Public Engagement and Emerging Technologies

New technologies and the science that created them have transformed our lives, posing challenges as to how technological change can be better integrated into society. Over the last few decades, recognition of these issues has led to different ways of engaging the public in the assessment and regulation of emerging technologies. However, diverse factors such as existing regulatory frameworks specific to jurisdictions, local cultural contexts, and the nature of particular technologies have ensured that there is no single approach.

This book puts the subject of publics and their engagement with emerging technologies on a robust footing. With a strong, though not exclusive, focus on genomic technologies, leading theorists and practitioners in the field provide overviews of methods and approaches and theoretical accounts of the processes underlying public engagement. They also offer precise and clear insights into the key issues of public participation studies, including ethics, process, and principles of knowledge distribution in democratic societies. The discussion is particularly pertinent and central to current concerns in health, technology, and public participation at a time when the reform of public and private sector health and social care services are being debated globally.