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This chapter provides an introductory note describing the international expert team’s views of ethics and its incorporation in science and technology policy making that guides the work in the book. Ethics is viewed mainly from the perspective of lay morality as it is evident in analyses of public debates and public perceptions research. In this respect, the most significant influence shaping the content and direction of ethics derives from cultural norms and social values. The incorporation of ethics in policy making takes two distinct but interconnected routes: one via official advisory structures and the other via lay debates. Additional influences on policy by civil society organisations and private sector lobbying activities are also evident. The chapter ends with a detailed description of the book contents.

Both in Europe and in the emerging economies of China and India, the core of science, technology and innovation policy is broadly similar: stimulating science and technology as important factors in developing innovative solutions to societal needs. In Europe we have witnessed a significant increase in ethical debates on science, technology and innovation, in the sense of both greater intensity and a wider plurality of voices. Central in these debates is the fear for negative consequences of science, technology and innovation. The European debate on genetic modification in agriculture is a well-documented example of the ‘ethicization’ of the public discourse on science, technology and innovation. Nowadays, developments in science, technology and innovation are global phenomena in which scientists and technology experts from different countries cooperate in international consortia. Innovative solutions are often transferred globally and adapted locally. Against this background, we compare the institutionalisation of ethics debates in Europe with China and India: to what extent is there a global ethics in science and technology, and how are ethical debates institutionalized in science, technology and innovation policies? We found that each region has a unique structure of ethics debates involving the institutionalization of three related tasks: ethical governance, ethical deliberation and ethical reflection.

This chapter provides a brief comparative analysis of public perceptions of science and technology in Europe, China and India. Although the available data is limited, and not always directly comparable, it is nevertheless sufficient to provide an impression of several issues that will be discussed and compared in this chapter, such as interest in and basic knowledge of science and technology, the image of science and technology and scientists, tensions between science and faith, and the benefits versus the potential risks of science and technology. The overview will be based on surveys on these issues conducted in the three regions.

This chapter provides a comparative overview of public participation in science and technology policymaking in Europe, China and India. Participatory Technology Assessment methodology and practice is taken as the main focal point to show how public engagement is conceptualized in the three regions and applied in decision making procedures. A discussion on the merits and challenges of engagement initiatives in each region is provided.

Policymakers require stable anchor points for long-term policies. The governance of new technologies can be fraught with difficulties in terms of public acceptance. Strong ethical foundations can help align stakeholder interests. In democracies, such anchor points and ethical foundations can be provided through constitutional values. The main aim of this chapter is to show how European fundamental values are relevant in the governance of science and technology.

This chapter demonstrates values in China’s Constitution. As the primary law of a state, the values in the Chinese Constitution outline the core pursuits of Chinese people and form the basis for making policies related to science and technology. The value system in current China mainly comprised of three streams of values: traditional values, Western values and new values established in contemporary Chinese society. China being a socialist country, the Chinese Constitution emphasizes collective interests. Progress, affluence, peace and safety, and harmony are the four values identified in the Chinese Constitution that relate to people’s ethical considerations of science and technology development.

This chapter discusses the evaluation of science and technology policy in India along with the fundamental values that inform the strategies and decisions deriving from it. It follows the post-independence debates and the twelve five-years plans on science and technology. The values of access, inclusion and equity are identified and analysed as the guiding principles underlying policy actions in India and explain the conceptual differences that we witness in the perception of science and technology ethics in the three regions.

In this chapter we present a framework for a comparative analysis of developments in the field of food technology, nanotechnology and synthetic biology in Europe, China and India. The focus of this framework is on science and technology discourses relating to innovation, risk, and power and control, and on ethics and public debate as reflective and crosscutting discourses. On the basis of these five discourses, developments in the different fields can be systematically described and compared across the three different regions. To illustrate our framework, we will discuss some major findings from the comparative case descriptions presented in the next three chapters of this book. In discussing these findings, we focus on the mediating role of the crosscutting discourses of reflective ethics and lay morality in science and technology policy-making in the three regions and highlight the main governance challenges arising in this context.

The use of technology and innovation in developing long-term global food security, and ensuring sustainable and adequate food production, is contextualized by values and controversies associated with food technologies. The framing and context of these technologies may impact on consumer perceptions and acceptance. In some countries this can influence policy decisions. Analysis of the public discourses on the themes of , , and , and their socio-economic and ethical implications, is applied to explain the utility of novel and emerging food technologies. Potential differences in stakeholder interests are taken into account in different economic and regulatory environments, contrasting Europe with the emerging economies of China and India. In the case of India, there is considerable public debate on finding a balance between various technological choices for food production, viz transgenic, traditional breeding and organic production. In China, the debate about technological innovation is driven largely by political and scientific elites with relatively little consumer debate. European agri-technological innovation is framed by ‘post-productivism’, which informs both implementation strategies and regulatory and governance issues. Economic values cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the European innovation process, in particular in relation to investment and scientific endeavour.

This chapter provides a comparative analysis of the discursive settings of nanotechnology in Europe, China and India. A short introduction to the umbrella term ‘nanotechnology’ and its development into an exemplar for technological innovation precedes a consideration of evolving and ongoing debates in the three regions. Analysis of the debates will be conducted within the analytical framework described in Chap. and focus on discourses of innovation, risk, power and control, lay morality and reflective ethics. For each of the discourses this analysis will identify the dominant issues, the main actors and the relationship of these discourses to culturally embedded values, as well as to the socioeconomic context in the three regions. The final section of the chapter compares the governance settings of nanotechnology in each region and relates them to the analysed discourses and cultural values.