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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kenneth Taylor, Emeritus Professor Simon WoodsORCiD
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Taylor and Francis, 2020.
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This paper reports our first findings from an ongoing study. We begin by reviewing our understanding of synthetic biology, RI/RRI and other social science writings before presenting findings from empirical work that highlight the limited nature of how RI/RRI is understood and a conflation with the ubiquitous ELSI paradigm, and finally, we consider wider issues of awareness-raising and competence building that are required among synthetic biologists and those they work with.The focus of this paper is a synthetic biology project based in a single UK institution and in which the authors are embedded as participant observers. This provided the opportunity to observe the start of a large, interdisciplinary project , funded by a UK Research Council and based solely in the UK, and to reflect on this emerging bioscience and (i) the extent to which social scientific writing has impacted on the practices and thought processes of synthetic biologists, (ii) the extent to which the concept of synthetic biology itself has developed and (iii) how notions of RRI/RI described in the literature have come to be understood by a group of scientists engaged in synthetic biology and its constituent disciplines. This work has been conducted in the context of progressing a ‘Responsible Innovation’ strand of work, cutting across the project’s other research areas in synthetic biology, microbiology, biochemistry, computer science and modelling.
Author(s): Taylor K, Woods S
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: New Genetics and Society
Year: 2020
Volume: 39
Issue: 2
Pages: 127-147
Online publication date: 27/01/2020
Acceptance date: 19/11/2019
Date deposited: 26/11/2019
ISSN (print): 1463-6778
ISSN (electronic): 1469-9915
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/14636778.2019.1709431
DOI: 10.1080/14636778.2019.1709431
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