Nanotechnology has been the subject of extensive assessment hype, unlike any previous field of research and development. A multiplicity of stakeholders have started to analyze the implications of nanotechnology: Technology assessment institutions around the world, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, re-insurance companies, and academics from science and technology studies and applied ethics have turned their attention to this growing field s implications. In the course of these assessment efforts, a social phenomenon has emerged a phenomenon the editors define as assessment regime.

Despite the variety of organizations, methods, and actors involved in the evaluation and regulation of emerging nanotechnologies, the assessment activities comply with an overarching scientific and political imperative: Innovations are only welcome if they are assessed against the criteria of safety, sustainability, desirability, and acceptability. So far, such deliberations and reflections have played only a subordinate role. This book argues that with the rise of the nanotechnology assessment regime, however, things have changed dramatically: Situated at the crossroads of democratizing science and technology, good governance, and the quest for sustainable innovations, the assessment regime has become constitutive for technological development.

The contributions in this book explore and critically analyse nanotechnology s assessment regime: To what extent is it constitutive for technology in general, for nanotechnology in particular? What social conditions render the regime a phenomenon sui generis? And what are its implications for science and society?"

Nanotechnology has been the subject of extensive assessment hype, unlike any previous field of research and development. A multiplicity of stakeholders have started to analyze the implications of nanotechnology: Technology assessment institutions around the world, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, re-insurance companies, and academics from science and technology studies and applied ethics have turned their attention to this growing field s implications. In the course of these assessment efforts, a social phenomenon has emerged a phenomenon the editors define as assessment regime.

Despite the variety of organizations, methods, and actors involved in the evaluation and regulation of emerging nanotechnologies, the assessment activities comply with an overarching scientific and political imperative: Innovations are only welcome if they are assessed against the criteria of safety, sustainability, desirability, and acceptability. So far, such deliberations and reflections have played only a subordinate role. This book argues that with the rise of the nanotechnology assessment regime, however, things have changed dramatically: Situated at the crossroads of democratizing science and technology, good governance, and the quest for sustainable innovations, the assessment regime has become constitutive for technological development.

The contributions in this book explore and critically analyse nanotechnology s assessment regime: To what extent is it constitutive for technology in general, for nanotechnology in particular? What social conditions render the regime a phenomenon sui generis? And what are its implications for science and society?"

Kann Wissenschaft ein Gegenstand nicht nur fur Erkenntniskritik und historische Analyse, sondern auch fur die Soziologie sein? Lange hiess es: nein Spatestens mit Robert K. Merton andert sich dies: Seither beschaftigt sich eine Wissenschaftssoziologie mit der Frage, wie die Produktion, Verbreitung und Geltung gesicherten Wissens moglich sind.

Das erhebliche Inventar an Theorien und Methoden, das zur Beantwortung dieser Frage zur Verfugung steht, verdankt sich der Soziologie als Heimatdisziplin der Wissenschaftssoziologie angereichert hat sie es durch ihre Eingliederung in eine interdisziplinare Wissenschaftsforschung sowie durch Kooperationen mit Nachbardisziplinen. Ob Diskurse oder Systeme, ob Organisationen oder Institutionen der Wissenschaft, ob Interaktionen mit Politik oder Offentlichkeiten, ob neue Medien oder neue Arbeitsweisen, ob Nichtwissens- oder Technowissenschaftskulturen wie die Beitrage des Handbuchs schlaglichtartig zeigen, widmet sich die heutige Wissenschaftssoziologie diesen und weiteren Themen mit hoher Auflosungskraft und Differenzierung.

Die Wissenschaftssoziologie untersucht sowohl die heterogenen Bedingungen und ambivalenten Effekte der Produktion, Verbreitung und Geltung gesicherten Wissens als auch der zunehmenden Wissensbasierung der Gesellschaft insgesamt. Es spricht deshalb einiges dafur, dass sie heute als Bindestrichsoziologie mit gesellschaftsdiagnostischem Potenzial betrachtet werden kann."