Finding Political Opportunities: Civil Society, Industrial Power, and the Governance of Nanotechnology in the European Union

Keywords: nanotechnology, civil society, European Union

Abstract

The European Union encourages and institutionalizes participation by environmental, consumer, and labor organizations in the governance of nanotechnology. Interviews with leaders of the civil society organizations (CSOs) show that they identified multiple problems with nanotechnology policy but had only limited success in gaining the changes that they sought. CSO leaders explain their lack of success as due to the overwhelming power of industry and the support of the European Commission for new industrial development, including nanotechnology. We analyze the perspectives of CSO leaders about their difficulties to develop the theory of the political opportunity structure in the situation of a highly scientized policy field with strong industrial monitoring. We suggest the need to extend the theory to pay more attention to the strategies that reformers can use to maneuver in and to open a relatively closed political opportunity structure. We argue that formal stakeholder engagement is not very effective and suggest instead the importance of the following: building coalitions with government actors, threatening or mobilizing grassroots mobilization, making the issue salient to the public, and pursuing the full range of institutional repertoires.

 

Author Biographies

Anna Lamprou, Panswiss Project Route de Roman 21 1027 Lonay SWITZERLAND

Anna Lamprou received her master’s in Chemical Education and New Technologies from the University of Athens and her PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She has been a fellow in the Environmental History and Policy Program of the Chemical Heritage Foundation; a researcher at the National Center for Social Research in Athens; a recipient of the Council of Women World Leaders (CWWL) graduate fellowship in environmental policy; and a recipient of a National Science Foundation dissertation improvement grant.  She currently is Research and Communications Advisor at Panswiss Project, a think tank in Lausanne. 

David J. Hess, Vanderbilt University
David J. Hess is a professor of sociology  and the James Thornton Fant Chair in Sustainability Studies at Vanderbilt University, where he is the director of the Program in Environmental and Sustainability Studies and Associate Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment. He has received the Robert K. Merton Prize from the American Sociological Association for his book Alternative Pathways in Science and Industry and various grants from the National Science Foundation to study the societal dimensions of sustainability, energy, water, science, and technology. His work on non-state actors and environmental governance includes studies of a range of social movements with respect to science, industrial change, and technology.
Published
25 May 2016
Section
Research Articles