Structure, Agency and Biotechnology

Aristeidis Panagiotou

Description

GM debate in the wider social, political, economic and cultural context

The overarching aim of “Structure, Agency, Biotechnology: The Case of the Rothamsted GM Wheat Trials” is to propose a way of filling the analytical gap found in the current literature by offering an original theoretical framework. This framework is able to assess both the content and context of the scientific field without resorting either to deterministic or to what theorists refer to as “conflationist strategies.” In order to demonstrate the heuristic value of the framework, the 2012 GM wheat field trials carried out by Rothamsted Research, often associated with the “second push” of agribiotech firms to bring Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) to the UK, areassessed, and key aspects of the experiment areunderscored. At the same time, the broader institutional arrangements, key ideological constructs and the social order are examined, and a reframing of the controversy which moves beyond the simplistic conceptualization of it being a case of science versus politics is suggested. The volume also proposes a clear set of guidelines, which stem from the methodological and theoretical deep structure of the suggested framework but do not demand prior theoretical knowledge, which can be used by a wider audience engaged with biotechnology. This audience can draw on the guidelines either for reasons of developing a critical understanding of particular situations or for initiating the process of sustained dialogue between involved parties. These two dimensions are of great significance for practical policy orientations.

Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; 1. A Holistic Approach to the GM Controversy; 2. Rethinking Science, Technology & Society Relations: Definitions, Boundaries and Underlying Theoretical Problems; 3. Science and Technology Studies: A Critical Overview of the Field; 4. Benton, Mouzelis, Stones: Some Key Advances in Contemporary Sociology; 5. A Holistic Framework for the Study of Agricultural Biotechnology 6. The Rothamsted GM Wheat Trials (I): Technology and Appropriation; 7. The Rothamsted GM Wheat Trials (II): Ideology; 8. What is the GM Controversy? Science, Politics and Prospects; 9. Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Social theory
• Public policy
• Social sciences

Informations

• Publié par: Anthem Press
• Date de parution: 03 juillet 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783087051
• Langue: English

Extrait

Structure, Agency and Biotechnology
Key Issues in Modern Sociology
This series publishes scholarly texts that give an accessible exposition of the major structural changes in modern societies. These volumes address an academic audience through their relevance and scholarly quality, and connect sociological thought to public issues. The series covers both substantive and theoretical topics, as well as addressing the works of major modern sociologists. The series emphasis is on modern developments in sociology with relevance to contemporary issues such as globalization, warfare, citizenship, human rights, environmental crises, demographic change, religion, postsecularism and civil conflict.
Series Editor
Peter Kivisto—Augustana College, USA
Editorial Board
Harry Dahms—University of Tennessee at Knoxville, USA
Thomas Faist—Bielefeld University, Germany
Anne Rawls—Bentley University, USA
Giuseppe Sciortino—University of Trento, Italy
Sirpa Wrende—University of Helsinki, Finland
Richard York—University of Oregon, USA
Structure, Agency and Biotechnology
The Case of the Rothamsted GM Wheat Trials
Aristeidis Panagiotou
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2017
by ANTHEM PRESS
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© Aristeidis Panagiotou 2017

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-703-7 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-703-X (Hbk)

This title is also available as an e-book.
For Dimitra
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations

List of Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

1. A Holistic Approach to the GM Controversy

2. Rethinking Science, Technology and Society Relations: Definitions, Boundaries and Underlying Theoretical Problems

3. Science and Technology Studies: A Critical Overview of the Field

4. Benton, Mouzelis, Stones: Some Key Advances in Contemporary Sociology

5. A Holistic Framework for the Study of Agricultural Biotechnology

6. The Rothamsted GM Wheat Trials (I): Technology and Appropriation

7. The Rothamsted GM Wheat Trials (II): Ideology

8. What is the GM Controversy? Science, Politics and Prospects

9. Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
4.1 The hierarchy of sciences and the order of higher- and lower-end mechanisms
4.2 The quadripartite cycle of structuration
5.1 The quadripartite cycle of structuration with the dimension of technology
5.2 The quadripartite cycle of structuration with the dimension of living organisms
6.1 Authorization of field trials according to EU legislation
6.2 The decision-making process in the EU
8.1 The basis of a consensus-based mediated dialogue
Tables
3.1 Key contributions of the four approaches together with suggested modifications
5.1 A typification of actors, levels of ontological scale and abstraction across the macro, meso and micro levels of analysis
5.2 The levels of ontological abstraction, scale and contextualization that the two frameworks can be applied to
5.3 The two frameworks and their respective ontological and methodological implications
6.1 Basic information about the GM wheat field trials
6.2 Estimated increase annual income if GM maize was planted across EU
6.3 Reported conflicts of interest at EFSA, 2010–12 (2010)
ABBREVIATIONS ABC Agricultural Biotechnology Council ACRE Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment ANT Actor-Network Theory BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council BIS Department for Business Innovation & Skills (UK Government) CSA Chief Scientific Adviser CST Council for Science and Technology DEFRA Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs EC European Commission EFSA European Food Safety Authority EPOR Empirical Program of Relativism EU European Union GMO(s) Genetically Modified Organism(s) ILSI International Life Science Institute IRGC International Risk Governance Council MEP Member of the European Parliament SCOT Social Construction of Technology ST Structuration Theory SSK Sociology of Scientific Knowledge SST Strong Structuration Theory STC Science and Technology Committee STS Science and Technology Studies TAI Technology, Appropriation, Ideology Scheme
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is a revised and considerably enriched version of my PhD thesis. As such, I would like to thank all the scholars who were involved in one way or another with this challenging and deeply gratifying process. Ted Benton, for guiding me through the rough seas of academic writing with profound dedication and calmness. Brian Wynne, for showing a keen interest in my writings and encouraging me to flesh out my arguments with greater confidence. Lydia Morris, for being equally supportive and for showing me how details can play a decisive role in the overall thrust of an argument. Bryan S. Turner, for being very sympathetic to this publishing endeavor from the very beginning, and for making me think of the whole GM problematic in more pragmatistic terms. Les Levidow, for the very thought-provoking and warm discussions we had across the various European capitals we encountered each other during the past couple of years. As a student, I was inspired by their writings, but it was meeting them in person that made all the difference.
I would especially like to thank Rob Stones for all the academic, mental and moral support he has so generously offered all these years. He has acted as a father figure to me, and I wouldn’t be writing these lines if not for his encouragement in the first place.
I would also like to thank Michael Biggs at Oxford University for teaching me how to be specific in my writings and ambitious in my goals. My deepest gratitude goes to the Sociology academics of the American College of Greece who instilled in me the principles of the discipline with remarkable clarity and ethos: Spyros Gangas, Tina Katsarou, Gregory Katsas, Georgia Lagoumitzi and Iordanis Psimmenos.
Finally, but by no means least, I would like to thank everyone at Anthem Press involved with this project, from proposal reviewing to typesetting. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the contribution of the two anonymous reviewers for helping make the overall organization of this book more efficient and the articulation of some arguments more effective.
This book is dedicated to my wife, Dimitra, for so graciously offering to put aside her own dreams and aspirations so that I could chase mine …
Chapter 1
A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO THE GM CONTROVERSY
The GM Controversy as a “Lightning Rod”
Over the past 20 years, biotechnology has gradually shifted from a paradigm of purely scientific research and experimentation to worldwide commercialization in a variety of industries, from agriculture and food production to chemicals and pharmaceuticals. While the rapidly expanding number of biotechnological applications and products has been met with skepticism or even fear, among consumers and public authorities, some societies, especially in North America, have proved to be more willing to accept the new technologies. In Britain and Europe, in general, genetically modified (GM) crops and food have become a cause célèbre among environmentalists and consumer protesters (Falkner 2000 , 300). On many occasions, GM food—also frequently called by activists as “GM pollution” or Gen-Müll (“genetic garbage”)—has been portrayed as an impurity contaminating science, agriculture, the environment and even democratic sovereignty. When the first US shipments containing GM soya and maize arrived at European ports in the fall of 1996, a concerted Europe-wide symbolic protest generated publicity around the fact that GM grain was entering processed food without labeling. Governments and agricultural biotechnology (agbiotech) companies were accused of “force-feeding [consumers] GM food” and, as a response, NGOs carried out surveillance of food products for “GM contamination.” Since then, the protest against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has ranged from symbolic moves with quasi-theatrical elements to resolute “decontamination” actions with potentially serious legal repercussions. 1 Regarded as a technology with effects of potentially apocalyptic dimensions, the phrase “GM-free” quite often has had connotations similar to those of “nuclear-free” in the 1980s (Levidow 2009 , 110).
Protests against GMOs have, however, never been strictly targeted toward GMOs per se; rather, they have always encompassed issues that stretch well beyond the particular locus of discontent. The anxieties about the safety of GMOs are certainly not the only issues in the GM controversy. Such concerns are “the entry point” for understanding what is at stake with GM technology and should be seen as “the start of the discussion rather than the end” (Scienc