Routledge Regulating Technology: International Harmonization and Local Realities (Pathways to Sustainability)

Examining the regulation of technologies, this book explores how the drive to harmonize regulatory policies across the world is at odds with the increasingly diverse local settings in which they are implemented. The authors use a 'framings' approach that starts with the concerns and experiences of technology users and works 'upwards' in order to examine how best to improve regulation. The book centres around two in-depth case study topics: regulation of transgenic cotton seed and regulation of antibiotics, compared across situations in China and Argentina. The authors examine how high-level initiatives in regulatory harmonization and regulatory capacity building compare with national policies, day-to-day enforcement realities on the ground, and with the way poorer users experience these technologies. Through these studies the authors offer ways to rethink regulation in order to realign the power and politics at play and create more effective regulation for technology users around the world. Published in association with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Review 'This book provides an invaluable reality check on the idea that the international regulation of technology, currently designed, can effectively address the multiple social and environmental challenges thrown up by technology innovation and diffusion in diverse settings around the world. Well-researched and accessibly written, it deserves to be read by academics and policy practitioners who may be prompted to re-think regulation'. Professor Peter Newell, School of International Development, University of East Anglia 'Within Science and Technology Studies, this book represents a major contribution that builds upon the seminal work on the gap between regulatory assumptions and daily realities by Brian Wynne published in the late 1980s. The fact that this book focuses on the effects of implementation and harmonisation of regulations at the local level is particularly innovative and generates valuable findings that usefully complement - and in some cases challenge - the existing literature in this field.' Dr Claire Marris, BIOS Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science 'The creation of appropriate regulatory structures for new and emerging technologies in developing countries is a major policy challenge. This book stimulates our minds to think about the institutional frameworks that can help the developing world cope with the implications of these technologies.' Dr Sachin Chaturvedi, Senior Fellow, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi, India About the Author Patrick van Zwanenberg, Adrian Ely and Adrian Smith are researchers at SPRU (Science & Technology Policy Research) and members of the STEPS Centre (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability), both at the University of Sussex, UK