Good intentions: Expectations of benefit from technoscience innovation: genetic modification and wind energy in New Zealand A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury by Ronnie Cooper University of Canterbury August 2012 ii Abstract New developments in science and technology are promoted through projections of anticipated benefit that justify research, help secure funding and institutional, political and public support, and encourage technology diffusion. This thesis explores the strategic influence of constructs of expected benefit through analysis of the claims advanced for two technology fields in New Zealand: genetic modification and wind energy. The ways benefits are framed, and the kinds of returns and outcomes that are promoted, have major implications for technoscience. Some technology pathways and applications are supported and fostered, while others are rejected or marginalised. The “downstream” impacts and potential risks of scientific innovation have received extensive academic and policy analysis, while the benefits claimed for R&D and new technologies have largely been taken for granted. However, science and technology futures have recently been addressed in an emerging field of international scholarship – the sociology of expectations. This thesis follows technoscience trajectories back “upstream”, to better understand the work of benefit framings in legitimating and valorising innovation in two sectors in New Zealand. Understanding the dynamics of such optimistic projections is crucial for publics, interested groups, practitioners and policy-makers engaging with the challenges of contemporary technoscience. Keywords: Science; technology; innovation; expectations; benefits; genetic modification; wind energy; New Zealand. iii iv Acknowledgements So many people have helped me in so many ways through the thesis process. You all know what’s been involved, and how important it’s been to have your contributions, inspiration, patience and support – and all the magnificent distractions. In the past: Eva Stansbury; Peter Bartlett; Michael King; Jim Guthrie; John Klaricich; Murray Parsons; and Morgan Williams. In Wellington and on the Kapiti coast: Pam Vakidis; Ariana Te Aomarere and Te Waari Carkeek; Marie and Robert Cross; Russell Buchanan; Karen Cronin; and Wendy McGuinness. In Christchurch and North Canterbury: Dorothy McPhail and Graeme Jackson; Barbara and Graeme Nicholas; Lesley Hunt; Barbara Johnston and all the women in the BDS Group; Kay Bennett; Andrew King; Jeremy Ensor; Graeme Currie; Chris Grey, Ian Hughes and the various members of Jackson Travis; and all the other musicians who shared the stage and kept the beat. At the University of Canterbury: Joanna Goven; Carolyn Morris; Steve Weaver; Lucy Johnston; Fleur Hart and Viv Binney; Patricia Jordan; Jill Dolby and Denise Forbes; and my fellow postgrads in the Thesis Writers’ Group. In the interviews: All the scientists, engineers, and policy and business people who agreed to talk with me and generously shared their expertise and ideas. The core support team: Rosemary Du Plessis – unfailingly positive, encouraging, constructive, and insightful – the most wonderful principal supervisor a former policy-writer could have wished for. Richard Hindmarsh – my long-distance co-supervisor, who was ruthless with my more tortuous sentences, and kept on asking “so what?” And most of all, Slim Giles – who is always there more than 100 percent for whatever I’m doing, who brings out the best in me, and keeps everything real. My love and thanks to everyone – this wouldn’t have been possible without you. v vi Contents Page iii Abstract v Acknowledgements vii Contents xi Glossary xiii Prologue xiii Possums, science, and unanswered questions xvi Blokes in boiler suits and Bruno Latour 1 Chapter One – The benefits of science and technology 1 Introduction 4 The research problem 6 Addressing the research problem – sites of inquiry 9 Aims 10 Research questions 11 The neglect of benefit projections 11 The New Zealand context 13 Analysis and theory 17 Significance 18 Scope and focus 20 The thesis structure 23 Chapter Two – Frames and narratives 23 Introduction 24 Making meaning 32 Heterogeneity 36 Technoscience tales 36 The goose that lays golden eggs 41 Running with the Red Queen 44 Walking the line 47 Conclusion vii Page 49 Chapter Three – Strategies and positioning 49 Introduction 51 The work done by benefit projections 58 From flexibility to alignment and closure 65 Lock-in and inertia 67 Radical change 70 The imperative of imperatives 74 Conclusion 77 Chapter Four – The means to the end 77 Introduction 78 Framing the investigation 84 Sites of inquiry 87 Lost in a good book – the literatures and texts 93 Let’s give ‘em something to talk about – the interviews 101 Conclusion 103 Chapter Five – Gone with the wind 103 Introduction 105 You’ll be blown away 109 Green energy in New Zealand 113 Power structures 119 The dominance of “Big Wind” 127 Blowing in different directions 135 The weight of the status quo 138 Conclusion viii Page 141 Chapter Six – A brave new world 141 Introduction 144 Bigger than physics 151 “Big-bucks biology” in New Zealand 160 GM and the Red Queen 170 Greening GM 179 Conclusions 181 Chapter Seven – Patterns of association 181 Introduction 183 The “dark side” of benefit claims 185 The answer is blowin’ in the wind 189 Finding a “killer app” 195 Mixed benefits 203 Made in New Zealand? 211 When benefit claims are not enough 219 Conclusion 221 Chapter Eight – Somewhere over the rainbow? 229 References 265 Appendices 265 Appendix 1 – Interviews 269 Appendix 2 – Research outline sent to intervewees ix x Glossary AAT Alpha-1-antitrypsin protein AHB Animal Health Board ANT Actor Network Theory CDA Critical Discourse Analysis CEO Chief Executive Officer CF Cystic fibrosis CRI Crown Research Institute DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid EC Electricity Commission EECA Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority EPA Environmental Protection Authority ERMA Environmental Risk Management Authority FRST Foundation for Research, Science and Technology FSANZ Food Standards Australia New Zealand GM Genetic modification HSNO Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act Marae Meeting-places and buildings of a local Maori community MED Ministry of Economic Development MFE Ministry for the Environment MOBIE Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment MORST Ministry of Research, Science and Technology MS Multiple sclerosis MSI Ministry of Science and Innovation OIE Office International des Epizooties (animal health agency) PCE Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment R&D Research and development RCGM Royal Commission of Inquiry on Genetic Modification RSNZ Royal Society of New Zealand SEA Sustainable Electricity Association SOE State-owned enterprise Tangata whenua People of the land; Maori tribal communities Tb (Bovine) tuberculosis WEA Wind Energy Association xi xii Prologue Possums, science, and unanswered questions The origins of this thesis – and my focus on the claims of expected benefit that build support and legitimacy for science research and technological innovation – go back to questions that caught my attention more than a decade ago, in a very different context. From 1997 to 2004 I worked as Principal Investigator for the New Zealand Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE).1 One of the projects I led for the PCE was an inquiry into issues involved with the potential introduction of a radical new kind of technology – a controversial application of genetic modification (GM). This project explored the intended use of GM for biological control of the Australian brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), a major environmental pest in New Zealand; the biocontrols aimed to disrupt fertility and thus contribute to reducing possum numbers in the landscape (Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment 2000).2 Escalating public concerns and protest about GM, and about the wide dispersal of poisons for possum control, prompted the PCE’s interest. The debates at that time about the possible use of GM were fiercely intense. Public and policy-world engagement with GM in New Zealand and internationally was dominated by polarised politics that pitted advocates against opponents of the new technology. There were, however, a number of questions which received little attention in those early days of New Zealand’s engagement with GM; many issues were effectively eclipsed by more urgent concerns around risk and its management, regulation, consultation processes, and public involvement in policy and decision-making. As the PCE’s project team grappled with New Zealanders’ responses to the prospect of an invisible, self-disseminating biological technology that would shut down normal breeding and render its targets infertile, I kept coming back to some of the underlying questions that were not being explored in the immediate debate. My curiosity centred around the significance of the purposes and ideals driving development of a controversial new technology such as a GM biocontrol. The 1 The Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (www.pce.parliament.nz) is independent of the government of the day, reporting directly to Parliament through the Speaker of the House. Established under the Environment Act 1986, the PCE’s role is to monitor and assess the effectiveness of New Zealand’s systems for environmental management and sustainability, and to investigate and report on