Context Matters: Promises and Concerns Regarding Nanotechnologies for Water and Food Applications

• Published in: Nanoethics Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 17 - 27
• Main Authors: te Kulve, Haico, Konrad, Kornelia, Alvial Palavicino, Carla, Walhout, Bart
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-04-2013; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Anticipatory; Assessments; Education; Ethics; Food; Food supply; Foods; Framing; Nanocomposites; Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology; Original Paper; Philosophy; Philosophy of Science; Philosophy of Technology; Science; Sociology; Strategy; Studies; Technology; Valuation; Water; United States > US; Water; Domain characteristics; Nanotechnology; Sociology of expectations; Food; De facto assessment
• ISSN: 1871-4757; 1871-4765
• DOI: 10.1007/s11569-013-0168-4

Expectations in the form of promises and concerns contribute to the sense-making and valuation of emerging nanotechnologies. They add up to what we call ‘de facto assessments’ of novel socio-technical options. We explore how de facto assessments of nanotechnologies differ in the application domains of water and food by examining promises and concerns, and their relations in scientific discourse. We suggest that domain characteristics such as prior experiences with emerging technologies, specific discursive repertoires and user-producer relationships, play a key role in framing expectations of nanotechnology-enabled options. The article concludes by suggesting that domain-specific discourses may lead to undesirable lock-ins into specific de facto assessments pre-structuring anticipatory strategies of actors.