Emerging Technologies

From Hindsight to Foresight

Edited by Edna F. Einsiedel

• $32.95s paperback (9780774815499) Add to Cart
• hardcover not available

• Published: August 2009
• Subject Listing: Communication, Technology
• Bibliographic information: 328 pp., 6 x 9 in.
• Territorial rights: U.S. rights only
• Distributed for: UBC Press
• Contents

New technologies emerge all the time. Some technologies, however, are transformative: they introduce new forms of control, both through formal systems of regulation and by informally shaping our behavior. They have profound impacts and are often disruptive; they affect the way we work and play; they influence our mobility and lifestyle. They offer hope and possibility while introducing new fears and unintended consequences.

Too often our social reactions to new technologies occur only in hindsight, after the technology has penetrated the marketplace. However, recent experience teaches that much may be gained by practising forethought and foresight. Contributors to this collection examine the development, impact, and governance of new technologies emerging from a variety of fields, including biotechnology, genetics, stem cell research, pharmacology, and nanotechnology.

Edna F. Einsiedel is University Professor and professor of communication studies at the University of Calgary.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Making Sense of Emerging Technologies / Edna F. Einsiedel

Part 1: Hindsight Learnings
1. GM Foods in Hindsight / William Hallman
2. Patentable Subject Matter: Who Owns What Knowledge? / Chika B. Onwuekwe
3. Patents in the Public Sphere: Public Perceptions and Biotechnology Patents / Edna F. Einsiedel

Part 2: Foresight Applications
(Transgenic) Animal Farm
4. Of Biotechnology and Blind Chickens / Paul B. Thompson
5. Transgenic Salmon: Regulatory Oversight of an Anticipated Technology / Emily Marden, Holly Longstaff, and Ed Levy

Fields of Pharmas: Plant Molecular Farming
6. The Emerging Technology of Plant Molecular Farming / Michele Veeman
7. Policy and Regulatory Challenges for Plant-Made Pharmaceuticals in the United States / Patrick A. Stewart
8. Forestalling Liabilities? Stakeholder Participation and Regulatory Development / Stuart Smyth

In the Stem Cell Fields
9. When Human Dignity Is Not Enough: Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning in Canada / Tania Bubela and Timothy Caulfield

Drugs - Up Close and Personal: Engaging Pharmacogenomics
10. Banking on Trust: Issues of Informed Consent in Pharmacogenetic Research / Rose Geransar
11. Pharmacogenomic Promises: Reflections on Semantics, Genohype, and Global Justice / Bryn Williams-Jones and Vural Ozdemir
12. Envisioning Race and Medicine: BiDil and the Insufficient Match between Social Groups and Genotypes / Benjamin R. Bates

Is Small Really Beautiful? Does Size Matter? Nanotechnologies
13. Nanotechnology and Human Imagination / Susanna Hornig Priest
14. Nanotechnology: The Policy Challenges / Lorraine Sheremeta

Part 3: Governance Challenges and Emerging Technologies
15. Technology, Democracy, and Ethics: Democratic Deficit and the Ethics of Public Engagement / Michael Burgess and James Tansey
16 Impact Assessments and Emerging Technologies: From Precaution to "Smart Regulation"? / Jacopo Torriti
17. Technology Ownership and Governance: An Alternative View of IPRs / Peter W. B. Phillips
18. Conclusion: Reflections on Emerging Technologies / Edna F. Einsiedel

List of Contributors
Index