Show simple item record

dc.contributor.authorSunderland, N
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-03T13:02:01Z
dc.date.available2017-05-03T13:02:01Z
dc.date.issued2009
dc.date.modified2010-12-07T07:32:08Z
dc.identifier.issn0047-2816
dc.identifier.doi10.2190/TW.39.4.c
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10072/30625
dc.description.abstractThis article provides a fresh examination of claims that biotechnology and other high profile areas of scientific research and development create a "virtuous cycle" that delivers benefits to society and ecology through an array of consumer products. Specifically, the article investigates who and what has agency in this virtuous cycle and who and what does not. I argue that official discourses on and definitions of biotechnology create strict demarcations not only on who can act in relation to biotechnology research development options, but also on where and at which stages of the virtuous cycle these agents can act. For example, scientists are presented as passive rather than active agents whose influence is limited to the laboratory context despite rhetorical use of their identity and credibility across all contexts of product development and consumption explored. Agency is highly significant in biotechnology and other areas of scientific advance because it determines who or what has moral decision making power regarding the place of new technologies in society. The article concludes with a discussion of the social and ethical impacts of these demarcations of agency in biotechnology's virtuous cycle.
dc.description.peerreviewedYes
dc.description.publicationstatusYes
dc.format.extent102459 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherBaywood Publishing
dc.publisher.placeUnited States
dc.publisher.urihttp://baywood.com
dc.relation.ispartofstudentpublicationN
dc.relation.ispartofpagefrom381
dc.relation.ispartofpageto400
dc.relation.ispartofissue4
dc.relation.ispartofjournalJournal Technical Writing and Communication
dc.relation.ispartofvolume39
dc.rights.retentionY
dc.subject.fieldofresearchCommunication and media studies
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode4701
dc.titleVirtuous or Vicious?: Agency and representation in Biotechnology's virtuous cycle
dc.typeJournal article
dc.type.descriptionC1 - Articles
dc.type.codeC - Journal Articles
gro.facultyGriffith Health, School of Human Services and Social Work
gro.rights.copyright© 2009 Baywood Publishing. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
gro.date.issued2009
gro.hasfulltextFull Text
gro.griffith.authorSunderland, Naomi L.


Files in this item

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

  • Journal articles
    Contains articles published by Griffith authors in scholarly journals.

Show simple item record