Abstract
Knowledge is a form of power, but power for those who deploy it, not create it. New technoscientific programs, such as nanotechnology, are crucial realms for democratizing society since they aren’t ‘locked-in’ through technological momentum and because they are sites of cultural and technological production, which is another important form of power. Science and technology in the early 21st Century are mainly shaped by market (profit) and military priorities. Sometimes within these new areas, resistance to these pressures produces new ways of understanding how science and technology can contribute to a just and sustainable future. In nanotechnology research this tension can be seen in the various codes promulgated for its regulation. It is also clear in such theories and practices as cyborg citizenship, hybrid imagination, scientists’ social responsibility and activism, prefigurative practices such as art and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and Do-It-Together (DIT) organizing and the democracy and technology movement. They reveal how the development of nanotechnologies and the nanosciences can lead not just to new inventions and medical treatments, but to stronger democracy as well.
Highlights
Knowledge is a form of power, but power for those who deploy it, not create it
As nanotechnology has grown as a brand, there has been an increasing focus on codes for nanotechnology research
At the center of these interventions, which go to the heart of knowledge production in ways that earlier reforms did not, are challenges to the meanings of key terms in the discourses that mobilize and deploy the power that comes from the discovery of new ways of manipulating nature
Summary
It is possible to evolve societies in which people live in greater freedom, exert greater influence on their circumstances, and experience greater dignity, selfesteem, purpose, and well-being. The way societal decisions are made, can be dictatorial (by an individual or small elite) or through a more participatory process broadly considered democratic, where large numbers of members of that society have the power to contribute to the decision-making process as citizens These new forms must be developed in the context of what functioning democracy we have, for no credible alternatives are on offer. Especially new conceptions of citizenship (Gray, 2001; Isin, 1997), argue that all the key institutions in society need to be democratized as well, especially universities and corporations These two institutions are relevant here because, along with government, they are the producers of most formalized knowledge, including the practical understandings behind emerging technologies.
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