Team:UCL/Humans/Soci/1

Sociological Imaginations Overview

Introduction

• Introduction
• Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
• Methodology
• Synthetic Biology for Environmental Reform
• UCL iGEM 2014 in the Risk Society
• Transcending Multifaceted Borders
• The Playful Professional and Sustainable Governance
• List of References

Facing Duality in Synthetic Biology

Biology is said to bring the greatest innovation in the twenty-first century. With the promise of synthetic biology to design and build biological systems, this innovation appears to not only change science and technology, but even have considerable transformational potential for societies that continue to seek progress. A high-level expert group on new and emerging science and technology within the European Commission specified a total of six domains where biotechnology as a discipline could be strongly affected due to the emergence of synthetic biology: 'biomedicine, synthesis of biopharmaceuticals, sustainable chemical industry, environment and energy, and the production of smart materials and biomaterials and counter-bioterrorism measures' (Calvert 2010; European Commission and Directorate General for Research 2005: 13-17; Kelle 2013, 2012). And as these processes of innovation expand, synthetic biology becomes functional in creating highly beneficial applications to society. However, as with many emerging technologies, synthetic biology has the potential to cognate with issues of misuse and risk. Considering that in synthetic biology principles of engineering are brought to biology, safety and security thus come to the fore as relevant topics in designing an appropriate governance structure for emerging technologies (Kelle 2012).

Resulting from this duality between beneficial innovation and harmful outcome surrounding synthetic biology, is therefore a socially constructed dilemma that such a dual-use technology seems to imply (Tucker 2011). This dilemma thus pertains to practices and discourses conveying this dual nature through portrayals that can be both negative and positive depending on the social dispositions held by members of society. Moreover, the dual-use nature of synthetic biology becomes even more salient in instances when its use is set against an environmental backdrop where the technology is perceived as a strategic tool in bioremediation efforts and the development of biofuels, while the inherent characteristics of synthetic biology can cause major concern in terms of the ecological calamities it can induce. Hence, there is a discursive discrepancy that can become rather acute when its technological implications are concerned in relation to the environment (Dryzek 2005, Purnick and Weiss 2009).

It is therefore interesting to take a closer look at how diverging narratives on technology and environment can occur within one iGEM team working on an environmental solution. As part of the competition's Environment Track, the Goodbye AzoDye Project of UCL iGEM 2014 can from that perspective be instrumental in getting a better understanding of the dynamic tension between tackling the problem of textile dyeing process wastewater disposal, and the potential ecological hazards from the technology they are using to solve this problem. However, unlike genetic engineering and the production of genetically modified crops, synthetic biology has not yet been challenged by a widespread public controversy surrounding its scientific practices, mostly due to the general unfamiliarity of the discipline among the wider lay public. As a result, the iGEM competition provides an experimental opportunity to see how opposing discourses develop both internally and externally as teams look at various aspects related to their summer project (Pauwels 2013; Torgersen and Hampel 2012; Tucker 2011).

Anticipatory Socialisation for Sustainable Governance in iGEM

Guide to Making a New Page

Hey Kevin. So to make a new page the first thing to do is go to the sociological imaginations main page (https://2014.igem.org/Team:UCL/Humans/Soci). Once there you need to go to a web address that hasnt been used yet. Do this by taking the Imaginations page and adding something to the end like this: https://2014.igem.org/Team:UCL/Humans/Soci/4
You may notice I've already made some pages at /1 (this page) & /2 & /3. Go to the /4 page I've included or another page of you liking ...Soci/Something. Once on that page you'll notice that it doesnt say anything in particular. If you go to the black menu bar at the top of the page (you may need to hover the mouse to see it) and click on create it will automatically let you edit and put content into the page. Next copy the contents of either /2 or /3 onto the new page. That will automatically give you the header, footer, and title. From there you can play around.

Tips on Making a Menu Bar

The most basic menu bar will be a simple un-ordered list like this
<ul>
<li>One</li>
<li>Two</li>
<li>Three</li>
<li>Four</li>
</ul>
From there it is pretty much just css. Go check out http://coredogs.com/lesson/vertical-navigation-bars they have some great explanations that are pretty intuitive. It wont be beyond you simply just learning new tags and css attributes so dont worry. All that said, if you still need help just let me know I'd be glad to help!