two examples of philosophy of science that had been writ-ten with a specific focus on nanoscal...

Transdisciplinarity has been proposed as a response to the shifting knowledge landscape in contemporary society. It promises to bring universities and other knowledge organisations into line with new demands and opportunities. In this study, we have investigated drivers of change in the shifting landscape, and note disparate drivers that plot diffe...

Scientists often invoke comparisons with nature when discussing developments in nanotechnology, but the relationship between the two is more complex than it first appears, and can be broken down into nine different narratives.

The development of converging technologies (CTs) closely interacting with the human body might become one of the great challenges for science and technology governance in the years to come. This paper compares the visions and recommendations on CT policies by Roco and Bainbridge with those of the high-level expert group in the EU (authored by Nordm...

Transdisciplinarity has been proposed as a response to the shifting knowledge landscape in contemporary society. It promises to bring universities and other knowledge organisations into line with new demands and opportunities. In this study, we have investigated drivers of change in the shifting landscape, and note disparate drivers that plot diffe...

A realist discourse of risk currently dominates regulatory decision making for genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This paper challenges the appropriateness of this for regulating the environmental impact of GMOs. Discussing psychometric research, cultural theory and the development of typologies of uncertainty, I argue that there is an emerging...

There is a rapidly expanding field of research on social and ethical interactions with nano-scaled sciences and technologies. An important question is: What does social and ethical research actually mean when it is focussed on technological applications that are largely hypothetical, and a field of science spread out across multiple disciplines and...

There is a shifting landscape for knowledge generation in contemporary societies that suggests a bright future for transdisciplinary (TD) research. Interestingly, however, there is currently no clear consensus on what transdisciplinarity is or how its quality can be evaluated. This paper uses three avenues to advance and clarify our understanding o...

The commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) crops is being accompanied by a debate with scientific, social, ethical, legal and metaphysical dimensions. In the face of this complex debate, governments need to regulate GM crops in a way that minimises negative impacts on biological and social environments. This paper is a critical examination...

In this thesis I present a critical appraisal of Australia's environmental regulation of genetically modified (GM) crops. I begin by suggesting that, although realist risk analysis currently dominates environmental decision-making on recombinant DNA technologies, the existence of contested values and widespread scientific uncertainty challenge the...