“Green is the color of my true love´s dreams: How civil society actors (could) gain (and lose) agency by

refiguring Green Nanotechnology Stories”

Paper presented at the 8th International Conference in Interpretive Policy Analysis Societies in Conflict: Experts, Publics and Democracy, IPA2013, 3-5

July, Panel 65_Top Leaders or Toy Soldiers? Reconsidering Discursive Agency in Policy Research

Willy ViehöverUniversity of Augsburg (Ger)

What the academic story is about …

• I. Narrative Governance and Agency: Narratives and narrativization

• II. The case: Speaking Nanotechnogies „green“ in the governance of knowledge production

• III. Meanings of narrative „form“ and narrative „strategies“ for shaping agency

• IV. Preliminary findings: challenging the hegemony of the green nanotechnology `reference´ narrative

I. On Narratives and Narrativization

• Human beings have ever been and still are story telling animals. The Narrative is a discursive meta-code transhistorical, transnational and transcultural in character (Barthes)

• I will treat storytelling as a fundamental structured and structurating “way of worldmaking” (Goodman), leaving however spaces for creative imagination wide open (Ricoeur).

• We are governed by narratives, but try hard to govern narratives too (Ricoeur, Booth, Miller)

• This is a rather complex play between author, texts (images, speech, symb. objects) and the reader

II. The Case

• Is there such thing as a discursive or narrative governance of knowledge production in the field of emerging nanotechnologies going on?

• Narrative structures are not only of major importance in structuring discourse but in shaping agency of the core actors involved

III. Three issues I´m going to touch …

• (a) Plot and emplotment (i.e. configuring plots, actants, characters and action

• (b) Actants , characters and action and interrelations

• (c) Some narratives devices and strategies: Duration, frequency, voice and vision (focalization)

a.) Plot and emplotment (Plot is a configured synthesis of the heterogenous events, existents and characters; Ricoeur)

• `WE´RE STANDING AT THE CROSSROADS´ …• (example 3) “Two roads lie before the nanotechnology

community: business as usual and green nanotechnology. Business as usual may or may not be sustainable and friendly to the environment, yet it is the more heavily traveled road. Green nanotechnology is currently the road less traveled by, but taking that road could make all the difference to the sustainability and long-term success of this exciting new technology. Will we follow a green road less traveled by and make all the difference?” (Karn 2008: 263)

• … `AND MIGHT COME OUT WITH A TECHNOLOGY WASHED GREEN´

`LET´S GO GREY AGAIN´: CSOs attempts to refigure the green nano narrative

• (example 5) “In a world increasingly concerned about climate change, resource depletion, pollution and water shortages, nanotechnology has been much heralded as a new environmental saviour. Proponents have claimed that nanotechnology will deliver energy technologies that are efficient, inexpensive and environmentally sound. They predict that highly precise nanomanufacturing and the use of smaller quantities of potent nanomaterials will break the tie between economic activity and resource use. In short, it is argued that nanotechnology will enable ongoing economic growth and the expansion of consumer culture at a vastly reduced environmental cost./In this report, for the first time, Friends of the Earth puts the ‘green’ claims of industry [Actant: human/systemic : villain/opponent] under the microscope. Our investigation reveals that the nanotechnology industry has over-promised and under-delivered. Many of the claims made regarding nanotechnology’s environmental performance, and breakthroughs touted by companies claiming to be near market, are not matched by reality. Worse, the energy and environmental costs of the growing nano industry are far higher than expected.” (Friends of the Earth 2010: 5)

b) Actants, characters, actions and interrelation

• Where do we look at? Look at actant roles (e.g. sender, receiver, subject (hero), object, helper, villain + actions, modalities (knowing, not knowing (knowledge); must /not must be able/not being able (capacity), wanting/not wanting (motivation, desire) e.g. States, features and actions of actants and participants)

• (example 9) “Scientists [actant: active – emotional state ?] are excited by the revolutionary nature of nanotechnology. They have discovered that materials do not retain the same properties if you chop them into nano-sized pieces—a paradigm shift that opens up new ways of thinking about matter. Engineers [actant: ] are equally intrigued by the possibility of tuning properties merely by changing the size of a material. Industries see an enabling technology that can be applied in all manufacturing sectors. Every discipline and profession wants a piece of the action. / Nanotechnology is becoming much Nanotechnology is becoming much more complex, no longer only using “dumb” nanoscale materials in passive matrices but also using nanomaterials with multiple functions and multiple properties. These materials are not amenable to simple, standard analytical methods, and substances must be measured, or their risks cannot be controlled. Risk must not be ignored. As the excitement about nanotechnology mounts, voices advocating forethought about environmental, health, and safety (EHS) issues grow louder and stronger, because many people [actant : patient] feel that these issues are not yet getting the attention they deserve. These voices belong to diverse organizations: environmental advocacy groups, multiple government agencies, standards organizations, scientific as well as engineering and health-related professional societies, universities, trade associations, and industries large and small [actants: opponents].” (Karn 2008)

c) Narrative devices

• TELLING A NARRATIVE TAKES TIME, BUT IT ALSO `NARRATES´ TIME, A SINGLE DAY MIGHT TAKE A BOOK AS YOU WILL KNOW AND SO DO NANO REPORTS:

• Duration: space and (reading) time dedicated to themes, topics, characters etc.

• Frequency: times events, existents, characters and actants mentioned (repetition and narrated repetition)

• Voice: (first and third person narrators), • Focalisation: who sees from were (perspective from

within/without, part of the story plot or, narrator takes over single characters view (CSO, industry rep. etc.)

IV. Preliminary findings• 1 Standing at the crossroads: The techno-optimistic Green Nano

narrative has become the dominant way of framing Green Nanotechnologies. This optimistic plot (promises to reconcile economic growth and enviromental protection etc.) has become the reference story to which all other actors involved need to refer to …

• 2 The dominant Green Nano story is, however, in search of a CSO narrator: Refiguring the Green Nano Story (BUND, EEB, Friends of the Earth, ETC Group)

• 3 A particular case: Policy stakeholder dialogues (e.g. the Nano Commission): How CSOs voices got and get lost in translation

• 4 Is there a way out? We can learn from literature again! Let´s follow Bakhtin´s lesson and safeguard the polyphony of voices in discourse and give readers another chance …