1 - Introduction: Governing Science and Technology

Summary

This introductory chapter introduces, first, the concept of bioethical expertise. It discusses the context of its emergence, its specificities as well as its special authority in policymaking.

Second, it presents the book’s argument, detailing both how the mobilisation of bioethical expertise plays out in the governance of scientific and technological innovation, and the way such expertise is produced, at the junction of the expert and the political spheres.

Third, the chapter introduces the conceptual framework of the book, making the case in particular that different logics of iteration characterise the relationship between experts, policymakers and other governance actors, acting as stabilisation mechanisms between knowledge and politics. Finally, the implications of the book are discussed, in relation to broader debates on the nature of expertise, its role in policy and the relationship between knowledge and politics.