This project is structured around the general question of ‘What does it mean to benefit/harm the environment?’ This question is important because while everyone agrees that the responsible development of emerging technologies needs to minimise harm to the environment, there is very little critical reflection on what this actually means. In the development of nanotechnologies, for example, there is no transparent discussion of how various frameworks of environmental ethics conceptualise benefit/harm differently, nor any concerted effort to research the role these frameworks play in the generation, interpretation and use of scientific research. This project therefore adopts an integrated approach to understanding the environmental impact of emerging technologies. Specifically, the project aims to combine the philosophy of environmental ethics with the science of ecotoxicology to address the lack of interdisciplinary activity between these fields and stimulate mutual reflection and co-production. The project will do this through focusing on the use of nanoparticles for environmental remediation as a concrete technological case study. This is an interesting case study because while serious concerns have been raised about the ecological risks of nanoparticles, they are simultaneously being promoted as promising significant environmental benefits. Nanoparticles for the remediation of polluted soil and groundwater are currently not only being developed in laboratories but also trialled and used in the field. Since the actual impact and behaviour of nanoparticles in the environment remains shrouded in scientific uncertainty, extended debate can be expected on the environmental credentials of this class of nano- and nanobiotechnologies; debate that will inevitably entangle issues of science and ethics.

This research project will therefore take this case study and ask:

1. How is benefit/harm to the environment variously framed and understood?
2. How is scientific knowledge on environmental impacts generated, interpreted and used?
3. How are issues of science and ethics entangled in practice?
4. What does this entanglement imply for the development of socially robust science
5. What does this entanglement imply for responsible environmental governance?

In researching these questions, the project will engage a range of disciplines and stakeholders. The project will also contain explicit meta-level reflection with an aim to not only continually improve the interactive elements of the project, but also to develop new frameworks for evaluating the quality of transdisciplinary research. In this way, this research project aims to integrate science, ethics, public values and policy to promote reflective and responsible ecological governance of emerging nanotechnologies.

Prosjektleder: Fern Wickson