Analysis of a European Union funded biotechnology project on plant genomics and marker assisted selection in Solanaceous crops shows that the organization of a dialogue between science and society to accompany technological innovations in plant breeding faces practical challenges. Semi-structured interviews with project participants and a survey among representatives of consumer and other nongovernmental organizations show that the professed commitment to dialogue on science and biotechnology is rather shallow and has had limited application for all involved. Ultimately, other priorities tend to prevail because of high workload. The paper recommends including results from previous debates and input from societal groups in the research design phase (prior to communication), to use appropriate media to disseminate information and to make explicit how societal feedback is used in research, in order to facilitate true dialogue between science and society on biotechnology.
This volume comprises 10 essays that draw on the diverse set of meanings of genomes. Since genomic science covers a wide range of activities, it is hard to say unambiguously what genomics is. In the introductory chapter, Sarah Parry and John Dupré argue that a lot of confusion is created by the fact that there are two different ways to think about the genome: either in an abstract way, namely as a body of information, or as a material thing. A second reason why genomics is surrounded by confusion is that this concept is not always construed narrowly, but is sometimes used to refer to a broad range of contemporary biomolecular investigations. As indicated by the title, this book is not only about genomics. Parry and Dupré are interested in the ways in which the issue of nature is significant in relation to genomics. They argue that, since genomics places biology, and consequently nature, centre stage, "genomics provides new knowledge and understandings of the natural and social worlds" (p.6). Besides studying the biological world, however, genomics "also involves producing that world both symbolically and materially" (p.6). Consequently, genomics also changes the relationship between the natural and social worlds. The phrase 'after the genome' might create the impression that Parry and Dupré understand genomics as a finished event. The editors claim however, that genomics "is at its beginning rather than a thing of the past" (p.4), so with that phrase, they refer to the ways in which (our understanding of) nature is reshaped by developments in genomics science.
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