The book Consumers and Nanotechnology. Deliberative Processes and Methodologies, edited by our GoNano partner Pål Strandbakken, Gerd Scholl and Eivind Stø, was published by the Singapore based publisher Pan Stanford Publishing in 2013. In 2020, the publisher wants Strandbakken to produce a new edition of the book, supplementing the old one with novel chapters on recent developments in this rather diverse field.
The book was mainly based on work done in the EU 7th Framework Programme “Science in Society” project Nanoplat: Development of a Platform for Deliberative Processes on Nanotechnology in the European Consumer Market, plus a Norwegian Research Council project on deliberations and democracy. The main observation from the projects and the book is that deliberations have changed significantly from 2004 to (then) 2012; described by the editors as a succession of “generations”. The book empirically identified the transition from a first to a second generation, and theoretically pointed to a desired third generation. The generational perspective covered the employment of resources (time, money, expertise), the degree of specificity and relation to the political system.
The new material for the upcomming edition comes from SIFO – Consumption Research Norway’s engagement in further European projects. From the NanoDiode project, we present the theoretical and empirical experiments with the aforementioned third generation of deliberative processes (3GDP), from Strenght2Food we review a version of hybrid forums called HF 2.0 and from GoNano there is a presentation of the so called Co-creation methodology; exemplified with one national process. All these approaches aim in different ways at facilitating broader social engagement in the development of science and technology and at holding researchers/research institutions accountable.
Consumers and Nanotechnology. Deliberative Processes and Methodologies is available on Amazon