Nanotechnology and Public Engagement: A New Kind of (Social) Science?

Abstract

Nanotechnology is often framed as revolutionary, both within science and in the effects it will have on our lives. Increasingly, the relationship between nanotechnology and society is cast as a hallmark of this distinctiveness. In current debates concerning its governance and regulation nanotechnology is cast as an opportunity to ‘get things right’ and ‘avoid the mistakes of the past’. Recent emphasis on the responsible development of nanotechnology, for example, demonstrates the increasing incorporation of both ethics and public participation initiatives into nanotechnology research programmes. In this chapter we examine this trend, reviewing current research on the relations between laypeople and nanotechnology. We reflect on both quantitative and qualitative literatures as well as the broader difficulties of engaging with an emergent technology such as nano, ending by suggesting issues, problematics and challenges that future social science on public engagement with nanotechnology should engage with. Not least of these is the question of how to research public concerns about a technology that is ‘in-the-making’.