scholarly journals Responsible Innovation Definitions, Practices, and Motivations from Nanotechnology Researchers in Food and Agriculture

NanoEthics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam E. Kokotovich ◽  
Jennifer Kuzma ◽  
Christopher L. Cummings ◽  
Khara Grieger

AbstractThe growth of responsible innovation (RI) scholarship has been mirrored by a proliferation of RI definitions and practices, as well as a recognition of the importance of context for RI. This study investigates how researchers in the field of nanotechnology for food and agriculture (nano-agrifoods) define and practice RI, as well as what motivations they see for pursuing RI. We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with nano-agrifood researchers from industry and academia in the USA, where we asked them to describe their RI definitions, practices, and motivations. We analyzed the emergent themes from these interviews, including how the themes aligned with four prominent RI principles (anticipation, inclusion, reflexivity, responsiveness). We found that nano-agrifood researchers largely focused their descriptions of RI definitions, practices, and motivations around a narrow envisioning of the RI principle of anticipation — emphasizing product safety, efficacy, and efficiency. We also found noteworthy tensions surrounding the less frequently mentioned RI principles. For example, some researchers envisioned inclusion as a way to align products with industry interests while others saw it as a way to align products with the public good. Concerning motivations for RI, some researchers viewed RI as a way to protect one’s reputation and avoid lawsuits while others viewed it as a way to improve human well-being and solve societal problems. Given these findings, future efforts to foster RI within nano-agrifoods should promote discussions among researchers concerning what it means to responsibly innovate and what practices this could entail, particularly beyond ensuring product safety, efficacy, and efficiency.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Megan Paish

<p>The objective of this thesis is to identify how criminalisation by mainstream media, police, politicians, ‘the public’ and court processes affected green activists, with specific reference to the Terror Raids of October 2007. Drawing on media analysis - covering news articles from 15 October 2007 to 15 November 2007, and 1 January 2017 to 31 July 2018 - and semi-structured interviews with eight participants (all green activists, two of whom were arrested in the Terror Raids), this research explores the issues of colonisation, activism, criminalisation, and resistance to criminalisation in detail.   The research concludes that state agents and mainstream media contributed to a ‘blanket criminalisation’ of activists in the Terror Raids and that this criminalisation had significantly detrimental effects on the activists, whānau , and wider groups. This intense criminalisation was produced as a result of activists being labelled as ‘terrorists’. As a result, the Raids represented an evolution in the criminalisation of green activists in Aotearoa - from inconsistent forms of criminalisation (in which previous criminalising narratives had been joined by narratives relating to democratic freedom and environmental justice) to the application of intense criminalisation by the state and mainstream media of all activists in the Raids. This research demonstrates, therefore, the power of labelling. However, this thesis also identifies the power of green activism and the resilience of campaigners to this intense criminalisation. It emphasises that resistance can survive even when confronted by intense criminalisation and state violence. It concludes by emphasising the significant contributions green activists make to the environmental well-being of Aotearoa and to the international environmental justice movement.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 295-309
Author(s):  
Joyce Cheah Lynn-Sze ◽  
◽  
Azlina Kamaruddin ◽  

Health opinion leaders have widely embraced social media for health promotion and public health communication which can make a strong influence on the public decision making. However, despite the growing relevance of public health threats such as infectious diseases, pandemic influenza and natural disasters, research has paid little attention to the qualities of opinion leaders. Moreover, there is limited evidence that public health organisations use social media appropriately to engage in meaningful conversations with audiences. Thus, the aims of the study are to describe principles of communication practised by online opinion leaders to promote health issues, to discuss the strategies of social media used, to explain the opinion leaders’ influence attributes in health decision making and finally to develop a model of online opinion leader in the contemporary health promotion era. Content analysis was conducted on Facebook postings of five selected health opinion leaders. In addition, semi-structured interviews with 10 followers were conducted. The findings of the study revealed that there are three principles of communication practised by online opinion leaders, which are language, interaction and themes. There are three strategies opinion leaders use to influence the public: social connectivity, social support and social consultation. Furthermore, there are five opinion leaders’ attributes that influence the public’s decision making, namely personality, authenticity, trust/credibility, professional knowledge and social position. The model would be beneficial in educating and guiding the current public health opinion leaders in order to establish health and social well-being. Keywords: Online opinion leader, online health communication, public health, two-step flow theory, decision making.


2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Cornes ◽  
Todd Sandler

Abstract In the pure public good model, the Nash equilibrium associated with one initial income distribution may Pareto dominate the equilibrium associated with another distribution of the same aggregate income. We explore this possibility and examine its implications for Pareto-improving policy intervention by undertaking a comparative static analysis of Pareto-improving tax-financed increases in pure public good provision. Under some circumstances, a government can engineer policies that raise public good provision while increasing the well-being of contributors and noncontributors. Crucial factors promoting this outcome involve a large number of noncontributors, a high marginal valuation for the public good by non-contributors and a large aggregate response of contributors to changes in their income.


Author(s):  
Ikhfan Haris ◽  
Afdaliah Afdaliah ◽  
Muhammad Ichsan Haris

Escalated by mid-January 2020, the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is having a profound effect on all aspects of society, including the education activities in higher education. Colleges and universities globally are taking various actions to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. These efforts are mainly to secure the well-being of their students and staff, as well as members of their communities. Due to the increasing number of infections has prompted a number of universities in Indonesia to participate in the fight against the virus outbreak. This article provides an overview of the role played by Indonesian universities dealing with COVID-19 pandemic and how Indonesian universities serving the public good for COVID-19 breakthroughs. The research problem of this study focuses on how the strategies developed by the university in responding to COVID-19 and their implementation to reduce the potential consequences of the pandemic impacts. Subsequently, this paper presented the responses of universities in Indonesia in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. The forms of responses presented in this paper are academic responses, research and development responses and social community services responses. Furthermore, a conceived information of the issues and challenging of involving of universities in collaborating on solutions to crises of the coronavirus pandemic in Indonesian context were portrayed. In conclusion, this paper summarizes the contribution of Indonesian universities and its impacts in fighting deadly virus disease COVID-19.


Author(s):  
Budd L. Hall

This article is about the potential for university-community engagement to serve the public good by transforming the health and well-being of our communities. It documents contemporary expressions of and renewed calls for community university engagement. It includes a detailed treatment of community based research, discussed in the overall context of community-university engagement. The article also explores some other important and growing dimensions of community university engagement, including the development of structures for the support of community-based research and community-service learning. It concludes with an argument that university-community engagement, while not the only current trend in higher education that affects our work in continuing education, is nonetheless a very important new development in which continuing education has much to offer and much to gain.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kay Lisa Maddox-Daines

PurposeThis paper examines how human resources (HR) professionals in the UK have supported employee wellbeing during the coronavirus disease (COVID) pandemic. It considers the extent to which HR professionals were prepared for the crisis and their readiness in supporting the wellbeing of their people.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 senior HR professionals working across the public and private sectors in the UK. Using an in-depth interview structure, the research explored how respondents both reacted to and managed the crisis in their respective organisations. Template analysis was used to analyse the data allowing a certain degree of fluidity in the establishment of ordered relationships between the themes.FindingsThis study finds that business continuity plans turned out to be useless during the pandemic because they focussed on data, not people. It highlights the tension between home-working and burn-out as online presenteeism increased due to staff changing their behaviour in response to self-surveillance. The paper emphasises the importance of soft skills and authentic leadership and the tensions in respect of equity.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted with HR professionals in the UK, not internationally. Although the sample did include HR professionals from across the public, private and third sectors, the experience may not be representative of all those working in HR.Originality/valueThis research found that those organisations that had engaged in business continuity planning prior to the pandemic focussed on the retrieval and accessibility of data rather than people. This prioritises staff as a resource rather than emphasising people as an organisation's most valuable asset. Furthermore, the study found that staff worked harder and for longer periods of time as a consequence of self-imposed surveillance. Organisational responses were contradictory as despite implementing well-being strategies to promote physical and mental health, there was little evidence of an effective response to this online presenteeism.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Frank Miedema

AbstractScience in the recent past promised to society to contribute to the grand challenges of the United Nations, UNESCO, WHO, the EU agenda and national agendas for change and improvement of our life, the human condition. In this chapter it will be briefly discussed how this social contract between science and society has developed since 1945. In the context of this book I distinguish three time periods, but I do realize slightly different time periods may be preferred, based on the perspective taken. The first phase from 1945 till 1960 is characterized by autonomy, building on the successes of the natural sciences and engineering in World War II. In the second phase, the late sixties till approximately 1980, government and the public lost trust and saw the downside of science and technology. The response from politics and the public was to call for societal and political responsible research inspired by broader socio-political developments in society. The third phase from 1990 till 2010 was one of renewed enthusiasm and hope that science and technology would bring economic growth, which should make nations internationally competitive. There increasingly was also room for societal problems related to environment and sustainability, health and well-being. In this approach of the so-called knowledge economy, with the world-wide embracing of neoliberal politics, strong relations with government and the private sector were established. This was accompanied by short-term accountability, control from government and funders at the level of project output, using accordingly defined metrics and indicators. Because of this, this model became firmly and globally institutionalized.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalilah Zakariya ◽  
Syamim Azhari

The implementation of public art in the outdoor spaces has been acknowledged by various designers and researchers to enliven public spaces. The contributions of public art towards social well-being have also gained a growing attention among researchers for the past three decades. Within the recent years, efforts of placemaking have begun to be initiated by local authorities, as a way of reinforcing the sense of belonging among the public towards their public spaces. While the placemaking process is commonly adopted as a method to revive cities and communities, however, there has not yet been any documentation on the use of public art as part of the process, particularly in Malaysia. This study aims to establish the Eco Public Art Placemaking Framework to guide local authorities and built environment professionals adopt public participation in the public art process. This study has examined Laman Seni Shah Alam as a case study, which is a back lane revitalization project that has been transformed through eco public art. Through semi-structured interviews with the local authority, the organizer and the artists, this study has discovered that the framework is collaborative and multidisciplinary, and that there are four main phases in the framework. This study concludes that the framework has potential to be adopted by local authorities in Malaysia, and it can enable a more holistic process between the local government, consultants, artists and the public.


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