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Practice and Praxis: The 'what, how and why' of the UK Environmental Direct Action Movement in the 1990's
Abstract
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Wales, Bangor, 2002.
... Burn-out describes a state of mental and physical exhaustion brought on by over-work or trauma. Individual and group burn-out can also be associated 15 with a social movement's defeat, the process of confronting the unobtainable goals of a movement (Plows 2002), or demobilization even when, as in the case of Adams ' (2003) research in Chile, the movement was ultimately successful. It can also result from individuals being shamed or made to feel inferior within a movement (Kleres 2005). ...
... Burn-out, therefore, can result from a failure to engage in emotional reflexivity (early enough); but the decision to acknowledge that one is burnt-out and in need of some respite from social movement involvement often follows from a crisis that provokes a period of emotional reflexivity. Furthermore, following a period of burn-out, social movement actors need to engage in reflection about their emotional needs and priorities before negotiating the terms of any potential re-engagement in activism; not least of all to minimize the reoccurrence of burnout and to better balance activism with other demands on their time (Plows 2002). ...
... But little has been achieved in understanding how we deal with emotions that people do not want to acknowledge, or seem unable (or unwilling) to manage. Plows (2002) identified that people with mental health vulnerabilities were drawn to direct action protest camps in Britain, and then relied upon others in the community to respond to their needs. Moreover, sexism, homophobia, and racism were identified by participants in such camps as at times going unchallenged. ...
This paper explores the role of emotions in activism. Although, increasingly, researchers have examined what emotions inspire or deter different forms of political and social movement activism, this paper takes a new direction by considering what spaces, practices and emotional stances are necessary to sustain individual and collective resistance in the long-term. We argue that we need to sustain activism through emotional reflexivity, building sustaining spaces to create space for emotion in activism. Using empirical examples from different forms of autonomous (anti-capitalist) activism in Britain, the role and importance of emotions to the sustainability of activism is explored. In particular, we consider the role of different spaces in sustaining activists through the cycles of protest, what spaces of activism can be opened up by a closer attention to emotions, and how the spaces in which protest and other activist practices take place shape the emotional and affective engagements of participants. As autonomous forms of activism attempt to prefiguratively enact new post-capitalist social relations in the here and now, we suggest there is still some way to go in changing affective relationships within many of these groups.
... Both these approaches have been criticised for a range of reasons: for assuming that actors engage in social movement activities primarily in pursuit of self-interest and guided by somewhat monological rationalities, rather than in the course of attempting to assert agency in relation to felt ethical or political values (Wall 1999, p. 42, Goodin 1992; for emphasising that activities are dictated by context rather than by creativity and choice (Doherty 1999); for holding to rather static understandings of social movement participation, while down-playing the fluidity of continually negotiated participation and affective identification with movement groups and concerns (Snow et al. 1986;Goodin 1992, p. 31-33;Plows 2002); and for their inability to encompass the recent emergence of 'new emotional movements', which are animated by displays of solidarity and compassion regarding specific shocking events (Walgrave and Verhulst 2006). ...
... This sequence of events is similar to the campaign history of environmental protests in the UK in the 1990s, such as the anti-roads and airport expansion campaigns (e.g. Plows 2002). As Doherty (1998, p. 372, cited in Cathles 2000 states, these protests were characterised by 'years of patient, energetic campaigning, lobbying and awarenessraising by dedicated locals' and it is usually 'when these have failed that direct action protestors set up protest camps.' ...
... by definition are unconventional affective, as well as pragmatic, collaborations with fluid memberships and with no clear boundaries, which 'expand or shrink considerably over relatively short periods of time and exhibit phases of latency and visibility'(Van de Donk et al. 2004, p. 3), or 'biodegradeability'(Plows 2002).This brings us to our next conceptual layer, namely the organisational significances of open networks in facilitating contemporary movements of collective action (e.g.Castells 1996; Wall 1999, p. 42;Ghimire 2005; Della Porta and Diani 2006, p. 115- 117). With the internet giving rise to unprecedented new spaces for communication, recruitment and representation, and thereby providing a new medium for producing connectivity between people and groups, important possibilities for the production and iteration of collective concerns and solidarity have opened up. ...
In 1996 the Corrib gas field, holding over 1 trillion cubic feet of gas, was discovered by Enterprise Oil 83km off the North West coast of Ireland. Acquired by Shell in 2002, proposed extraction and processing is now a co-venture between several multinational energy corporations who aim to transport the gas some 90kms via pipeline to an onshore refinery site at Bellanaboy. Although heralded as a significant opportunity for development and employment by Shell and participating companies, local resistance to the proposals, on social and environmental grounds, has been sustained and effective. Mirroring global conflicts between the petrochemical industry and local people and lifeworlds, this resistance has elicited repressive responses, including the jailing of local landowners by the Irish state following their resistance to unprecedented compulsory land acquisition orders, and the taking out of a court injunction by Shell in 2005. Drawing on elements of contemporary social movement theory, and on both field research and analysis of campaign documents and media reports, this paper seeks to describe and reflect on the shape and spread of the social movement that has arisen in response to this development project. We focus on the ‘Shell to Sea’ campaign which has argued for the offshore, as opposed to the onshore, development of the gas field, and has garnered support from many other social movement groups and networks. In particular we consider the use of alternative media in strengthening shared networks of concern and in engaging critically with corporate media representations of both the project and the mobilisation. We
conclude that social movement effectiveness and potency is in large part an outcome of collective and subjective commitments to intense work effort and the sharing of felt solidarity regarding environmental and social concerns; and we iterate the significance of affective and subjective dimensions of social movement activities alongside more conventional descriptions of work practices and structuring contexts.
... However, as John Holloway (2005, p. 235) reflects in Change the World Without Taking Power, "[l]iving in capital means that we live in the midst of contradiction." Therefore, "in spite" (Holloway, 2005) of this, many academics have a long involvement in activism from stopping road building and airport expansion, to squatting and fighting gentrification (Chatterton, 2002;Maxey, 2004;Plows, 1998 andWall, 1999). Academics are also involved in struggles closer to home, for example the Royal Geographical Societies sponsorship by Shell and academic complicity in the arms trade (Chatterton and Featherstone, 2007;Chatterton and Maxey, 2009;Gilbert, 2009). ...
... My research drew on existing ethnographic work (inter alia, Anderson, 2004;Butler, 2003;Letcher, 2001aPlows, 1998;Taylor, 2001Taylor, & 2005, biographical accounts by activists (Hindle, 2006;Merrick, 1996;Plows, 2001), interviews, participant observation and my own autoethnography (Harris, 2008). Action Research (Reason & Rowan, 1981) and feminist methodologies (Harding, 1987) were influential on my methodology and I refer to those I interviewed as research participants in recognition of the collaborative approach I adopted. ...
My fieldwork with activists living on UK protest camps revealed the impact of spending extended periods of time in the organic environment. The wilderness effect – previously described in the context of US treks in places like the Grand Canyon – was apparent even in comparatively urban environments and catalysed a spiritual emergence for several people. I begin by explaining the context of protest site activism and spirituality. I then draw on my fieldwork to describe how key aspects of the wilderness effect were expressed on UK protest sites and discuss some of the life changing experiences catalysed by the effect. I then outline my model of embodied situated cognition and use it to provide a partial explanation for how the wilderness effect works.
... Alex wrote about the "sense of connectedness" that's common amongst activists (Plows, 1998). Can we learn that sense of connection? ...
... However, as John Holloway (2005, p. 235) reflects in Change the World Without Taking Power, "[l]iving in capital means that we live in the midst of contradiction." erefore, "in spite" (Holloway, 2005) of this, many academics have a long involvement in activism from stopping road building and airport expansion, to squa ing and fighting gentrification (Cha erton, 2002;Maxey, 2004;Plows, 1998 andWall, 1999). Academics are also involved in struggles closer to home, for example the Royal Geographical Societies sponsorship by Shell and academic complicity in the arms trade (Cha erton and Featherstone, 2007;Cha erton and Maxey, 2009;Gilbert, 2009). ...
Universities, as well as other educational institutions, are currently facing economic instability, debt and an uncertain future. The squeeze on Higher Education is, like the crisis of capital, global. But so too is the emergent resistance. People around the world are challenging the neoliberal model of the university, which produces ‘skilled’ workers to be put to use for the (re)production of capital.
The ‘double crisis’ of the economy and the university has made campuses once again sites of resistance, and the “new student movement can be seen as the main organized response to the global financial crisis”. These struggles have not only formed spaces for opposition – to budget cuts, the increasing precarity of labor, rising education costs – but have also featured calls for new models for education to “transform the campus into a base for alternative knowledge production that is accessible to those outside its ‘walls.’” In this chapter we will investigate recent attempts to create alternative spaces for radical pedagogy and knowledge commons inside, outside and on the periphery of the academy, exploring several spaces of pedagogical praxis and to reflect on the potential for radical pedagogy and knowledge production.
... I decided early on in my research to take an overt approach to fieldwork and thereby disclosed my researcher status to Dissent! members. Conducting overt research within a social movement requires, among other things, establishing a particular level of trust and acceptance (Plows 2002:76). One strategy to gain the trust and acceptance of Dissent! network members was to disclose my research status early on. ...
In this article, we argue for the importance of considering participant observation roles in relation to both insider/outsider and overt/covert roles. Through combining key academic debates on participant observation, which have separately considered insider/outsider and overt/covert participant observation, we develop a reflexive framework to assist researchers in (1) locating the type of participant observation research; (2) identifying implications of participant observation for both the research and the subjects under study; and (3) reflecting on how one's role as participant observer shifts over the course of fieldwork and considering the implications of this. To illustrate these dynamics, we draw on two examples from our own ethnographic research experiences in direct action anticapitalist movements.
... Plows (2002, p. 19) argues that the EDA can be situated on a "continuum" of social movement activity since the student movements of the late 1960s and 1970s, the antinuclear movement, and within the wider environmental movement of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The EDA may be differentiated from the wider environmental movement by its commitment to direct action (Plows, 2002). Within the UK, Doherty, Paterson and Seel (2000) argue that the birth of the EDA was characterised by a shift towards direct action: ...
The so called 'media debate' within radical social movements is often perceived as a polarising subject that is best left to one side to avoid flaring an unsolvable debate. The 'media debate' within such movements is often a euphemism for a dichotomised view of media which embraces 'radical media' (Downing et al. 2001) such as Indymedia while dismissing 'mainstream media'. Drawing on over a year of participant observation and 30 activist interviews, this article takes as its focus 'the media debate' through a case study of the Dissent! network, and members within it, in the preparation for an enactment of contention at the 2005 Gleneagles G8 Summit. The article argues that while a binary view of 'the media debate' existed within Dissent! at a network level, such a perspective fails to capture some network activists' efforts to move beyond dualistic thinking towards a more nuanced, flexible and 'pragmatic' perspective which values both media. The article also considers the impact of the 'media debate' within Dissent! which, it is argued, created a 'spiral of silence' (Noelle-Neuman 1974) in the network. The conclusion reasserts the need for activist dialogue on the advantages and limitations of all forms in order to move beyond dualistic views of media.
... • Theories tend to be performative, creating new waves of 'activist practices' according to changes of paradigms in psychology, sociology or political theories, rather than attempting a situated analysis of realities. In this way, they obscure the ongoing work of activism (Plows, 2002) which then has to be genealogically recuperated (Roseneil, 2000). ...
This article addresses the questions and dilemmas that each of us has brought to the project. It traces their modulation, refinement and manifestation as they became part of a shared creative dynamic and thus subject to our personal experience and reflection thereon. The initial idea was to produce one text with multiple voices, yet considering our theoretical diversity, the geographical distance between us and the short time at hand we realized this, for the moment, was a too ambitious project. Hence as a tribute to the diversity of our perspectives and reflecting the actual dilemma of seeking to 'speak in one powerful voice' while allowing heterogeneity, this article presents itself as a tentative pastiche of our four distinct yet overlapping and intersecting contributions. To create a common basis for the writing process, we collected a pool of crucial questions that were then split up between us, following the idea that each of us will reflect upon the editing process by way of exploring her particular questions. This reflection obviously cannot capture either the complexity or the entirety of the experience of co-editing and producing the journal, it can only highlight some aspects of the contradictions, juxtapositions and intersections that emerged. Alexandra sets the scene by outlining the intricacies of working across the multiple borders constituted by language, institutional backgrounds, gender, nationalities etc. and explores what it means to reflexively re-negotiate our own boundaries in this process. Picking up on the concrete ambiguity arising around the crossing of 'language borders', Johanna then discusses the paradoxes arising around the question of what qualifies as 'critical resistance' and how our experience of producing this journal could inform agendas of agency for social change. Jude inquires even further into the question of legitimacy and 'voice' and challenges our own position within a feminist agenda by exploring the complexities of working both within and against the power hierarchies, discourses and ideologies that framed our project. Finally Barbara concludes by interrogating the experiential and theoretical issues around dynamic 1 The colour version of this image can also be found in the Cdrom. The 'Klezmer Improvisation' which is included on the Cdrom, forms part of the article (it is played by the duo 'Double-Bind': J. Motzkau: s-saxophone & R.Dinges: double bass). For me (Johanna) this music and the joy of playing it in this particular situation comprises and expresses the intricacies and realities of numerous border crossings.
... We prefer the term and concept of observant participation, i.e. to highlight the value of participatory and experiential aspects of ethnographic research as the basis for interpretation (e.g. Sullivan 2001b;Plows 2002). This research praxis emphasises the legitimacy of a researcher's interpretation of observed and experienced cultural phenomena and events from a position of being present and variously immersed in/at these phenomena and events. ...
This paper originally appeared as a book chapter in a volume oriented towards social science graduate students preparing for fieldwork, primarily in ‘developing country’ contexts. It has been reworked extensively here as a contribution for a recent CSGR seminar series by core
research staff regarding our methodological approaches to research. As such, the paper provides an overview of some qualitative research methods in the social sciences, and of their relevance for conducting research in a continuing context of ‘globalisation’: which here refers to increasing supraterritoriality in domains of human organisation, and the relative collapsing of temporal and spatial scales that this implies. We focus on three key methodological domains: participant observation (and/or observant participation), oral testimony and the production of ethnographic texts; discourse analysis; and considerations of the subjective
implied by phenomenological and embodiment approaches. We also make some comments regarding relationships between qualitative and quantitative methods and the implications of
these different tools for engagement in terms of the information they yield. We observe that it is not so much research methods that have changed under contemporary globalisation processes. Rather, we note that orientations to research and to the interpretation of ‘findings’
- particularly in relation to certainty, to the implications of notions of difference and ‘the
other’, and to aspirations of objectivity - have been much affected by the intertwined theoretical fields of poststructuralism, postcolonialism and feminism. Thus by highlighting the infusion of power in research praxis as in social relations more generally, we acknowledge the always politically constitutive role(s) of academic engagement.
... From this perspective scientists are recognised as experts not because of their qualifications but because of their sustained engagement with a particular topic or issue (see, for example, Miller, 2001). By the same argument, because many of the claims to relevance and knowledge made by patient groups, social movements and other 'organic experts' (Plows, 2003) are grounded in a similar sustained engagement, their claims to expert status cannot be dismissed simply because they lack formal certification. ...
Public participation in technological decision-making is increasingly seen as de rigueur, but the limits and purpose of such participation remain open to debate. In this paper we explore the tension between different rationales for widening participation and examine their implications for its practice. Taking debates about medical genomics in the UK as an illustrative example, we argue that more heterogeneous participation and debate have the potential to improve the scrutiny and accountability of science within representative democracies. In doing so we also argue that it is necessary to replace the language of 'lay expertise' with a more systematic and rigorous treatment of the expertise or its absence that characterizes different participants. Drawing on the theoretical work of Collins & Evans ( 2002), we distinguish between those processes where expert knowledge is required and debate is conducted within the public domain, rather than by the public itself, and those where the views of non-expert lay citizens are needed and valued. The effect of adopting this approach is to permit a more inclusive treatment of the 'technical' while also providing a positive role for non-expert citizens in the democratic control and oversight of science.
... Part of this is the belief in 'Doing It Yourself' (see McKay, 1998) or creating workable alternatives outside the state. Many examples have flourished embracing ecological direct action, free parties and the rave scene, squatting and social centres, and open-source software and independent media (Plows 2002; Seel et al., 2000; Wall, 1999; Chatterton and Hollands, 2003; Pickerill, 2003a, forthcoming). Resources are creatively re-used, skills shared, and popular or participatory education techniques deployed, aiming to develop a critical consciousness, political and media literacy and clear ethical judgements (Friere, 1979). ...
This is the authors final draft of an article published as Progress in Human Geography, 2006, 30(6), pp.730-746. The published version is available from http://phg.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/6/730, doi:10.1177/0309132506071516 This paper’s focus is what we call 'autonomous geographies' – spaces where there is a desire to constitute non-capitalist, collective forms of politics, identity and citizenship. These are created through a combination of resistance and creation, and a questioning and challenging of dominant laws and social norms. The concept of autonomy permits a better understanding of activists’ aims, practices and achievements in alter-globalisation movements. We explore how autonomous geographies are multi-scalar strategies that weave together spaces and times, constituting in-between and overlapping spaces, blending resistance and creation, and combining theory and practice. We flesh out two examples of how autonomous geographies are made through collective decision-making and autonomous social centres. Autonomous geographies provide a useful toolkit for understanding how spectacular protest and everyday life are combined to brew workable alternatives to life beyond capitalism.
Debate continues about how to define Paganism, but it is generally agreed that it is a 'nature religion'. Unsurprisingly, Pagans are widely supposed to be environmentally active, and the Dictionary of Contemporary Religion in the Western World goes so far as to say, "Paganism is an ecological faith tradition, a nature-centric spirituality that seeks to break down hierarchies." (Partridge, (ed.), 2002; 326).
However, most ethnographic research shows that in practice, Pagans are not especially ecological, and only a minority of eclectic 'Eco-Pagans' are involved in direct action (Adler, 1986, pp. 399-415). Smith Obler concluded that although Pagans' language and beliefs speak of a love for nature, their behaviour is no more environmental than anyone else's (2004), and Adler found that "quite a few" Pagans were actually against environmental activism (1986; 400).
We focus on this apparent paradox at the heart of the movement: If Paganism is a 'nature religion', why are so few practitioners environmentalists? The obvious answer is that belief does not always translate into practice, but we offer a more useful hypothesis based on existing research and recent ethnographic work.
We make sense of this apparent inconsistency by tracing the genealogy of Paganism, which reveals diverse currents of influence. While Contemporary Paganism originated from esoteric magical traditions, we trace how an ‘earth-based’ Paganism emerged from folk Romanticism and the Free Festival movement. These currents are not isolated but nevertheless carry distinct ideological characteristics and attract different socio-political groups. Although our argument focuses on UK Paganism, the fundamental cross-cultural influences between the US and the UK mean that our analysis is relevant to both countries.
In this article, I relate the theoretical concept of ecological habitus to the specific context of environmental communities in the UK. I begin by summarizing sociological literature relating to ecological habitus and then draw upon a qualitative study of four environmental communities to ground the concept. The themes of economy, architecture, leisure, food and water are employed to capture daily communal activities that contribute to a specific form of habitus, namely ecological habitus. Theoretical frameworks within the social field are also examined. Differences relating to environmental philosophy held by community members (reformist environmentalism and ecologism) are seen to direct habitus and attitudes relating to natural and built habitats. Two variants of ecological habitus are consequently identified and judged worthy of further categorization, namely ecological habitus and reformist ecological habitus.
The first chapter of Artistic Utopias of Revolt deals with the anti-roads movement in the UK at the start of the 1990s, focusing on the squatted street of Claremont Road in London. The author shows how this occupied area developed the aesthetic and creative possibilities for those places known within the activist arena as ‘liberated spaces’. She studies the way that performative strategies, symbolic features, and aesthetic interventions come together to produce a dissident spatiality and to change the meaning of space. Through an engaging narrative, Ramírez Blanco explains how the various aesthetic elements simultaneously served to create communitarian bonds and to defend the place from police incursions.
In 1996 the Corrib gas field, holding over 1 trillion cubic feet of gas, was discovered by Enterprise Oil 83km off the North West coast of Ireland. Acquired by Shell in 2002,
proposed extraction and processing is now a co-venture between several multinational energy corporations who aim to transport the gas some 90kms via pipeline to an onshore refinery site at Bellanaboy. Although heralded as a significant opportunity for development and employment by Shell and participating companies, local resistance to the proposals, on social and environmental grounds, has been
sustained and effective. Mirroring global conflicts between the petrochemical industry and local people and lifeworlds, this resistance has elicited repressive responses,
including the jailing of local landowners by the Irish state following their resistance to unprecedented compulsory land acquisition orders, and the taking out of a court injunction by Shell in 2005. Drawing on elements of contemporary social movement theory, and on both field research and analysis of campaign documents and media
reports, this paper seeks to describe and reflect on the shape and spread of the social movement that has arisen in response to this development project. We focus on the
‘Shell to Sea’ campaign which has argued for the offshore, as opposed to the onshore, development of the gas field, and has garnered support from many other social movement groups and networks. In particular we consider the use of alternative media in strengthening shared networks of concern and in engaging critically with corporate media representations of both the project and the mobilisation. We
conclude that social movement effectiveness and potency is in large part an outcome of collective and subjective commitments to intense work effort and the sharing of felt
solidarity regarding environmental and social concerns; and we iterate the significance of affective and subjective dimensions of social movement activities alongside more
conventional descriptions of work practices and structuring contexts.
The research method of participant observation has long been used by scholars interested in the motivations, dynamics, tactics and strategies of social movements from a movement perspective. Despite participant observation being a common research method, there have been very few efforts to bring together this literature, which has often been spread across disciplines. This makes it difficult to identify the various challenges (and their interrelation) facing participant observers. Consequently, this article first reviews how participant observation roles have been conceptualised in general and then draws specific links to how the method has been used in the study of activism and social movements. In doing so, this article brings together key academic debates on participant observation, which have been considered separately, such as insider/outsider and overt/covert, but not previously been brought together.
Coming from a critical animal studies perspective, this essay develops an urgent challenge to what Zipporah Weisberg describes as the ‘largely depoliticized approach within animal studies’ (2009: 5), with a focus on the work of Donna Haraway. Drawing on grassroots activist literature and practice, the essay analyses some productive tensions between animal rights perspectives and the work of Haraway, which centre on their different strategies for challenging the symbolic and material role of animals within biocapitalism. This approach reinstates the value of activist praxis to animal studies, arguing that it has the capacity to unsettle the positioning of animals as biocapital more successfully than Haraway's own ethical project. Due to being at the heart of debates between Haraway and theorists from within critical animal studies, vegan activism illustrates an animal rights practice that can work to undermine the structures that render animals ‘legitimately’ exploitable: despite Haraway's arguments to the contrary. The work of activists involved in the Hori-zone, a temporary eco-village established as a protest camp near the 2005 G8 summit at Gleneagles, is used to explore how veganism can be used as a micro-sociological tactic to challenge the exploitation that pervades everyday life.
This is a case study of the Camp for Climate Action, which has held several high-profile protest events in the UK since its inception in 2006. It analyses the Camp as a contested space where different emphases on environmental and social priorities have to be negotiated by its activists. The article considers areas of contestation where concerns over climate change meet questions of social justice. These are structured around tangible issues of campaigning, such as opposition to new coal-fired power stations or to the third runway at Heathrow airport, some of which have put the Camp at odds with labour movement and class struggle activists. While some demand a drastic shift away from current levels of consumption, others question the discriminatory effects of self-imposed austerity politics. On a more abstract level, the article considers debates on the need for government solutions to the environmental crisis and their possible impacts on social equality. The article is structured around movement-internal debates and makes use of interviews, extensive fieldwork notes and continuous participant observation over the course of four years.
The UK Climate Camp protests of 2007 are an important moment in an ongoing analysis of the success of ‘green protests’ in the UK. A legacy of knowledge transfer between activist groups, NGOs and UK publics is visible; in the initiation and development of recent climate-related protests, their key frames (the stakes raised), targets and forms of mobilisation, and the allies the protestors were able to attract. Defining terms (success in particular) is difficult, due to multiple differences in aims and objectives among a variety of social actors. The paper identifies a complex spectrum of green perspectives among activists and broader green networks. UK green protest success is defined and identified in terms of capacity building; protest waves spanning several activist generations have framed important sustainability citizenship stakes with broad public resonance and uptake. The use of protest tactics among broader publics is also a significant legacy. However, the mainstreaming of green stakes and their co-option — ‘green washing’ — is causing clashes between ‘strong green’ and ‘weak green’ perspectives, particularly around issues of green consumption, power relations and political economy. These struggles over green stakes and strategies re-emphasise long-standing difficulties with defining protest success. This is an ongoing narrative.British Politics (2008) 3, 92–109. doi:10.1057/palgrave.bp.4200081
Nanobiotechnology as a “converged” technological platform (CT = Converging Technologies) is discussed in relation to discourse within civil society. The conflicts and ethical debates surrounding nanobiotechnology can be intuited from these larger discursive frames of reference. Complimenting Glimell and Fogelberg's (2003) research documenting an emergent epistemic culture amongst scientists researching and working on nanotechnologies, and more recent research on the multiple meanings of nanotechnology in the political economy (Wullweber, 2007), this paper traces an emergent ethnography of engaged actors within civil society as they develop discursive and mobilization repertoires. Whilst on occasion ambivalent about the combination of specific promises and risks in relation to nanobiotechnology, in general a broad critique of the politics of technology is emerging as a counter epistemology or “Master Frame” (Snow & Benford, 1992) amongst certain predisposed UK civil society groups. Converging Technologies provide the issue around which this broad critique is solidifying. Thus whilst many of the specific risks raised by nanobiotechnology (and other CT) are definitively new, many of the p?tential risks and grievances, have been raised before in relation to other issues of scientific and environmental controversy, often by the same actor groups. Thus convergence is a useful metaphor for appreciating that broader frame of reference from within which the emerging conflicts and ethical debates about nanobiotechnology are being situated.
If you go ten, fifteen years in the future, you're not going to be able to distinguish between what's nano technology, what's bio technology, what's information technology or what's genetic engineering. They're all going to be the same kind of technologies … just employed in different ways and different places. (“Mike”, technology watchdog campaigner, in interview January 2004)
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