Special Issue: Engaging Publics Engaging Science in Australia, Japan and New Zealand

East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal

Volume 4, Number 4 / December 2010

Editors: Richard Hindmarsh, Rosemary Du Plessis and Karen Cronin

Special Issue Articles

Engaging Across Boundaries—Emerging Practices in ‘Technical Democracy’

Rosemary Du Plessis, Richard Hindmarsh, Karen Cronin

Discussing Nascent Technologies: Citizens Confront Nanotechnology in Food

Tomiko Yamaguchi

The ‘Citizen Scientist’: Reflections on the Public Role of Scientists in Response to Emerging Biotechnologies in New Zealand

Karen Cronin

Difficult Data: Boundary Dynamics, Public Engagement and Bridging Technologies in a Science/Policy Controversy

Virginia Baker, Jefferson Fowles, David Phillips

Wind farms and Community Engagement in Australia: A Critical Analysis for Policy Learning

Richard Hindmarsh

Many Minds, Common Sense and Genetic Modification: A Role for Q Methodology

Amanda Wolf

Facilitating Public Participation in Toxic Waste Management Through Engaging ‘The Object of Politics’

Stephen Anthony Healy

Genetic Suspects: Global Governance of Forensic DNA Profiling and Databasing

Edited by Richard Hindmarsh (Griffith University) & Barbara Prainsack (King's College London)
Foreword: Sheila Jasanoff
Cambridge University Press, UK; 2010

As DNA forensic profiling and databasing become established as key technologies in the toolbox of the forensic sciences, their expanding use raises important issues that promise to touch everyone's lives. In an authoritative global investigation of a diverse range of countries, including those at the forefront of these technologies' development and use, this book identifies and provides critical reflection upon the many issues of privacy; distributive justice; DNA information system ownership; biosurveillance; function creep; the reliability of collection, storage and analysis of DNA profiles; the possibility of transferring medical DNA information to forensics databases; and democratic involvement and transparency in governance, an emergent key issue. This book is timely and significant in providing the essential background and discussion of the ethical, legal and societal dimensions for academics, practitioners, public interest and criminal justice organisations, citizens, and students of the life sciences, law, politics, and sociology.for more:

http://cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521519434

List of contributiors: see:
http://cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521519434#contributors

Review: Wyatt, D. 2010. Book Review: Genomics, Society and Policy 6(1): 73-77.

See: http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/genomics/documents/Wyattbookreviewfinal.pdf

The Asia-Pacific Science, Technology and Society (STS) Network

The Asia-Pacific Science, Technology and Society (STS) Network started off at a workshop at Victoria University at Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand early December 2008 (see http://apstsnzworkshop.blogspot.com/).

Since then it has held a very successful inaugural conference at South Bank, Griffith University, Brisbane, 23-25 November 2009 (see:
http://www.griffith.edu.au/apsts2009)

The conference report is posted at the APSTSN homepage at:
www.esr.cri.nz/AsiaPacificSTSNetwork

The first newsletter for 2010 is also posted at: www.esr.cri.nz/AsiaPacificSTSNetwork

Please see the homepage for information about the APSTSN and how to join. We especially welcome researchers from the Asia-Pacific region (defined as Australasia, East and SE Asia, and Oceania), and researchers from outside the region doing research in the Asia-Pacific.

Edging Towards BioUtopia

Edging Towards BioUtopia: A New Politics of Reordering Life & the Democratic Challenge. University of Western Australia Press (UWAP), Crawley, 2008 [Foreword: Sheldon Krimsky]. see: http://www.uwapress.uwa.edu.au/contemporary_issues

Edging Towards BioUtopia is a critical social history of the development and regulation of genetic engineering in Australia, in a context of oganised irresponsibility and technocracy significanl;y infleunced by a bioelite advocacy coalition, which is countered by resistance and enduring democratic challenge from concerned scientists, bureaucrats, environmental NGOs, farmers and citizens.

Significant events, representations, narratives, issues, contestations, and discursive moments that have shaped the environmental release of GMOs in Australia are mapped out and put under the analytical microscope. Overall, the book contributes significantly to the wider dialogue of how society and governance grapples with the profound questions posed by the proposed move to a biosociety underpinned by a biotechnologically reordered nature: the proposed BioUtopia.

Science as Culture review, see: 'Sailing to New Atlantis', 17(3): 335-339 (Coughran, Sept 2008)

Griffith Law Review (17(2): 577-78, Lawson, C., October 2008): "This is not just another governmentality and power analysis, but a detailed critique in the methodological tradition of Foucault, Latour, and so on ... This is a significant contribution to the academy."

New Genetics and Society Special Issue

Vol. 27, No. 3, September 2008

Guest editors: Richard Hindmarsh and Rosemary Du Plessis

This special issue explores life sciences governance at a moment when the ground rules connecting citizens to the state are in transition,when experiments with science—society dialogue are available for critical analysis, and when new forms of “biological citizenship” are emerging. In looking at the “new civic geography” of the life sciences and the challenges of democratisation, contributors to Life Sciences Governance: Civic Transitions and Trajectories interrogate attempts to engage citizens through both top-down and bottom-up initiatives to debate and dialogue, and contribute to decision-making about the development and use of new biotechnologies.

See the introduction at: http: pdfserve.informaworld.com/413099_902178488.pdf

Science as Culture Special Issue

Vol.14, No.4, December 2005

Guest Editors

Richard Hindmarsh and Herbert Gottweis

Recombinant Regulation: The Asilomar Legacy Thirty Years On

The 1975 Asilomar conference promoted self-regulation of genetic engineering; on this basis, scientists could keep recombinant DNA research free of statutory intervention, maintain influence over the strategic shape of innovation, and normalize it within society. Since then, the biosciences have generally provoked criticism worldwide; moreover, regulatory forms have been as controversial as the innovation that they potentially regulate. Top-down technocratic regulatory regimes have contributed to enduring, extensive civil resistance to life sciences innovation. There have been public calls to deal more appropriately with the ethical, social, environmental and political issues involved. In the light of the Asilomar legacy, this special issue analyses the regulatory strategies deployed in several countries. Articles discusse strategies accommodate and/or act upon scientific debate? likewise upon public attitudes? What ‘policy learning’ has occurred?

Recoding Nature (2004)

Following Altered Genes II (2001, see below), Recoding Nature features 14 essays by Australian and New Zealand writers critiquing the new biology. With a stimulating foreword by Mae-Wan Ho – the UK scientist leading a global attack on genetic engineering as ‘bad science’ – Recoding Nature challenges the assumptions of those preparing the world for a ‘recoded’ DNA future: http://www.unswpress.com.au/isbn/0868407410.htm
See Sheldon Krimsky's review:
http://www.tufts.edu/~skrimsky/PDF/Recoding%20Nature.PDF

Altered Genes II (2001)

Altered Genes II: (Scribe, 2001) is the revised edition of Altered Genes: Reconstructing Nature (Allen & Unwin, Sydney 1998). It offers the first collection of Australian and New Zealand critical or questioning perspectives about genetic engineering and features 12 chapters on diverse topics from agenda setting, to eugenics and genetic testing to molecular farming and bioprospecting. The contributors reflect a number of positions in raising important issues for society to consider. The introduction is written by award-winning scientist David Suzuki, and poses as is an important resource for public awareness and debate. (http://www.scribepublications.com.au/book/alteredgenesii)

Altered Genes I (1998)

Selected Publications

Hindmarsh, R., DU PLESSIS, R., cronin, k. (eds.) 2010. Engaging Publics /Engaging Science in Australia, Japan and New Zealand. Special Issue of East Asian Science, Technology and Society: an International Journal 14(4), December.

HINDMARSH, R. 2010. Wind farms and community engagement in Australia: A critical analysis for policy learning, East Asian Science, Technology and Society, 14(4): 541-63.

HINDMARSH, R., PRAINSACK, B. (eds.) 2010. Genetic Suspects: Global Governance of Forensic DNA Profiling and Databasing. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press (Hardback 343pp). ISBN 978-0-521-51943-4

HINDMARSH, R. 2010. Biosurveillance and biocivic concerns, from ‘truth’ to ‘trust’: the Australian forensic DNA terrain.  In R. Hindmarsh, B. Prainsack (eds.) Genetic Suspects: Global Governance of DNA Profiling and Databasing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Ch 13: 262-87. 

LAWSON, C., HINDMARSH, R. 2009. Legitimising Regulatory Decision Making about Genetically Modified Organisms under the Gene Technology Act 2000 (Cth). In Hocking, B. (ed.) The Nexus of Law and Biology: New Ethical Challenges. Ashgate, UK, Ch 8: 115-73.

Hindmarsh, R., Du Plessis, R. (eds) 2008. Special Issue: 'Life Sciences Governance: Civic Transitions and Trajectories'. New Genetics and Society, 27(3), September.]

Hindmarsh, R., Du Plessis, R. 2008. The new civic geography of life sciences governance: perspectives from Australia and New Zealand, New Genetics and Society 27(3): 175-80.

Hindmarsh, R., Du Plessis, R. 2008. GMO regulation and civic participation at the ‘edge of the world’: the case of Australia and New Zealand. New Genetics and Society 27(3): 181-99.

Hindmarsh, R. 2008. Investigating Australian biocivic concerns and governance of forensic DNA technologies: confronting technocracy, New Genetics and Society 27(3): 267-84.

Hindmarsh, R. 2008. Edging Towards BioUtopia: A New Politics of Reordering Life & the Democratic Challenge. UWA Press, Crawley, Western Australia.

Hindmarsh, R., 2008. Food and Environmental Security in the Indian Ocean Region: Interrogating the GM Doubly Green Revolution. In T. Doyle and M. Risely(eds) Crucible for Survival: Environmental Security and Justice in the Indian Ocean Region. Rutgers University Press, New Jersey, Ch 6: 182-214.

Hindmarsh, R. 2008. Environment, Water and Energy in the 21st Century: The Role of Deliberative Governance for the Knowledge Society. In Hern, G., Rooney, D., Wright, D. (eds.) Knowledge Policy: Challenges for the 21st Century. Edward Elgar, UK, Ch 15: 189-203.

Edwards, P., Hindmarsh, R., Mercer, H., Bond, M., Rowland, A. 2008. A three-stage evaluation of a deliberative event on climate change and transforming energy, Journal of Public Deliberation: January, Vol. 4: No. 1, Article 6. http://services.bepress.com/jpd/vol4/iss1/art6

Hindmarsh, R., Abu-Bakar, A. 2007. Balancing Benefits of Human Genetic Research Against Civic Concerns: Essentially Yours and beyond - the Case of Australia, Personalized Medicine 4(4): 497-505.

Lawson, C., Hindmarsh, R. 2007. Regulating Genetically Modified Organisms: A Case Study Assessing Regulatory Quality and Performance, Australian Bus, Law Review, 35(3): 181-203.


Hil, R., Hindmarsh, R. 2007. Body Talk: Genetic Screening as a Device of Crime Regulation. In M. Betta (ed.) The Moral, Social and Commercial Imperatives of Genetic Screening and Testing: The Australian Case. Springer, Dordrecht.

Lawson, C., Hindmarsh, R. 2006. Releasing GM Canola into the Environment—Deconstructing a Decision of the Gene Technology Regulator under the Gene Technology Act 2000 (Cth), Environmental and Planning Law Journal 23(1): 22-59.

Hindmarsh, R. 2005. Genetic Engineering Regulation in Australia: An ‘Archaeology’ of Expertise and Power, in Hindmarsh, R., Gottweis, H. (eds.) Special Issue, Recombinant Regulation, Science as Culture 14(4): 373-92.

Hindmarsh, R., Gottweis, H. 2005. Recombinant Regulation: The Asilomar Legacy 30 Years On, in Hindmarsh, R., Gottweis, H. (eds.) Special Issue, Recombinant Regulation, Science as Culture 14(4): 299-307.

Hindmarsh, R. 2004. GM Policy Networks in Asia: The Discursive Politics of the ‘Doubly Green Revolution’. In N. Stehr (ed.) Biotechnology: Between Commerce and Civil Society. Transaction, USA.

Hindmarsh, R., Lawrence. 2004. Recoding Nature: Deciphering the Script. In R. Hindmarsh, G. Lawrence (eds.) Recoding Nature: Critical Perspectives on Genetic Engineering, UNSW Press, Sydney.

Hindmarsh, R. 2003. Genetic Modification and the Doubly Green Revolution, Society 40(6): 9-19.

Matthews, C., Hindmarsh, R. 2003. Bringing Solar Down to Earth: An Eco-political Critique of the Renewable Energy Industry. In W. Saman, B. Charters & T. Hollands (eds.) International Solar Energy Society 2001 Solar World Congress Proceedings, Australian and New Zealand Solar Energy Society, Adelaide, Australia.

Hindmarsh, R. 2002. Molitor’s Techno-Discourse: Rhetoric Unconvincing, Journal of Futures Studies 6(3): 117-124.

Rogers-Hayden, T., Hindmarsh, R. 2002. Modernity Contextualises New Zealand’s Royal Commission on Genetic Modification: A Discourse Analysis, Journal of New Zealand Studies NS1(1): 41-61.

Hindmarsh, R. 2001. Constructing Bio-Upotia: Laying Foundations Amidst Dissent. In R.
Hindmarsh, G. Lawrence (eds.) Altered Genes II: the future? Revised edn. Scribe, Carlton.

Hindmarsh, R. 2000. Problems of Genetic Engineering, Peace Review 12(4): 541-547.

Hindmarsh, R. 1999. Consolidating Control: Plant Variety Rights, Genes and Seeds, Australian Journal of Political Economy 44: 58-78. [http://www.biotech-info.net/consolidating_control.pdf

Senior Students and Topics

Honours
Angela Willet: Bioprospecting in Australian Indigenous Domains

Tara Cully: The Sociocultural Implications of Biotechnology for Indian Agriculture & Sustainability

Tomo Imahashi: Neo-liberalism and its Impacts upon Development and Environmental Reform.

Linda Arefall: The Role of Spiritual Science for Ecological Sustainable Development

Luke Keogh: Questioning Sustainability Discourses: A Historical Narrative Analytical Approach

Holly Mercer: Deliberative Design in Australia

Meghan Bond: Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in Australia at the Citizen Level

Moshumi Smith: Evaluating Cave Management Policy in Australia: An Environmental Sustainability Policy Analysis

Angela Rowland: Public Participation, Environment and Sustainability Futures

Jamie Richters: Participatory Governance Approaches for Effective Water Management in Australia

Coby Pymble-Ward: Environmental Sustainability in Water Policy


Masters (Hons)
Graham Farebrother: The Role of Corporate Environmental Management Systems in Processes of Ecological Modernisation in Australia

Lenore Taylor: Natural Resource Management and Salinity: Towards Cleaner Production

Linda Brennan: Facilitating Implementation of Sustainable Residential Landscape Design in Southeast Queensland Jamie Curran: An ESD Policy Analysis of Geosequestration

Doctorates
Giorel Curran: The Social Ecology of Murray Bookchin: The Political Effectiveness of Eco-Anarchism

Adrienne Hallam: Globalisation and the Human Genome Project

Monica Seini: Biotech & Indigenous Flora in Australasia: Contested Ways of Knowing and Owning

Melissa Risely: Politics of Precaution: An Eco-political Investigation of Agricultural Gene Technology Policy in Australia, 1992-2000

Anne Parkinson: The Lost Stakeholder: Risk and Trust Perceptions of Canola Farmers in NSW and the Biotechnology, Environment and Agriculture Policy

Current Doctoral Candidates
Vicki Kelleher: Secondary Science Education: Environment, Risk and Trust

Rahayu Rahayu: Local Governmental Climate Change Policy Development in Indonesia

Candani Panditharatne: Towards Sri Lanka Climate Change Adaptation Policy

Meuthia Naim: Evaluating Climate Change Adaptation Policy and Measures in Indonesia

Ronnie Cooper: Innovation and Expectations of Benefit: The Construction of Science and Technology Imperatives--GMOs and Wind Farms

Affiliations

Asia-Pacific Science, Technology and Society (STS) Network (co-convenor)
Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)
The Australian Sociology Association (TASA)
Ecopolitics Association of Australasia (EAA)
Institute of Health and Environmental Research Inc., South Australia

Qualifications and Awards

ACADEMIC DISTINCTIONS

RESEARCH
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Award: Invitation Fellowship Program for Research in Japan, Tokyo, 2010

Asia-Pacific Science, Technology & Society Network: Co-Convenor 2009; Convenor 2010-11


Australian Research Council (ARC) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, 1994-1997

Commonwealth Postgraduate Grant Research Award, Griffith University, 1988


Australian Institute of Urban Studies-Suncorp (Honours) Student Award, 1986


TEACHING
Griffith School of Environment Best Lecturer Award 2010

Griffith School of Environment Best Course Award 2010: Environmental Politics and Policy

Certificate of Appreciation: Celebrating Student Leadership at Griffith, DVC (Academic) Award 2009


Certificate of (High) Commendation: Innovation across the Institution, Griffith Awards for Excellence in Teaching, Griffith University, 2006

Dean’s Certificate of Commendation Teaching and Learning, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Griffith University, 2006


OTHER
2011 Invited Visiting Academic, School of Political Science and Sociology, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, January-February


2011 Keynote Speaker, Risk Communication and Risk Governance Workshop, College of Social Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 4 January.

2011 Keynote Speaker, Australian and Taiwan Science Communication in Context Workshop, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, 6 January 2011

2010 Invited Visiting Scholar, International Christian University, Tokyo, August- September (fully funded JSPS Invitation Fellowship)

2009 Invited Visiting Scholar, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, UK, Aug/Sept

2009 Invited discussant to the Royal Society Geography, Knowledge and Society Conference, University of Manchester, August

2008 Invited member of the (US) Council for Responsible Genetics International Consultative Group

2007 Invited Visiting Academic, School of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

2007 Invited Visiting Professor, Life Sciences Governance Research Platform, University of Vienna, Austria

2005 Research Associate, Life Sciences Governance Research Platform, University of Vienna