List members may be interested in the following:
This month's London Public Understanding of Science Seminar will be on
Wednesday 30th April 2003, at the London School of Economics and Political
Science, at 4.15pm.
We are pleased to have been able to reschedule Nicola Lindsey from Imperial
College, London, who will be talking about her research, which has included
detailed observations of the Genetics and Insurance Committee.
Her title and abstract is below:
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Expertise, representation and interest in the dynamics of a scientific
advisory body: observations from the Genetics and Insurance Committee
In May 1999 the Government reviewed the regulatory and advisory framework on
biotechnology and reorganised the ever expanding network of advisory bodies,
agencies and committees into a new two-tiered system. Two overarching
commissions were created - the Human Genetics Commission and Agriculture and
Environment Biotechnology Commission - to provide strategic advice (in
conjunction with the Food Standards Agency) on the ethical, legal and social
implications of human, agricultural and food-related biotechnologies. At
the same time, the large network of smaller, technical bodies that had been
dealing with individual applications, products and processes of
biotechnology was reorganised under the guidance of these three bodies. All
committees were charged with the responsibilities of drawing their
membership from a wide range of interests and expert disciplines; of
consulting the public and/or stakeholders during the course of their
decision-making; and of following new government guidelines on openness and
transparency.
In this paper I follow the experiences of one of these advisory bodies - the
Genetics and Insurance Committee - in its attempts to implement these
objectives, using empirical data gathered from observations of committee
meetings from 1999-2001 and from in-depth interviews with committee members
and other stakeholders in the genetic testing and insurance debate. In
particular, I focus on the committee's efforts to carve out a role for
itself within the context of this framework and of the growing public debate
on the issue of genetic testing and insurance, and show the profound effect
that this had on its internal dynamics.
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The seminar will be held in a different room again. It is in room H102,
which is on the first floor of Connaught House, on the corner of Houghton
Street and Aldwych.
Here's a link to a map of LSE http://www.lse.ac.uk/School/maps/map3.htm
It would be useful to hear from you if you intend to come - please email me.
All are welcome and please feel free to forward to any interested groups.
Simon Lock
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Simon Lock
Department of Science and Technology Studies
University College London
Gower Street
London
WC1E 6BT
Tel:020 7679 2299
Fax:020 7916 2425
[log in to unmask]
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