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‘Don’t make nanotechnology sexy, ensure its benefits, and be neutral’: Studying the logics of new intermediary institutions in ambiguous governance contexts

Åm, Heidrun
Journal article, Peer reviewed
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URI
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/284779
Date
2013-08-04
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Original version
Science and Public Policy 2013, 40(4):466-478   10.1093/scipol/sct054
Abstract
This paper suggests a new theoretical approach to study intermediary institutions,

particularly intermediary institutions at the science policy nexus. These intermediary

institutions that have a mediating role between science and politics have often been

approached from the perspective of ‘boundary organizations’. But this model, that

incorporates assumptions of principal-agent theory, is not fit for capturing case studies (of

intermediary institutions) in ambiguous governance contexts. I argue that to understand new

intermediary institutions, we need a new theoretical vocabulary to grasp how intermediary

institutions emerge and how they work in practice. For example, discourses such as

‘responsible development of innovation’ can sediment in new institutional settings, including

for example new monitoring and observatory institutions. However, there is a lack of systemic

studies of the material implications that the rise of these new governance actors –such as

intermediary institutions—has for governing emerging technologies. This paper addresses

this gap by analysing the shortcomings of a nanotechnology observatory project. Along the

example of this observatory institution for nanotechnology, I will show that political

discourse theory allows us to explain critically the conditions of possibility for the emergence

of such institutions. Complemented with actor-network theory, these anti-essentialising

approaches help us to see the materiality ofintermediary governance actors.
Description
This is the authors accepted and refereed manuscript to the article. Locked until 2015-08-04
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Journal
Science and Public Policy

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