What is Medialogy?

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Hubris and HybridsOn the Cultural Assessment
of Nanotechnology
Andrew Jamison
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An Essential Tension

• hubris impious disregard of the limits
  governing human action in an orderly universe
• hybrids offspring of parents that differ in
  genetically determined traits

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Hubris and Hybrids in ST

• atomic energy appropriate technology
• IT, biotech sustainability
• entrepreneurship public participation
• foresight cultural assessment
• technoscience green knowledge

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What is nano?

• as hubris
• an example of technoscience
• a creation of entrepreneurship
• as hybrids
• a dimension of green knowledge
• in need of public participation

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Dealing with the Tension

• educating phronesis, or moral judgment
• telling stories of appropriation
• focusing on contexts of use
• providing a cultural assessment of ST
• making STS matter

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Cultural Appropriation

• At a discursive, or macro level
• structural and cognitive transformations
• At an organizational, or meso level
• processes of institutionalization
• At a personal, or micro level
• practices of habituation and use

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Discursive Appropriations

• Protestantism and the mechanical philosophy
• Positivism, marxism, evolutionary theory
• Science The Endless Frontier
• The knowledge economy vs sustainability

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Organizational Appropriations

• From movements.... to institutions
• The Reformation Modern Science
• The Enlightenment Democracy
• Socialism Welfare State
• Computer Lib The Internet
• Environmentalism Green Knowledge

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The Age of Technoscience

• blurring discursive boundaries
• between science (epistem) and technology (techne)
  
• breaking down institutional borders
• between public and private, economic and academic
  
• mixing skills and knowledge
• across faculties, disciplines, and societal
  domains

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From Science to Technoscience

• change in range and scope
• market orientation, global reach
• university-industry collaboration
• epistemic drift (Elzinga)
• the state as strategist picking the winners

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From Science to Research

• from doing experiments to doing business
• product-oriented, or commercial research
• from providing expertise to governing
• project-oriented, or governance research
• from enlightening to empowering
• problem-oriented, or advocacy research

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Contending Discourses

• commercial research hubris goes to market
• - globalization, competitiveness, innovation
• governance research controlling hubris
• - welfare, employment, equality, construction
• advocacy research the hybrid imagination
• global justice, scientific citizenship,
  sustainability

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Contending Institutions

• commercial research
• - innovation networks, patent systems, markets
• governance research
• - state agencies, regulations, policies, laws
• advocacy research
• - civic organizations, public education,
  assessment

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Contending Identities

• commercial research
• - academic entrepeneurs, market researchers
• governance research
• - expert consultants, policy researchers
• advocacy research
• - activist academics, action researchers

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Cultural Assessment of ST

• challenging the hype and the myths reflection
• and giving voice to the critics
• building bridges, making spaces mediation
• between cultures and subcultures
• doing change-oriented research engagement
• studying cultural appropriation in action

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Cultural Assesment of Nanotechnology

• public debate and dialogue
• challenging the hype, qualifying the hope
• telling stories of appropriation and alternatives
  
• educational initiatives and reform
• transcending faculty and disciplinary boundaries
• giving contextual courses, fostering public
  educators
• practical activities
• public information programs and local experiments
• interactive media and communication techniques

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The Hybrid Imagination

• At the discursive level green nano
• connecting problems and solutions
• At the institutional level
• creating contexts of mediation
• At the practical/personal level
• project and problem-based learning