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Assessing Genetic Technologies in Denmark

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Assessing Genetic Technologies in Denmark RAPPORT 2/2004 Marja Häyrinen-Alestalo Egil Kallerud (editors) Mediating Public Concern in Biotechnology A map of sites, actors and issues in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden 1 © Norwegian Institute for Studies in Research and Higher Education Hegdehaugsveien 31, N-0352 Oslo NIFU Rapportserie 2/2004 ISBN 82-7218-482-6 ISSN 0807-3635 For other publications from NIFU, see www.nifu.no 2 NIFU Rapport 2/2004 Preface This publication is the first report from the Nordic research project Changing Contexts for Mediating Public Concern in the Assessment of Technoscience. Public Responses to Genetic Technologies in the Nordic Countries (COMPASS). The pro- ject is headed by Margareta Bertilsson, Copenhagen University, Department of Sociology, Denmark. The other partners are: Andrew Jamison, Aalborg Univer- sity, Institute for Social Development and Planning, Denmark; Jesper Lassen, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Centre for Bioethics and Risk Assessment, Denmark; Marja Häyrinen-Alestalo and Karoliina Snell, Hel- sinki University, Department of Sociology, Finland; Egil Kallerud and Vera Schwach, Norwegian Institute for Studies in Research and Higher Education, Norway; Thomas Achen, Linköping University, Department of Environmental Science, Sweden; and Mark Elam, Gothenburg University, Department of Soci- ology, Sweden. The project is funded for a three year period (2002–2004) by the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and the So- cial Sciences (NOS-HS). This report documents the first exploratory steps towards an articulated comparative account of approaches and experiences in the Nordic countries concerning the political, economic, social and cultural responses to global, Eu- ropean and Nordic efforts in the appropriation and mediation of modern bio- technology. The national narratives included in this report will subsequently be supplemented with specific case studies on nationally important biotechnology issues, in order to provide windows with higher resolution on the project’s key research questions. This will in all provide material for a final effort of synthesis, through which a framework will be sought for the comparative characterisation of social processes of appropriation of genetic technologies in these Nordic countries. Oslo, March 2004 Petter Aasen Director 3 4 NIFU Rapport 2/2004 Innhold Introduction: Towards a Biotech Society – Nordic Perspectives ............ 7 Marja Häyrinen-Alestalo and Egil Kallerud Assessing Genetic Technologies in Denmark .......................................... 23 Andrew Jamison and Jesper Lassen Market Orientations and Mediation of Public Opinions in Finnish Biotechnology ...................................................................... 49 Marja Häyrinen-Alestalo and Karoliina Snell The Ambiguity of Progress – Biotechnology in Norway ......................... 83 Egil Kallerud Actors, Issues and Tendencies in Swedish Biotechnology ....................... 113 Thomas Achen 5 6 NIFU Rapport 2/2004 Introduction: Towards a Biotech Society – Nordic Perspectives Marja Häyrinen-Alestalo & Egil Kallerud Modern biotechnology as a source of societal destabilisation Biotechnology exhibits a generic and hybrid mode of knowledge production through which scientific advancements have opened applications in fields ran- ging from pharmaceuticals, medical diagnostics and therapy to agriculture, food production, aquaculture, forestry and environmental protection. Modern biotechnology is based on the methods to introduce, delete or exchange particu- lar traits in an organism either by inserting genes from another organism or by otherwise altering its structure. The rapidly advancing knowledge base with links to living organisms and ecosystems has produced new scientific discipli- nes such as genomics and bioinformatics and novel applications such as gene testing and regeneration of human organs and tissues (Inter-departmental Group on Modern Biotechnology 2000). The methodological development has dramatically expanded the technical-manipulative capabilities of bioscience, raising questions of the emergence of new asymmetries between nature and cul- ture/society. Therefore, aside from the hybrid knowledge base of these sciences there are hybrid realms that challenge the division of nature and society on which the theories of modernisation have been based (Bertilsson 2003). According to Lau, the new generic technologies may have destabilising ef- fects on the social and legal order (Bertilsson 2000: 9). During the last twenty ye- ars the main focus has been on information and communication technologies and on theories that explain the development of the new socio-economic order as an outcome of a knowledge-based, networked economy (e.g. Castells 1996; European Commission 2003). The networks are in turn seen to be functional when the formal national actors, such as the state, industries and the science sy- stem, work for common purposes. Even though there are claims that the new social order will also encompass the emergence of a networked democracy and growing citizen participation (Castells 2001), destabilisation primarily stands Introduction: Towards a Biotech Society – Nordic Perspectives 7 for increasing turbulence between the frames of national policy and the needs of global markets (Häyrinen-Alestalo 1999). Today new forms of governance and citizenship have been called for to di- minish uneven developments between economic, social and cultural structures of society. To be responsive to these demands, the networked economy should broaden its view of public participation. The social and cultural dimensions are also weak and limited in many ways. In the current political debate the discour- se of openness, transparency, participation and dialogue is pervasive. The strat- egies for active citizenship have, however, been primarily launched by the Eu- ropean Union and several individual nation-states in order to remobilise public interest in government policy and to rebuild citizen trust in this respect. There- fore there are tensions and ambiguities that fuse with the political ambitions to make biotechnology the «next wave of the knowledge-based economy» (Euro- pean Commission 2002: 3). Furthermore, the increasing destabilisation in the case of biotechnology points to a tension between the welfare promises of the biotech society and the uncertainties, risks and responsibilities that challenge the legitimacy of biosci- ence and its uses. Similar uncertainties and risks have become evident already in environmental issues (Jamison 2001). Both fields contain both the promise of positive potentials and the possibilities of unpredictable and negative conse- quences. Sand (2002) has pointed to the need of regulation and control mech- anisms that may make the justification process more future-oriented. As a rule, the control mechanisms have been used by the super-and nation-states together with international commercial and professional organisations to support mar- ket regulation and free competition, to harmonize the respective laws, to reduce risk, as well as to protect free individual choice, distributive justice and human health (CIOMS 2002; European Group on Ethics in Science and Technologies 2000). Despite the growth of specialised scientific knowledge available for use in risk evaluation, the knowledge base of bioscience has a high degree of comple- xity. On the other hand there can be only degrees or different forms of risk, and the zero risk and full safety are not possible (Byrne 2002). Being also sensitive to commercial and public concern specialised bioscience knowledge is continu- ously changing and therefore non-stabilised. Non-stabilisation in turn indicates that the government organisations tend to act strategically and with precaution rather than legalistically and according to specific rules. Moreover, the expanding manipulative capabilities of biotechnology lay bare tensions and contradictions between the norms of objectivity and truth-value of 8 NIFU Rapport 2/2004 science, its ethical standards and the moral conceptions of right and wrong (Häyrinen-Alestalo 2003). In fact, the growing public concern and distrust in the achievements of biotechnology demonstrates processes that are characte- ristic of disorganised knowledge (Bertilsson 2002). Disorganised knowledge is an outcome of a decentralisation process during which the pressure to open the scientific and political systems to public engagement becomes visible and com- peting forms of understanding call for a new dialogue between scientists and the wider public. In many respects, the problems of disorganised knowledge have already been identified in the case of green knowledge, where the diversification of the know- ledge making processes and the need for participatory forms of action in dealing with environmental issues is much in evidence (Jamison 2001). Both disorgani- sed and green knowledge question the pragmatic and deterministic ideas of market regulation and the old models of governance. Especially in relation to new genetic technologies a shift «from government to governance», responding to the demand for horizontal modes of communication and structures of power and for new forums of public consultation and response mediation, is clearly called for. Public consultation does not, however, necessarily provide means for solving ethical problems. Bertilsson (2003) points out, in reference to Rose, how modified nature enables further interventions into individual bodily disposi- tions. Therefore
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