publication

Governing through expertise the politics of bioethics

Authors:
Annabelle LITTOZ-MONNET
2020

The book asks how the notion of ethics expertise has emerged, what functions its mobilisation plays in the governance of scientific and technological innovation and how such expertise is produced. It reveals that bioethics expertise is fundamentally political in three distinct but interrelated ways. First, its mobilisation in policy does not always arise from a motivation to rationalise governance. Mobilising experts can be a way of manoeuvring through political conflicts, because the mobilisation of expertise can hide the political component of public discussions, insulate policy-making and facilitate the fabric of policy compromises. Second, bioethical expertise and policy do not belong to impervious spheres ; experts can be mobilised to such avail because iterations between knowledge and politics take place through tangible mechanisms, so that bioethical expertise ultimately makes policy possible, rather than provide it with oversight. Third, through a close-up on bioethics expertise, the book reveals that the delineation of what counts as expert knowledge fluctuates, reflecting specific political and social circumstances and the agendas which actors unfold in given contexts (Provided by publisher)