On the Novelty of Nanotechnology: A Philosophical Essay

Schummer, Joachim

doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-6817-1_2

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The underlying idea that because something is old, it must be a good thing. A subcategory of the fallacy of irrelevance, the argumentum ad antiquitatem remains extremely popular with practitioners who create historical narratives (Michaud, 2018) and appears to be particularly effective in persuading evaluators of the speaker’s case whenever the narrative evaluator has a conservative or “traditionalist” mental disposition (Schummer, 2014). This can be seen on Fischer’s (1970, p. 297) contention that “there is scarcely a corner of the world in which men do not, in some degree, bow down before absurdities inherited from their ancestors.” The argumentum ad antiquitatem involves nostalgia, the nonevidenced conviction the life was better in the past.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Narratives and the Defense of Stigmatized Industries

Smith

Wong

Sørensen

et al. 2021

Journal of Management Inquiry

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This study examines how managers and entrepreneurs in stigmatized industries use historical narratives to combat stigma. We examine two industries, the private military contractors (PMC) industry in the United States and the cannabis industry in Canada. In recent decades, the representatives of these industries have worked to reduce the level of stigmatization faced by the industries. We show that historical narratives were used rhetorically by the representatives of both industries. In both cases, these historical narratives were targeted at just one subset of the population. Our research contributes to debates about stigmatization in ideologically diverse societies, an important issue that have been overlooked by the existing literature on stigmatized industries, which tends to assume the existence of homogeneous audiences when researching the efforts of industry representatives to destigmatize their industries.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Narratives and the Defense of Stigmatized Industries

Smith

Wong

Sørensen

et al. 2021

Journal of Management Inquiry

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“…Différents travaux ont mis l'accent sur les potentialités d'une transformation de la recherche par les nanosciences et nanotechnologies, insistant sur la réarticula-tion potentielle entre recherche fondamentale et technologique (Schummer, 2009), ou sur les frottements et recompositions possibles des disciplines (Fourniau et al, 2011). Cependant, le thème des « nanos » se caractérise aussi par un déplacement dans le processus de « politisation de la science ».…”

Section: Le Désenchantement Total De La Recherche Scientifiqueunclassified

Nanotechnologies : l’espace civique des risques technologiques redimensionné

Chaskiel

Suraud

2014

Nat. Sci. Soc.

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Après l'avènement de la « société du risque », serions-nous entrés dans une nouvelle ère, marquée par l'émergence d'un espace civique caractérisé par une dilution des frontières traditionnelles entre monde syndical, société civile et recherche ? C'est la thèse défendue par les auteurs de cet article qui analysent les débats sur la sécurité des nanotechnologies. Les auteurs pointent assez justement l'importance du niveau européen comme espace de déploiement de cet espace civique. Mais cela ne doit pas conduire à occulter les nouvelles alliances entre associations et syndicats, qui se nouent au niveau local et national, et qui sont les espaces au sein desquels sont discutées les valeurs et les normes éthiques qui peuvent encadrer les explorations technologiques. La RédactionRésumé -Relativement peu abordé sous l'angle des risques par les recherches en sciences humaines et sociales, le thème des nanotechnologies présente cependant une originalité majeure : il révèle une reconfiguration de l'espace civique des risques technologiques, c'est-à-dire des discussions tendues vers la formation d'exigences universalisables, sur la protection de l'environnement et de la santé. Cette reconfiguration suit trois directions. La première est celle de l'européanisation civique (l'Europe sociale, d'une certaine façon) amorcée par le règlement REACH et la construction conjointe de demandes, associatives et syndicales, sur la protection du travail et de l'environnement. La seconde, observable en France, est celle du dépassement des conflits travail/citoyenneté en raison d'une convergence, de fait, entre syndicalisme et mouvement associatif. La troisième est celle d'un désenchantement accéléré de la recherche scientifique, de plus en plus interrogée, y compris dans des dimensions académiques.Abstract -Nanotechnology, a reshaped civic sphere of technological risks. Although little addressed from the risk angle by Social sciences, the theme of nanotechnology nevertheless offers a major interest by highlighting the emergence of a new civic sphere of technological risk, i.e. where free discussions on an equal footing are developing potentially universal demands regarding environmental and health protection. This process takes three directions: first that of a Europe-wide social process that relies on formal discussions between NGOs and Workers Unions. Initiated by negotiations for the EU Reach regulation, this process continues with the formulation of common claims to regulate "nanos". This means in particular that NGOs and Unions are developing not only similar but also joint claims on safety at work and environment protection. Second, in France Unions and NGOs have overcome their tensions and conflicts about technological risks, which were regularly observed in the case of nuclear or chemical problems. Although they do not discuss together, their claims are mainly compatible now that precaution has become a shared basis for demands. Third, the civic sphere of technological risks referred strongly to scientific research which so far was...

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“…This new emerging multidisciplinary field can be thought of an intersection of chemical, physical, biological, and engineering sciences on a scale of ∼1-100 nm [1,2]. Over the last decade, combination of nanomaterials and biomolecules including nucleic acids, proteins and antibodies has been developed as a new interdisciplinary research field [3][4][5][6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%