One of the tasks of NanoDiode was to arrange stakeholder deliberations on questions on nanotechnology in six of the participating nations. Specific themes were chosen by the responsible consortium members.
This report is a Project Deliverable from Work Package 3; CREATE, Task 3.1; “Developing and carrying out ‘third generation’ deliberative processes”. Beginning in Norway in June 2014, the last of the NanoDiode deliberation workshops was held in Italy in October 2015.
The report consists of the six national reports chapters 2-7; respectively Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy and France. In addition it contains introductory and a concluding chapter (1 & 8).
The Norwegian event focused on nano medicine and human enhancement, the German on nanotechnologies in building and living (esp. applications around the house), the Netherlands and Italy concentrated on nanotechnology and food, the Austrian event, like the Norwegian treated nano medicine, but with a different emphasis (sensor technology, nano toxicology and other safety issues), while the main focus in France was on materials for solar energy devices.
In total, more than a hundred stakeholders have participated in deliberations in five countries, from business, science, CSOs and politics/administration. All NanoDiode partners report that their events were successful. This view is shared by most participants, who signal that they appreciated the experience and said so in both short term and long-term evaluations.
We singled out three fields where previous deliberations had been less than completely successful (novelty, impact and workshop democracy), and it seems as if many of our stakeholder groups actually were able to express novel takes on the themes, and that the indirect, governance based attempt at creating political impact is potentially successful. As for trying out elements of workshop democracy, at least three deliberations were successful, the remaining are uncertain on this point.
Even if the 3rd GDP approach was developed for citizen empowerment and involvement, the method works well for involving and engaging stakeholders. We regard it as an efficient and fruitful operationalization of the RRI concept.
Read the full report of NanoDiode’s 3rd generation deliberations with stakeholders here:
NanoDiode D3_1 Report of the third generation deliberative processes
