LamprouMemo16

Memo 16 This study will be based on data collected through participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and analysis of policy documents. More specifically ethnographic interviews will be conducted with stakeholders that participate in policy making procedures: scientists, policy makers, and members of various organizations in the US and the EU. In the US interviews will be conducted with key actors in EPA, National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), Working Groups of the NSET Subcommittee: Global Issues in Nanotechnology Working Group (GIN) Nanotechnology Environmental & Health Implications Working Group (NEHI), Nanomanufacturing, Industry Liaison, & Innovation Working Group (NILI), Nanotechnology Public Engagement & Communications Working Group (NPEC), and ANSI-NSP. In the EU interviews will be conducted with actors that play a key role in the European Commission Nanotechnology Policy and European Commission DG Health and Consumer Protection / Annual Nanotechnology Safety for Success Dialogue Workshops. Participant observation will be conducted in the procedures of the ANSI-NSP and the EU Workshop, while analysis of policy documents will be conducted in all sites publications. Focusing on various policy bodies in the United States, and the European Commission and its bodies in the EU, this study will contribute to the empirical record of ways that different policy cultures precede and develop policies in the US and the EU. More specifically, this study will explore how differences in organization, public participation and power structures affect the procedures and the outcomes in the case of nanotechnology policy and regulation with a focus in nanotechnology standards development and harmonization procedures. This study will advance conceptualization of technoscientific standards harmonization processes. The study will draw on and contribute to scholarly literatures on comparative studies in policy making of different policy cultures in this case study in the EU and the US. As well as on technology studies literatures on standards and harmonization processes; but at the same time on literatures concerning public participation and expertise in policy making. Results of this study can help in advancing discussions on the importance and influence of public participation and expertise in policy making procedures and political decision making, as well as in discussions concerning the construction of standards that frame novel technoscientific fields.
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