5th Global Conference
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Conference Programme, Abstracts and Papers
Monday 3rd July - Thursday 6th
July 2006
Mansfield College, Oxford
Session 5: Public Debate, Participation and Employment
Chair: Melita Elmore
The Public Debate on Genetic Modification (GM) -
Varieties of Understanding
Linda
Hadfield
Greengauge Consultancy,
Thurleigh, Bedford, United Kingdom
One of the most contentious
issues of public science policy during the late 1990s and early 2000s
has been the genetic modification of crops and foodstuffs (GM). In
response to the controversy, the UK Department for the Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) organised a public debate on GM, which
included the creation of a public website to which members of the
public could post comments between August 2002 and May 2003. These
e-mail contributions to the GM debate are publicly available on the
GM debate website and provide a snap-shot of the range of views held
over the GM issue by members of the British public at the time of
the debate.
The research described in this paper focuses on an analysis
of the responses to this consultation, using qualitative social science
techniques based on discourse analysis and grounded theory approaches. The
aim of the research is to identify both the range of views which exist
on the substantive issue of GM technology, and also the ways in which
those views are understood, justified and contested by the participants
to the debate.
The present paper focuses on varying understandings of the
potential impacts of GM, building on an earlier stage of the research
which found that differences of perspective may be explained in part
because of their implicit embodiment of differing assumptions concerning
degrees of belief, time perceptions, and the nature of criteria on
which truth claims may be assessed.
The research has implications for other issues which are characterised
by controversy and polarization of views; for the effectiveness of
public policy on such issues; for the relationship between science,
the public and government; and for the understanding of democratic
governance in general.
Going Local? Public Participation and Future Mobility
in Ireland
Henrike
Rau and John
McDonagh
Department of Political Science and Sociology, and Department of Geography,
NUI, Galway, Ireland
Recent changes in Ireland’s economic and socio-political
fabric have coincided with an increase in physical mobility, car dependency
and long-distance commuting. National transport policies, prevailing
trends in spatial planning and dominant land use patterns before, during
and after the economic boom of the 1990s have all contributed to the
development and ‘locking-in’ of car-based mobility patterns.
Recent suggestions to fast-track infrastructural projects such as motorways
by reducing public participation and the weakness of local government
in Ireland regarding infrastructural decisions including transport initiatives
is seen by some to further exacerbate unsustainable mobility patterns.
The socio-economic and cultural consequences of hypermobility and car
dependency have been the focus of recent debates in Ireland both in the
media and among social scientists and policy-makers. Yet few studies
have been carried out in Ireland to date that investigate public opinion
toward transport and mobility and explore possibilities for participatory
decision-making that would help promote more sustainable modes of transport
and reduce car dependency. This paper will present data from three surveys
of public attitudes towards different modes of transport carried out
at NUI, Galway between 2004 and 2006. It will also show how existing
transport policies in Ireland offer limited opportunities for public
participation and the development of more sustainable mobility patterns.
Finally, some tentative suggestions will be made regarding how innovative
decision-making structures at local and regional level could help shape
future mobility in Ireland through multi-modal networks and localised
transport solutions.
Globalization and the Global Commons:
The Environmental Impact of outsourcing US jobs to Developing Nations
Shankara
Babu & Nicholas Hild
ESH Program,
Department of Industrial Technology,
CCSN Henderson Campus,
Henderson, NV, USA
The founding fathers wanted a strong ‘federal
government’ to
ensure American businesses can prosper. 200 some years later big biz
not only drives American domestic policy but its overseas policy as well.
In the year 2004, 16, 000 workers were laid off because their jobs were
outsourced, in 2005 11,000 workers were laid off because of their jobs
went overseas, in 2006 the numbers of jobs sent overseas is expected
to be around 13 – 16, 000, this trend shows no signs of slowing
down.
BLS data indicates that not only technology jobs are being outsourced
but also manufacturing jobs as well, the one time staple of American
middle class source of employment. As more and more operations get moved
overseas, the companies that send these jobs benefit from the lower labor
costs, but there is also the benefit of not generating hazardous wastes.
In the long run this might be the bigger windfall for American companies,
because hazardous waste liability remains in perpetuity.
Most companies
are quick to deny the charge that their overseas operations does not
confirm to American standards for environmental issues, particularly
management of toxic and hazardous waste, more often than not, the opposite
is true. A good majority of host countries are just beginning to have
environmental laws that are comparable to US laws in strength and reach.
These countries do not have the structure in place to police these multinational
companies, and more often that not the technical expertise required to
manage hazardous materials is resident in the companies than the enforcement
agencies. And the fact that the jobs and the related wealth these multinational
companies bring to their local economy is tremendous and undisputed,
and as such any regulations that might potentially hamstring a company
does not have much support both in the community and in the legislature.
Understanding
that it will be some time before these host nations and their communities
take charge of their environmental issues the job boom is causing, maybe
if there is widespread cost effective web based information system available
to the local citizens and the regulators, it might help them make better
choices, than to wait to learn from the mistakes of their own.
This paper
explores the possibility of influencing the decision making process by
making available the vast knowledge of what works in the arena of environmental
and hazardous materials management that is been complied not only from
research but also from the various environmental issues communities in
the US have faced.. The hope here is to avoid some of the fundamental
pitfalls of globalization’s impact on the local
environment, and to help the locals make sound choices that would ensure
the long term sustainability of their communities.