Nature, Risk and Responsibility explores ethical interpretations of biotechnology and examines whether sufficient consensus exists or is emerging to enable this technology to occupy a stable role in the techno-economic, social and cultural order. The contributors address the nature and prospective implications of biotechnologies for nature, life and social organisation and employ a wide range of social theories to evaluate risks and propose responses.

Notes on the Contributors Introduction: Biotechnology, Uncertainty and Contestation; P.O'Mahony PART ONE: THEORETICAL REFLECTIONS ON BIOTECHNOLOGY AND RESPONSIBILITY The Civilisation of the Gene: Biotechnological Risk Framed in the Responsibility Discourse; P.Strydom Biopolitics in the Risk Society: The Possibility of a Global Ethic of Societal Responsibility; G.Delanty Biotechnology as Expertise; B.Barnes PART TWO: CONSTRUCTING VALUES: PUBLIC COMMUNICATION ON BIOTECHNOLOGY Shifting Debates on New Reproductive Technology: Implications for Public Discourse in Ireland; O.McDonnell Biotechnological Communication and the Socio-Cultural Embeddedness of Economic Actors; M.Dreyer Constructing Difference: Discourse Coalitions on Biotechnology in the Press; P.O'Mahony and T.Skillington PART THREE: THE DYNAMICS OF INSTITUTIONALISATION: JURIDIFICATION AND REGULATION OF BIOTECHNOLOGY Public Representation and the Legal Regulation of Assisted Conception in Britain; J.Murphy Discourse Formations and Constellations of Conflict: Problems of Public Participation in the German Debate on Genetically Altered Plants; A.Bora Law and the Cultural Construction of Nature: The Biotechnology Issue; C.Byk Bio-Patenting and Innovation: Nomads of the Present and a New Global Order; R.McNally and Peter Wheale Concluding Reflections Modernity's Organic Economy of Governmentality; T.Skillington Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgements