Advancing humanities-based knowledge on human/nature relations in biotechnology.
Project owner:
GenØk - The Centre for Biosafety
Project Coordinator
Trine Antonsen, PhD (Norway, Scientist)
Funding:
The Norwegian Research Council
After decades of disagreement about the role of biotechnology in sustainable agriculture, new techniques for genome editing have emerged. These techniques, such as CRISPR/CAS-systems, are claimed to be easier, cheaper, more precise than earlier forms of biotechnology, such as genetic modification (GM). Importantly, the techniques are also claimed to be more natural because they does not necessarily involve the insertion of genes from other species.
The rapid emergence and uptake of the technology is seeing policy makers now struggling to navigate this controversial new field. Both the ethical and the regulatory framework for considering biotechnology needs updating.
The ReWrite project aims to produce knowledge that can help decision makers develop policy and regulations that meet the challenge of developing sustainable food systems. We conduct an environmental ethics analyses of how human/nature relations are being reimagined and rewritten by genome editing and suggest a new framework based on a relational ethics, we perform discourse analysis to bring forth knowledge about how different people and groups think about, communicate and debate genome editing. To facilitate public participation and stimulate creative thinking, the research will be conducted and communicated in collaboration with artists.
The ReWrite Project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council’s program SAMKUL - Research program on the cultural conditions underlying social change. Projects in the SAMKUL program produce knowledge relevant for major challenges in relation to humans and nature, technology and material surroundings, knowledge, welfare and economy.
Work Packages
How do different techniques of genetic modification transform human/nature relations and what is the significance of these differences from the perspective of a relational environmental ethics?
WP 2: Communicative Aspects of Human/Nature Relations in Public Narratives of Genome Editing
How are human/nature relations and the attendant ethical issues communicated in narratives of genome editing in the public sphere
WP 3: Exploring Links between Ethical & Communicative Aspects Using the Creative Arts
How can the creative arts be used to bring the ethical and communicative aspects of the project into dialogue and to suggest alternative pathways of socio-technical development towards sustainable food futures?
WP 4: Linking Research Outcomes to Policy
How can knowledge on the ethical and communicative aspects of changes in human/nature relations inform biotechnology policy?
The research team
Advisors
jane CALVERT, The University of Edinburgh
Jason Delborne, NC state university
Ana Delgado, University of Oslo
Sarah hartley, University of Exeter
Svein Anders Noer Lie, Uit The Arctic University of
Norway
ERik Lundestad, UiT THe Arctic university of Norway
Kate Millar, The university of NOttigham
Christopher Preston, University of MOntana
Fern Wickson, GenØk and Nammco
Publications
Preston, C.P and T. Antonsen: “Integrity and Agency: Negotiating New Forms of Human-Nature Relations in Biotechnology”. in Environmental Ethics.
Myskja, Bjørn and Anne I. Myhr: “Non-safety Assessments of Genome-Edited Organisms: Should They be Included in Regulation?”, in Science and Engineering Ethics.
Antonsen, Trine, Erik Lundestad, and Fern Wickson: “The ReWriting of Human/Nature Relations through Genome Editing”, in Sustainable Governance and Management of Food Systems. Wageningen.
Popular publications & debate articles:
Ethicists: We need more flexible tools for evaluating gene-edited food, The Conversation, May 26, 2020, by Christopher Preston and Trine Antonsen.
Problematisk undersøkelse om genredigering, Nationen April 29, 2020, by Trine Antonsen, Torill Blix Bakkelund, Odd-Gunnar Wikmark, and Sigfrid Kjeldaas. (English translation)
Hva mener nordmenn egentlig om genmodifisert mat? Aftenposten May 19, 2020, by Trine Antonsen, Torill Blix Bakkelund, Tim Dassler, and Sigfrid Kjeldaas.