Lexington Books
Pages: 206
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-0-7391-7054-0 • Hardback • February 2012 • $108.00 • (£83.00)
978-0-7391-7055-7 • eBook • February 2012 • $102.50 • (£79.00)
Jeff Morris is a Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholar and environmental protection professional.
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Risk, Regulatory Science, and Nanotechnology
Chapter 3. Language and Nanotechnology
Chapter 4. Power and Its Grip on Environmental Discourse
Chapter 5. Implications for Environmental Risk Debates
Chapter 6. Conclusions and Proposed Path Forward
Appendix. Charts Describing How Statements Can Be Organized
Bibliography
This book fills an important, but seldom explored, space between risk science and analysis, Science and Technology Studies, ethics, and public policy associated with the products of emerging technologies in the environment. Dr. Morris is both a scholar and practitioner, and as such, he carefully and insightfully calls for a paradigm shift in formulating regulatory policy for emerging technologies…I hope that policy makers, interested publics, and scholars alike will read this book to help us guide the future of emerging technologies in the environment.
— Jennifer Kuzma, Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy; Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
Jeffrey Morris, occupying a unique position at the intersection of government action and scholarly reflection, argues that a discursive and formal “risk regime” formed in the age of chemicals is ill suited to address the possible health and environmental risks posed by nanotechnology. His deft discourse analysis of the still-emerging nanotechnology risk regime is informed by direct experience, careful observation, and a subtle understanding of the role of quantitative regulatory science in shaping how we grapple with fundamental questions of risk, power, and democratic governance. Morris’s argument for a new and more reflexive discourse on risk and benefits before the existing regime is extended to nanotechnology by default commands our immediate attention.
— Christopher Bosso, Northeastern University