Embedding New Technologies into Society

Embedding New Technologies into Society PDF Author: Diana M. Bowman
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1315340739
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 366

Get Book Here

Book Description
The embedding of any new technologies in society is challenging. The evolving state of the scientific art, often-unquantifiable risks and ill-defined developmental trajectories have the potential to hinder innovation and/or the commercial success of a technology. The are, however, a number of tools that can now be utilized by stakeholders to bridge the chasm that exists between the science and innovation dimensions on the one hand, and the societal dimensions on the other. This edited volume will draw together leading researchers from the domains of law, philosophy, political science, public administration and the natural sciences in order to demonstrate how tools such as, for example, constructive technology assessment, regulatory governance and societal scenarios, may be employed by stakeholders to assist in successfully embedding new technologies into society. This volume will focus primarily on the embedding of two emergent and emerging technologies: nanotechnologies and synthetic biology. Government, industry and the epistemic community continue to struggle with how best to balance the promised benefits of an emerging technology with concerns about its potential impacts. There is a growing body of literature that has examined these challenges from various cultural, scientific and jurisdictional dimensions. There is, however, much work that still needs to be done; this includes articulating the successes and failures of attempts to the societal embedding of technologies and their associated products. This edited volume is significant and timely, as unlike other books currently on the market, it shall draw from real work experiences and experiments designed anticipate the societal embedding of emerging technologies. This empirical work shall be supported by robust theoretical underpinnings.

Embedding New Technologies into Society

Embedding New Technologies into Society PDF Author: Diana M. Bowman
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1315340739
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 366

Get Book Here

Book Description
The embedding of any new technologies in society is challenging. The evolving state of the scientific art, often-unquantifiable risks and ill-defined developmental trajectories have the potential to hinder innovation and/or the commercial success of a technology. The are, however, a number of tools that can now be utilized by stakeholders to bridge the chasm that exists between the science and innovation dimensions on the one hand, and the societal dimensions on the other. This edited volume will draw together leading researchers from the domains of law, philosophy, political science, public administration and the natural sciences in order to demonstrate how tools such as, for example, constructive technology assessment, regulatory governance and societal scenarios, may be employed by stakeholders to assist in successfully embedding new technologies into society. This volume will focus primarily on the embedding of two emergent and emerging technologies: nanotechnologies and synthetic biology. Government, industry and the epistemic community continue to struggle with how best to balance the promised benefits of an emerging technology with concerns about its potential impacts. There is a growing body of literature that has examined these challenges from various cultural, scientific and jurisdictional dimensions. There is, however, much work that still needs to be done; this includes articulating the successes and failures of attempts to the societal embedding of technologies and their associated products. This edited volume is significant and timely, as unlike other books currently on the market, it shall draw from real work experiences and experiments designed anticipate the societal embedding of emerging technologies. This empirical work shall be supported by robust theoretical underpinnings.

Taken for Grantedness

Taken for Grantedness PDF Author: Richard Ling
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262304341
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description
An examination of how the mobile phone has become part of the fabric of society—as did such earlier technologies as the clock and the car. Why do we feel insulted or exasperated when our friends and family don't answer their mobile phones? If the Internet has allowed us to broaden our social world into a virtual friend-net, the mobile phone is an instrument of a more intimate social sphere. The mobile phone provides a taken-for-granted link to the people to whom we are closest; when we are without it, social and domestic disarray may result. In just a few years, the mobile phone has become central to the functioning of society. In this book, Rich Ling explores the process by which the mobile phone has become embedded in society, comparing it to earlier technologies that changed the character of our social interaction and, along the way, became taken for granted. Ling, drawing on research, interviews, and quantitative material, shows how the mobile phone (and the clock and the automobile before it) can be regarded as a social mediation technology, with a critical mass of users, a supporting ideology, changes in the social ecology, and a web of mutual expectations regarding use. By examining the similarities and synergies among these three technologies, Ling sheds a more general light on how technical systems become embedded in society and how they support social interaction within the closest sphere of friends and family.

Handbook of Technology Assessment

Handbook of Technology Assessment PDF Author: Armin Grunwald
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1035310686
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 495

Get Book Here

Book Description
This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of technology assessment (TA) practices, theories, methods and cultures across the globe. Highlighting the significant influence of rapidly changing technology on human life and development, it examines diverse perspectives on how TA can be developed to better meet the challenges of the future. This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.

Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessment in Industrial Biotechnology

Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessment in Industrial Biotechnology PDF Author: Magnus Fröhling
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030470660
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 363

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book reviews the assessment of industrial biotechnology products and processes from a sustainable perspective. Industrial Biotechnology is a comparably young field which comes along with high expectations with regard to sustainability issues. These stem from the promise of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and replacing fossil resources in the near or later future and using green technology, i.e. more environmentally friendly technologies. The intended economic, ecological and social benefits, however, need to be proven, resulting in a variety of challenges, both from a methodological and application point of view. In this book, specific assessment and application topics of industrial biotechnology are addressed, highlighting challenges and solutions for both developers and users of assessment methods. In twelve chapters, experts in their particular fields define the scope, characterize industrial biotechnology and show in their contributions the state of the art, challenges and prospects of assessing industrial biotechnology products and processes. The chapter 'Societal and Ethical Aspects of Industrial Biotechnology' of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com

Smart Energy Technologies in Everyday Life

Smart Energy Technologies in Everyday Life PDF Author: Y. Strengers
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137267054
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book interrogates the global utopian vision for smart energy technologies and the new energy consumer intended to realise it. It enriches and extends the possibilities of four residential smart strategies: energy feedback, dynamic pricing, home automation and micro-generation, focusing on how they are being integrated into everyday practice.

Genetic Surveillance and Crime Control

Genetic Surveillance and Crime Control PDF Author: Helena Machado
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429537026
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 137

Get Book Here

Book Description
Genetic Surveillance and Crime Control presents a new empirical and conceptual framework for understanding trends of genetic surveillance in different countries in Europe and in other jurisdictions around the world. The use of DNA or genome for state-level surveillance for crime governance is becoming the norm in democratic societies. In the post-DNA, contemporary modes of criminal identification are gradually changing through the increasing expansion of transnational sharing of DNA data, along with the development of highly controversial genetic technologies that pose acute challenges to privacy and generate fears of discrimination, racism and stigmatization. Some questions that guide this book are: How is genetic surveillance in the governance of crime intertwined with society, ethics, culture, and politics? What are the views and expectations of diverse stakeholders –scientists, police agencies, and non-governmental organizations? How can social sciences research about genetic surveillance accommodate socio-cultural and historical differences, and be sensitive to specificities of post-authoritarian societies in Europe? Taking an interdisciplinary approach focused on challenges to genetic privacy, human rights and citizenship in contemporary societies , this book will be of interest to students and scholars of social studies of science and technology, sociology, criminology, law and policing, international relations and forensic sciences.

New Perspectives on Technology in Society

New Perspectives on Technology in Society PDF Author: Ibo van de Poel
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315468239
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 387

Get Book Here

Book Description
The development and introduction of a new technology to society can be viewed as an experimental process, full of uncertainties, which are only gradually reduced as the technology is employed. Unexpected developments may trigger an experimental process in which society must find new ways to deal with the uncertainties posed. This book explores how the experimental perspective determines what ethical issues new technologies raise and how it helps morally evaluate their introduction. Expert contributors highlight the uncertainties that accompany the process, identify the social and ethical challenges they give rise to, and propose strategies to manage them. Focusing on the introduction of new technologies and experimentation as ways to perceive new developments and changing contexts, a key theme of the book is how to approach the moral issues raised by new technology and understand the role of experimentation in exploring these matters.

Futures of Science and Technology in Society

Futures of Science and Technology in Society PDF Author: Arie Rip
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3658217545
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Get Book Here

Book Description
Longer-term developments shape the present and endogenous futures of institutions and practices of science and technology in society and their governance. Understanding the patterns allows diagnosis and soft intervention, often linked to scenario exercises. The book collects six articles offering key examples of this perspective, addressing ongoing issues in the governance of science and technology, including nanotechnology and responsible research and innovation. And adds two more articles that address background philosophical issues.

Technology and Society

Technology and Society PDF Author: Deborah G. Johnson
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262303388
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 853

Get Book Here

Book Description
An anthology of writings by thinkers ranging from Freeman Dyson to Bruno Latour that focuses on the interconnections of technology, society, and values and how these may affect the future. Technological change does not happen in a vacuum; decisions about which technologies to develop, fund, market, and use engage ideas about values as well as calculations of costs and benefits. This anthology focuses on the interconnections of technology, society, and values. It offers writings by authorities as varied as Freeman Dyson, Laurence Lessig, Bruno Latour, and Judy Wajcman that will introduce readers to recent thinking about technology and provide them with conceptual tools, a theoretical framework, and knowledge to help understand how technology shapes society and how society shapes technology. It offers readers a new perspective on such current issues as globalization, the balance between security and privacy, environmental justice, and poverty in the developing world. The careful ordering of the selections and the editors' introductions give Technology and Society a coherence and flow that is unusual in anthologies. The book is suitable for use in undergraduate courses in STS and other disciplines. The selections begin with predictions of the future that range from forecasts of technological utopia to cautionary tales. These are followed by writings that explore the complexity of sociotechnical systems, presenting a picture of how technology and society work in step, shaping and being shaped by one another. Finally, the book goes back to considerations of the future, discussing twenty-first-century challenges that include nanotechnology, the role of citizens in technological decisions, and the technologies of human enhancement.

The Routledge Social Science Handbook of AI

The Routledge Social Science Handbook of AI PDF Author: Anthony Elliott
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429582064
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 431

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Routledge Social Science Handbook of AI is a landmark volume providing students and teachers with a comprehensive and accessible guide to the major topics and trends of research in the social sciences of artificial intelligence (AI), as well as surveying how the digital revolution – from supercomputers and social media to advanced automation and robotics – is transforming society, culture, politics and economy. The Handbook provides representative coverage of the full range of social science engagements with the AI revolution, from employment and jobs to education and new digital skills to automated technologies of military warfare and the future of ethics. The reference work is introduced by editor Anthony Elliott, who addresses the question of relationship of social sciences to artificial intelligence, and who surveys various convergences and divergences between contemporary social theory and the digital revolution. The Handbook is exceptionally wide-ranging in span, covering topics all the way from AI technologies in everyday life to single-purpose robots throughout home and work life, and from the mainstreaming of human-machine interfaces to the latest advances in AI, such as the ability to mimic (and improve on) many aspects of human brain function. A unique integration of social science on the one hand and new technologies of artificial intelligence on the other, this Handbook offers readers new ways of understanding the rise of AI and its associated global transformations. Written in a clear and direct style, the Handbook will appeal to a wide undergraduate audience.