Doctoral Dissertation Research: Do-It-Yourself Biology, Deliberation and Democracy

本论文项目将通过关注diy生物学，发展一个关于科学治理的公民审议的案例研究，diy生物学是一种业余科学形式，它使不隶属于学术或公司实验室的个人能够获得相对简单的生物技术实践。研究人员将探索DIY生物学网络如何使用档案研究和民族志方法定义合成生物学及其治理。有待探讨的问题包括该网络如何与学术和企业科学家以及其他利益相关者联系起来，美国和欧盟的监管结构如何通知和回应该网络，以及这些谈判对转基因生物和基因科学的未来构成的后果。这项研究将产生对学者、政策制定者和实践者有用的数据。研究结果将通过诸如《科学社会研究》、《公众对科学的理解》和《科学传播》等期刊传播给学术受众。它们也将在报纸和杂志上广为传播。此外，该研究人员将开发一个在线wiki，汇集与从事转基因生物研究的实验室有关的地方、国家和国际法规的链接，以便使从业者能够随着时间的推移添加更多链接。技术总结：利用档案和人种学方法，研究人员将探索如何在旧金山地区DIY生物学，这是该项目美国阶段的主要地点；该地区在生物技术和微电子学的发展中发挥着关键作用，这两种技术正在合成生物学中汇合。由于哥本哈根在发展当代生物技术、制定国家和国际生物技术政策以及鼓励公民积极参与监管过程方面的领导地位，丹麦哥本哈根成为该项目的欧盟阶段的主要地点。用档案研究来补充人种学方法，将把这项研究扩展到过去，以突出DIY生物学如何与微电子学和生物技术的历史概念相呼应或分歧。该项目将促进关于新兴技术如何构成、合法化和治理以及民主如何运作的多学科对话。通过将公民定位为科学技术的实践者，DIY生物学提供了一个在治理背景下重新考虑科学家-公民互动的机会。该项目将揭示在不同文化背景下科学与政治之间不断变化的相互作用，揭示是什么促使人们深思熟虑，以及人们在日常生活中如何经历深思熟虑，以及他们的深思熟虑对治理体系的影响。

General Audience Summary This dissertation project will develop a case study of citizen deliberations about the governance of science by focusing on Do-It-Yourself Biology, a form of amateur science that makes relatively simple biotechnology practices accessible to individuals who are not affiliated with academic or corporate laboratories. The researcher will explore how the DIY Biology network defines synthetic biology and its governance using archival research and ethnographic methods. Issues to be explored include how the network relates to academic and corporate scientists and other stakeholders, how US and EU regulatory structures inform and respond to the network, and the consequences these negotiations pose for genetically modified organisms and the future of genetic sciences. The study will generate data that will be useful to scholars, policymakers, and practitioners. The results of the study will be disseminated to academic audiences through journals such as Social Studies of Science, Public Understanding of Science, and Science Communication. They will also be disseminated in widely accessible newspaper and magazine articles. In addition, the researcher will develop an online wiki that compiles links to local, national and international regulations pertaining to laboratories that work with transgenic organisms in order to enable practitioners to add more links over time.Technical SummaryUsing archival and ethnographic methods, the researcher will explore how DIY Biology in the San Francisco area, which serves as the primary site of the US phase of the project; the region plays a pivotal role in the development of biotechnology and microelectronics, two streams that are converging in synthetic biology. Copenhagen, Denmark, serves as the primary site of the EU phase of the project due to its leadership in developing contemporary biotechnology, in formulating national and international biotechnology policies, and in encouraging active citizen participation in the regulatory process. Complementing an ethnographic approach with archival study will extend this research back in time to highlight how DIY Biology echoes or diverges from historical conceptions of microelectronics and biotechnology. The project will contribute to multi-disciplinary conversations about how emerging technologies are constituted, legitimized and governed, and how democracies operate. By positioning citizens as practitioners of scientific techniques, DIY Biology offers an opportunity to reconsider scientist-citizen interactions in the context of governance. The project will shed light on the shifting interactions between science and politics in different cultural contexts, on what motivates people to deliberate and how people experience deliberation in their daily lives, and on the effects their deliberations have on governance systems.