Technology and public participation Brian Martin, editor

Joe S. Epley, “Public relations in the global village: an American perspective,” Public Relations Review, Vol. 18, No. 2, 1992, p. 111.

0 . Stuart V. Price, “Learning to remove fear from radioactive waste,” Public Relations Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 3, 1994, p. 33.

0 . Ibid.

0 . James Lindheim, “Restoring the image of the chemical industry,” Chemistry and Industry, Vol. 15, No. 7, August 1989, p. 493.

0 . Ibid., p. 492.

0 . Ibid., p. 493.

0 . Ibid., p. 494.

0 . E. W. Brody, “The domain of public relations,” Public Relations Review, Vol. 18, No. 4, 1992, p. 352.

0 . Joint Taskforce on Intractable Waste, “Disposal Options For Intractable Waste, Information Brochure” (Commonwealth, NSW and Victorian Governments, 1990).

0 . Joint Taskforce on Intractable Waste, 1990, “Final Phase 3 Report,” op. cit., p. A4/3.

0 . Ibid., p. A4/4.

0 . Public meeting, Corowa, 2 October 1990.

0 . “Corowa now ruled out for incinerator,” Sydney Morning Herald, 27 November 1990, p. 3.

0 . S. Krimsky and A. Plough, Environmental Hazards: Communicating Risks as a Social Process (Massachusetts: Auburn House Publishing Company, 1988), p. 6.

0 . See for example E. Mealey, “Dilemma over toxic dump site,” Sun-Herald, 29 January 1989; P. Bailey, “Greens split over toxic waste burner,” Sydney Morning Herald, 26 September 1990; editorial, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 March 1991.

0 . Michael Pollack, “Public Participation,” in H. Otway and M. Peltu (eds.), Regulating Industrial Risks (London: Butterworths, 1985), p. 82.

0 . Ibid., pp. 80-81; David Dickson, The New Politics of Science (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984), p. 220.

0 * Gavan McDonell, of the School of Science and Technology Studies at the University of New South Wales, holds qualifications in engineering, economics and political sociology and has been a policy adviser, consultant and executive in some 40 countries. He was recently awarded the D Eng by the University of Queensland for a thesis on his work in the social, economic and political aspects of environmental infrastructure. He supervises the Environmental Studies program at the University of New South Wales.

0 . For a discussion of this in relation to the same initiative, and which pursues some of the issues noted below, see Gavan McDonell, “Scientific and everyday knowledge: trust and the politics of environmental initiatives,” Social Studies of Science, Vol. 27, No. 6, December 1997, pp. 819-863.

0 . For example, Robyn Eckersley, Environmentalism and Political Theory: Toward an Ecocentric Approach (London: UCL Press, 1992); John Dryzek, “Ecology and discursive democracy: beyond liberal capitalism and the administrative state,” Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 18-42; Verena Andermatt Conley, Ecopolitics: The Environment in Poststructuralist Thought (London: Routledge, 1997).

0 . For example, Luc Ferry, Le Nouvel Ordre Écologique: L’arbre, L’animal, L’homme, translated as The New Ecological Order (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).

0 . One of the earliest to point this out was Volker Ronge, “Risks and the waning of compromise in politics,” in H. Kunreuther and E. Leys (eds.), The Risk Analysis Controversy: An Institutional Perspective (Berlin/New York: Springer-Verlag, 1982), pp. 115-125.

0 * Ben Selinger is Professor of Chemistry at the Australian National University.

0 * Rhonda Roberts is a lecturer in Science and Technology Studies, University of Wollongong.

0 . For more details see R. Roberts, “Managing innovation: the pursuit of competitive advantage and the design of innovation intense environments,” Research Policy, Vol. 27, No. 2, 1998, pp. 161-177.

0 . This rise has been noted by many including J. Utterback, “Innovation and corporate strategy,” International Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 1, Nos. 1/2, 1986, pp. 119-132; R. Rothwell, “Developments towards the fifth generation model of innovation,” Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1992, p. 75.

0 . Of course the management of technological change has long been identified as a source of national strength. Recent phenomena such as the use of R&D indicators by the OECD have formalised and quantified the connection.

0 . Michael Porter’s work, in particular his book The Competitive Advantage of Nations (New York: Macmillan, 1990), has been considered by many as a major summary of factors leading to national industrial strength.

0 . J. A. Schumpeter, Business Cycles: A Theoretical, Historical and Statistical Analysis of the Capitalist Process (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1939).

0 . P. Hall, Innovation, Economics and Evolution: Theoretical Perspectives on Changing Technology in Economic Systems (New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1994), p. 18.

0 . J. Annerstedt, “The global R&D system: where is the third world?,” in J. Annerstedt and A. Jamison (eds.), From Research Policy to Social Intelligence (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1988), pp. 129-141, at p. 134.

0 . Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce, Australian Science and Innovation Resources Brief 1992: Measures of Science and Innovation 3 (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1992), p. 9.

0 . See R. Reich, The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for Twentieth Century Capitalism (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991).

0 . R. R. Nelson, National Innovation Systems (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 3.

0 . Reich, op. cit.; F. Jevons, “Who wins from innovation?” Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, Vol. 4, No. 4, 1992, pp. 399-412.

0 . Intrepreneur is the term generally used to refer to those staff members who operate as entrepreneurs within the structure of a large firm, in the service of that firm.

0 . B. Hessen, “The social and economic roots of Newton’s Principia,” in N. Bukharin et al., Science at the Cross Roads (London: Cass, 1973). Originally published in 1931.

0 . E. F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered (London: Blond and Briggs, 1973).

0 . This draws on Rostow’s classic stages of “development” as described in W. W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964).

0 . R. Williams and D. Edge, “The social shaping of technology,” Research Policy, Vol. 25, 1996, pp. 865-899, at p. 867.

0 . Judy Wajcman “Technology a/genders,” in L. Green and R. Guinery (eds.), Framing Technology: Society, Choice and Change (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1994), pp. 3-14.

0 . H. Appleton “Gender, technology and innovation,” Appropriate Technology, Vol. 20, No. 2, September 1993, pp. 6-8.

0 . Whether the present forms of IIEs (also known as high-technology incubators) can be judged as working in any absolute sense is another question. See R. Roberts “‘Translating’ the MFP: national innovation ‘problems,’ high technology incubators and Australia-Japan relations,” Prometheus, Vol. 14, No. 2, December 1996, pp. 207-232.

0 . A prime example is R. Miller and M. Cote, “Growing the next Silicon Valley,” in T. Forester (ed.), Computers in the Human Context: Information Technology, Productivity and People (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989), pp. 470-480.

0 See Roberts, 1998, op. cit.

0 The form and functioning of IIEs cannot be adequately understood without reference to the social context in which they are designed. See Roberts, 1996, op. cit.

0 . Edward Blakely, an international IIE design consultant, emphasises the importance of this aspect, stating that the “real race is over the control of information not the use.” E. J. Blakely, “The new technology city: infrastructure for the future community,” in J. Brotchie et al., Cities of the 21st Century: New Technologies and Spatial Systems (London: Longman-Cheshire, 1991) p. 230.

0 * Andy Monk recently completed a PhD in Science and Technology Studies, University of Wollongong, on the topic of sustainability and food production in Australia with a special emphasis on the organic movement. He has a wide ranging interest in the food industry and co-founded Australian Green Growers, a network of farms marketing and producing under organic standards.

0 . B. Latour, Science in Action (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1987), p. 232.

0 . See T. Bayliss-Smith and S. Wanmali (eds.), Understanding Green Revolutions: Agrarian Change and Development in South Asia. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984). This has particularly been the case for sub Saharan Africa, where irrigation was often lacking. The new high yielding varieties of the green revolution are reliant upon optimal applications of synthetic fertiliser and pesticides to attain the higher yields they were bred for. Where these are lacking, yields have suffered.

0 . B. Roberts, The Quest for Sustainable Land Use (Sydney: UNSW Press, 1995); J. Pretty, Regenerating Agriculture: Policies and Practice for Self Reliance (Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press, 1995).

0 . Ecologically Sustainable Development Working Group on Agriculture, Final Report—Agriculture (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1991).

0 . E. Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

0 . G. Hardin, “The tragedy of the commons,” Science, Vol. 162, 1968, pp. 1243-1248.

0 . Ostrom, op. cit.

0 . A. Campbell, Landcare—Communities Shaping the Land and the Future (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1994).

0 . R. Wilkinson and A. Carr, “Convergence of scientific and farmer knowledge,” Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science, conference paper, Melbourne University, 1996; Pretty, op. cit.; L. Cosgrove, D. Evans and D. Yencken, Restoring the Land: Environmental Values, Knowledge and Action (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1994).

0 . The Mallee-based Birchip group of farmers is exemplary in this regard.

0 . S. Wright, Molecular Politics: Developing American and British Regulatory Policy for Genetic Engineering 1972-1982 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); R. Hindmarsh, D. Burch and D. Hulsman, “Biotechnology in Australia: issues of control, collaboration and sustainability,” Prometheus, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1991, pp. 221-248.

0 . B. Senauer and J. Kinsey, Food Trends and the Changing Consumer (Minnesota: Eagan Press, 1991).

0 . Consumers’ Federation of Australia, The Right to Safe Food (Canberra: CFA, 15 March 1991).

0 . C. Plant and J. Plant, Green Consumerism: Hope or Hoax? (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1991).

0 . S. Beder, The Nature of Sustainable Development (Newham, Australia: Scribe, 1993).

0 . Wright, op. cit.

0 . E. Wynen, “Research implications of a paradigm shift in agriculture,” Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, 1996.

0 . The optimal approach should be a recurrent realisation that technological decisions are able to be repealed and technological trajectories modified to suit social interests and needs. Given this, we should always be extra cautious in policy decisions, or lack of decisions, which encourage the use of technologies which might have irrevocable or ongoing impact.

0 * Dr Richard Hindmarsh is an environmental social scientist based at Griffith University’s School of Australian Environmental Studies. Working on genetic engineering issues for over a decade, he is currently preparing the first reader on the Australian biotechnology debate, as well as researching holistic technology assessment modelling for a sustainable future.

0 . B. Wynne, “Redefining the issues of risk and public acceptance,” Futures, February 1983, pp. 13-32, at p. 18.

0 . For example, in the case of genetic engineering, see R. Hindmarsh, “Bio-policy translation in the public terrain,” in G. L. Lawrence et al. (eds.), Social Change in Rural Australia (Rockhampton: Central Queensland University, 1996), Ch. 23.

0 . Multinational Monitor On-Line, “Greenwash Awards,” 1996.

0 . “Organic focus: expanding supply and demand,” International Agricultural Development, Vol. 16, No. 6, 1996, p. 23.

0 * Gyorgy Scrinis is completing his PhD on social theories of technology in the History and Philosophy of Science Department at the University of Melbourne, and is the author of Colonizing the Seed: Genetic Engineering and Techno-Industrial Agriculture (Friends of the Earth, 1995).

0 * Alan Marshall has a first degree from the University of Wolverhampton, UK, and a second from the Institute of Development Studies, Massey University, New Zealand. He recently completed a PhD in Science and Technology Studies at the University of Wollongong where his interests revolve around the political sociology of space development and the politics and sociology of environmentalism. Works by him on these subjects adorn both reputable and disreputable periodicals.

0 . J. C. Mankins, “Space technology in the coming century: where next?” Ad Astra, Vol. 8, No. 3, 1996, pp. 48-51. The accompanying quote comes from p. 51.

0 . For example, the National Space Society and the Planetary Society in the US, the British Interplanetary Society in the UK and the National Space Society of Australia.

0 . Many proponents for advanced space development would probably cite the considerable interest in space exploration declared by members of the public during polls conducted by various space advocacy groups. Asked if they were interested in space they may have said yes but when asked to rank how important the space programme is compared to other issues the polls may have suggested something significantly different.

0 . For example the Pacific Rocket Society in the US, AspireSpace in the UK and ASRI (Australian Space Research Institute) in Australia.

0 . For explorations into the ideas and plans of space frontierists see: W. von Braun, Space Frontier (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967, rev. ed.); T. A. Heppenheimer, Colonies in Space (Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Press, 1977); G. H. Stine, Handbook for Space Colonists (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985); National Commission on Space, Pioneering the Space Frontier (New York: Bantam Books, 1986); J. E. Oberg and A. R. Oberg, Pioneering Space: Living on the Next Frontier (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986); M. A. Michaud, Reaching for the High Frontier (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1987); R. Zubrin, “The need for a space frontier,” Ad Astra, Vol. 8, No. 3, 1996, pp. 6-9; L. H. LaRouche, “Why we must colonize Mars,” 21st Century Science and Technology, Vol. 9, No. 4, 1996, pp.16-29. As an example of the frontierist zeal of these—and many other—writers, see how Robert Zubrin, in one short paragraph, neatly ties space frontierism in with social freedom, universal human happiness, the discovery of America, European expansionism, United States history and the rationalism and humanitarian progress that underlies western humanism: “Free societies are the exception in human history, they have only existed in the four centuries of frontier expansion of the West. That history is now over, the frontier that was opened by the voyage of Christopher Columbus is now closed. If the era of western humanist society is not to be seen by future historians as some kind of transitory golden age, a brief shining moment in an otherwise endless chronicle of human misery, then a new frontier must be opened.” (R. Zubrin, “The promise of Mars,” Ad Astra, Vol. 8, No. 3, 1996, p. 38).

0 . Treaty on Principles Covering the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and other Celestial Bodies, United Nations Treaty Series, Vol. 610.

0 . Included in a list of those nations most capable of exploiting solar system resources in the near future would be the US, Russia, Japan and the collective nations of Western Europe. It is mostly in these nations that plans to actualise resource exploitation programmes are prepared. Included in a list of prospective space industrialists would be the following companies (all of whom have either initiated or sponsored studies about the industrialisation of solar system bodies): Aerospatiale, Bechtel Power Corp, Boeing/McDonnel-Douglas, DLR, Energia, General Dynamics, Lockheed-Martin, Rockwell and Shimizu.

0 . The idea that solar system development will reflect many of the features associated with previously theorised models of imperialism is explored in: A. Marshall, “Development and imperialism in space,” Space Policy, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1995, pp. 41-52.

0 . W. K. Hartmann, “The resource base in our solar system,” Interstellar Migration and the Human Experience, in B. R. Finney and E. M. Jones (eds.) (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).

0 . For instance see: D. J. O’Donnell and P. R. Harris, “Is it time to amend or replace the Moon Treaty?” Air and Space Lawyer, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1994, pp. 121-143; E. R. Finch and Al More, Astrobusiness: A Guide to Commerce and Law of Outer Space (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1984).

0 . Treaty on Principles Covering the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and other Celestial Bodies. United Nations Treaty Series, Vol. 610.

0 . See M. Benko and K. U. Schrogl (eds.), International Space Law in the Making (Gif-sur-Yvette: Editions Fronteires, 1993); and N. Jasentuliyana, “Ensuring equal access to the benefits of space technologies for all countries,” Space Policy, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1994, pp. 7-18. Those nations that have campaigned for augmentation of the Outer Space Treaty include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Uruguay and Venezuela.

0 . This exposes one particular parallel between Euro-American frontierism of the past and space frontierism of the future that space expansionists have yet to elucidate: that of the betrayal of Treaty agreements with other peoples by the colonising state.

0 . This scepticism seems credible given the recent UN Declaration (51/122) on “International Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for the Benefit and in the Interest of All States, Taking into Particular Account the Needs of Developing Countries,” which seems more interested in advertising space applications as a tool for development in developing countries than a concerted effort to lay out space-benefit distribution plans.

0 * Dr. Robert Zubrin is an astronautical engineer and a former Executive Chairman of the National Space Society. He is founder and president of Pioneer Astronautics, a space technology R&D company, and author of the book The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must.

0 . Sherry R. Arnstein, “A ladder of citizen participation,” AIP Journal, July 1969, pp. 216-224.

0 . Carl Mitcham, “Justifying public participation in technical decision making,” IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 1997, pp. 40-46.

0 . Mauk Mulder, “Power equalization through participation?” Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 1, March 1971, pp. 31-38.

0 . Langdon Winner, Autonomous Technology: Technics-Out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1977).

0 . Donald MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman (eds.), The Social Shaping of Technology: How the Refrigerator Got its Hum (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1985).

0 . For a critique of the fashionable constructivist agenda, see Langdon Winner, “Upon opening the black box and finding it empty: social constructivism and the philosophy of technology,” Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 18, No. 3, Summer 1993, pp. 362-378.

0 . Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality (London: Calder & Boyars, 1973). See also Godfrey Boyle, Peter Harper and the editors of Undercurrents (eds.), Radical Technology (London: Wildwood House, 1976). There is a close link between the concept of convivial technology and the more widely known “appropriate technology.”

0 . Ivan D. Illich, Energy and Equity (London: Calder & Boyars, 1974).