Nanotechnology as if the World Mattered (Forthcoming)

Citation: Maclurcan, D. (2010) Ed. Nanotechnology as if the World Mattered, Key-Technologies International, London.

The climate crisis is symptomatic of much deeper problems we face as a world. Every day, the realisation dawns for many more that the Western model of ‘unending growth’ is continually oversold and ultimately unsustainable. Nanotechnology - the application of scientific knowledge to control and utilise matter at the scale of atoms and molecules – is both the latest scientific attraction for proponents of economic growth and the new hope that development can be de-linked from ecological damage. Yet, despite immense scientific potential, nanotechnology’s current directions look set to perpetuate unsustainable trajectories and gross global inequalities.

Nanotechnology as if the World Mattered is a bold attempt to chart alternative visions and paths for nanotechnology’s development. Drawing on the philosophies of ‘appropriate technology’, it is proposed that our collective approach to emerging technologies can both reflect and inform our broader sentiments about the kind of societies in which we want to live.

Involving 26 contributors from six continents, this book provides an introduction to nanotechnology and its potential global implications. Grounded in historical precedence, nanotechnology’s latest developments relating to the environment, health, water and food, as well as potential implications for global trade, labour and marginalised populations are presented and critiqued.

In the second half of the book, innovative ideas are presented for ensuring technological appropriateness and a shift towards meaningful, inclusive governance on multiple levels. Proposals include shifting to new methods of knowledge assessment and co-creation, novel approaches to innovation that engage ‘the poor’, multilateral regulatory mechanisms that serve everyone’s interests, and ways to overcome the global dilemma of knowledge commodification resulting from intellectual property rights regimes.

Edited by Donald Maclurcan, an Australian CEO with a background in social innovation and research relating to nanotechnology’s social impacts, the book is written for a wide audience and may be of particular interest to scholars, policy-makers, scientists and business people seeking just transitions to sustainable societies.

The book is due for publication by KTI-International in March 2010.

The Sinking of the SIEV X

Citation: Maclurcan, D. (2005) Ed. The Sinking of the SIEV X, Artisan Printing, Sydney, 36pp.