Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS)

About: Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Life-cycle assessment & Sustainability. The organization has 167 authors who have published 318 publications receiving 6738 citations.

Epigenetics—New Aspects of Chemicals Policy

Abstract: Epigenetics is the study of the natural processes that regulate the differentiation of cells and tissues, and are of significance in the development of organisms. This means it is able to offer a specific perspective on how various factors and stressors in the environment control gene activity. For instance, chemicals such as hormonally active ‘endocrine disruptors’ leave behind traces in the epigenetic code that not only trigger illnesses, but can also be passed on from generation to generation. These epigenetic mechanisms of action are not taken sufficiently into consideration in the use and regulation of chemicals. Although the evaluation of hormone disrupting effects due to endocrine disruptors is covered by various product-specific European regulations, neither an unambiguous regulatory definition nor specific toxicological testing strategies have been in place to date. As a result of this, the protective measures provided for in the existing legislation remain vague. It has not been possible up until now for the state to monitor the use of these substances in everyday products. How society deals with the consequences of the influence epigenetic mechanisms have due to anthropogenically conditioned changes in the environment constitutes an interdisciplinary challenge for the academic community, policymakers and ethicists. The European Parliament has adopted a resolution on the protection of public health from endocrine disruptors in which it demands precautionary action because risks to the environment and human health cannot be ruled out. This means epigenetics has arrived as a topic on the current political agenda in the context of the impact assessment and regulation of substances with epigenetic mechanisms of action.

Mechanisms of Systematic Risk Production

Abstract: The concentration and densification of social processes is the quintessential feature of cities in general. This offers manifold opportunities: in a material/factual dimension they sustain functional processes for the provision of basic human needs such as energy, food, water and housing; in a temporal dimension they organize and coordinate the numerous municipal processes required to achieve synchronization; in a social dimension they implement measures to include the population at structural and normative levels with regard to participation in functional system services. We argue that while reproducing these functions, megacities, in particular, simultaneously create conditions that jeopardize them with what we call systematic risk production mechanisms. Using four distinctions (Attraction/Exposure, Metabolization/Deterioration, Synchronization/Desynchronization, Inclusion/Exclusion) we analyse their development in order to exemplify the non-linear dynamics and self-enforcing, mutually amplifying processes of such complex research objects as megacities. Our ultimate goal is to produce a heuristic for interdisciplinary research and create a scientific approach with a common frame of reference for the different research disciplines involved.

Introduction: S.NET and Nanoethics

Abstract: This special issue is perhaps an unusual one. Rather than focusing on a specific theme or topic, it takes as its inspiration the activities of the Society for the Social Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies (S.NET) and in particular its 2011 Annual Meeting. The papers which comprise this collection therefore pick up on the concepts and themes discussed at this meeting. Rather than having a common focus or question, their key feature is the degree to which they are eclectic: they explore topics from governmentality to ontology; ethics-in-practice to visions and expectations. This special issue therefore seeks to celebrate—as does S.NET itself—the diversity of a field which explores new and emerging technologies from a wide range of methodologies, frameworks and disciplinary positions. S.NET aims to promote intellectual exchange around and understanding of nanotechnologies and other new and emerging technologies. As the Society’s name suggests, its emphasis is firmly on locating such emerging technologies within a social context, and on critically interrogating their development within different national, cultural and technoscientific locations. It is therefore an international organisation, as reflected in the geography of its annual meetings: the 2011 meeting, held in Tempe (USA), was its third, after previous meetings in Seattle (USA) and Darmstadt (Germany). (The 2012 meeting recently took place in Enschede, in the Netherlands.) The Tempe meeting confirmed the vitality of the organisation and of the intellectual streams that meet within it: it saw a continued rise in the number of participants from around the world, increased engagement from non-academic actors (such as research organisations, industry, and policy actors and a number of NGOs), and the representation of new—for S.NET— approaches and perspectives on the relationships between technological development and society. Keynote speakers (who included Geri Augusto, Brown University; Ann Bostrom, University of Washington; Noela Invernizzi, Federal University of Parana; and Nick Pidgeon, Cardiff University) spoke on topics from geoengineering to public perceptions of nanotechnology and the nano industry workforce. One recurring theme was the notion of the future— a concept which is inevitably a constitutive element of discussions of technological development, but which can be too readily ignored or taken for granted (Selin [1]). For instance, two conference sessions, coordinated by Christopher Coenen (Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis) and Simone Arnaldi (University of Padua), were devoted to discussion of the governance of ethically controversial Nanoethics (2012) 6:211–213 DOI 10.1007/s11569-012-0160-4