10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17177
application/pdf
2038-3460
17177
1
en
Simone Arnaldi
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Ronald Leenes and Eleni Kosta (eds.), Bridging Distances in Technology and Regulation, Wolf Legal Publishers, 2013
Text.Serial.Journal
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/
5
Book Reviews
2014-07-14
2023-06-13
2014-07-14
2023-07-24
207-210
TS
Simone Arnaldi
2014/07/14
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17177
207
Università di Padova
2038-3460
1
en
210
Ronald Leenes and Eleni Kosta (eds.), Bridging Distances in Technology and Regulation, Wolf Legal Publishers, 2013
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17177/16079
5
Book Reviews                                                              207
derline and show the social construction of energy societies, but we are
left with very little in terms of alternatives in the end, especially with re-
gard to different political or market organization. However, this is per-
haps not surprising considering the predominantly historical perspective.
    Nevertheless, this volume is a great contribution to the field of energy
history and provides the reader with many useful and enlightening case
studies. I especially want to underline that certain contributions will be
excellent as readings for university education dealing with social and his-
torical perspectives on energy discourses in production, consumption and
culture.


                                    ***


Ronald Leenes and Eleni Kosta (eds.)
Bridging Distances in Technology and Regulation
Oisterwijk: Wolf Legal Publishers, 2013, pp. 204

Simone Arnaldi Università di Padova

    The recent history of technology is characterized by a significant de-
gree of regulatory pluralism. As a rough approximation, this growing plu-
ralization is the consequence of two intersecting processes. Firstly, the
fundamental transformation induced by globalization affects the previ-
ously unchallenged role of the nation state in setting regulations domesti-
cally through traditional command-and-control mechanisms and interna-
tionally through the forms of international public law (Ferrarese 2000;
Malsch 2013, with a reference to S&T) and opens up the regulatory space
to non-state actors. Secondly, in emerging technological fields that are
characterized by a high degree of uncertainty regulators lack the re-
sources or information needed to develop sound “discretion-limiting
rules” of mandatory nature (Dorbeck-Jung and Shelley-Egan 2013). As a
consequence, new regulatory instruments complement traditional hard,
mandatory regulation. Soft regulation is typical of this context and it con-
stitutes a tool for leveraging the information advantages of those actors to
be regulated. In this broad picture, space opens for other forms of nor-
mativity. Such normative but extra-legal aspects enter regulation especial-
ly through the science advisory system (Tallacchini 2010), and instru-
ments and mechanisms such as ethics advisory committees (Tallacchini
2009, Mali et al. 2012) and technology assessment (Rip et al. 1995).
    As far as high scientific uncertainty pushes “regulatory decision-
making into a more political direction” and thus requires “the weighing
up of sometimes competing values” (Falkner and Jaspers 2012), the reli-
208                                                         Tecnoscienza 5 (1)

ance on these policy advising instruments intersected the rapidly consoli-
dating consensus that early involvement of both stakeholders and the
broader public is extremely important for effective and sustainable sci-
ence policy (von Schomberg 2010). This convergence opens up regulation
and contributes to build, in turn, a diversified and plural regulatory and
policy space.
    The book by Ronald Leenes and Eleni Kosta collects twelve chapters
that provide several interesting entry points into regulatory pluralism and
new technologies. The papers in the book are grouped in four different
parts. The first one examines how the fast scientific and technological de-
velopment and scientific uncertainty (Gregory Mandel and Gary
Marchant; Hans Ebbers, Huub Schellekens, Hubert Leufkens and Toine
Pieters; Johan Söderberg) challenge the capacity of regulation to adapt
and cope with its changing object. This first part is completed by a com-
parison of the European and Australian approaches to innovate regula-
tion for dealing with new technologies (Lyria Bennett Moses). The second
part discusses the scope of law in technology regulation. The two chap-
ters in this section of the book explore the plurality of legal, social and
technical rules, their interplay and their effects in a networked society
(Michael Anthony C. Dizon; Robin Hoenkamp, Adrienne de Moor-van
Vugt and Gorge Huitema). The third part presents four case studies on
how technology affects moral judgement (Mark Coeckelbergh), trust (Es-
ther Keymolen; Federica Lucivero and Lucie Dalibert) and healthcare re-
lations (Anton Vedder). The fourth part includes two chapters on the
technical and legal instruments to regulate access to data stored either by
the owner of a website or, in a more general fashion, to data about the
users of online services (Maurice Schellekens; Gergely Alpár and Bart Ja-
cobs). The chapters of the book present a variety of case studies, ranging
from synthetic biology (Mandel and Marchant), to pharmaceuticals (Eb-
bers, Schellekens, Leufkens and Pieters; Söderberg), smart grids
(Hoenkamp, de Moor-van Vugt and Huitema), nanomedicine (Lucivero
and Dalibert), and a various set of cases from the internet and ICT
(Keymolen on online collaborative consumption, Vedder on e-health,
Schellekens on internet robots and privacy issues, Alpár and Jacobs on
the design of credentials in user identity management, Dizon on hacking).
    Collectively, these chapters are a fascinating journey into regulatory
pluralism, well beyond law. For example, Dizon explores the interplay of
legal and social norms with technical codes and instructions in the build-
ing of a regulatory framework; Hoenkamp, de Moor-van Vugt and
Huitema examines how technical standards obtain legal effects; Lyria
Bennett Moses compares the experiences of the law reform commissions
in Australia and of technology assessment in Europe to assess their re-
spective strengths and weaknesses in informing regulation to cope with
technological development.
    As from the title, “bridging” conceptual and empirical distances in
technology and regulation is the overall goal of the book and this meta-
Book Reviews                                                                       209
phor of the “bridge” provides its unifying logic. Sometimes, the Authors
of the chapters straightforwardly interpret the “bridge metaphor” and
examine what can overcome such distances in technology or (and) regula-
tion. With regard to this, bridging temporal distances between technolo-
gy and regulation through soft law (Mandel and Marchant) or building
trust between consumers through the technological infrastructure sup-
porting online collaborative consumption (Keymolen) are examples of
relevant themes that are covered by the book. Some other times, technol-
ogy ambiguously relates with distance. For example, technologies and the
related human practices simultaneously create both physical distance and
relational proximity as Coeckelbergh illustrates by referring to the links
between the target and the operator in drone fighting. On the contrary,
other technologies work precisely because they unrelate data and proper-
ties, as it happens in attribute-based credential data management (Alpár
and Jacobs).
    In general, although many bridges are built, the book provides only a
few road signs to travel the distances in technology and regulation. In-
deed, the reader is left with the feeling that little dialogue exists in be-
tween the chapters and the absence either of a thematic introduction or
of a section dedicated to digest and frame the individual contributions in
a broader, comprehensive perspective may be puzzling, as one has to fig-
ure out such a framework and the links between the chapters on his own.
This is particularly evident for the whole section on ethics (Part III) with
regard to the rest of the book and for the last chapter on credentials de-
sign and identity management (Chapter 12).
    Notwithstanding this aspect, the book is undoubtedly rich and pro-
vides a broad and diverse review of the connections between technology
and regulation.

References
Falkner, R. and Jaspers, N. (2012) Regulating Nanotechnologies: Risk, Uncertainty
       and the Global Governance Gap, in “Global Environmental Politics”, 12
       (1), pp. 30-55.
Ferrarese, M.R. (2000) Le istituzioni della globalizzazione, il Mulino, Bologna.
Mali, F., Pustovrh, T., Groboljsek, B. and Coenen, C. (2012) National Ethics Ad-
        visory Bodies in the Emerging Landscape of Responsible Research and Inno-
        vation, in “Nanoethics”, 6 (3), pp. 167–184.
Malsch, I. (2013) Governing Nanotechnology in a Multi-Stakeholder World, in
       “Nanoethics”, 7 (3), pp. 161-172.
Pariotti, E. (2011) Normatività giuridica e governance delle tecnologie emergenti, in
        Guerra, G., Muratorio A., Pariotti E., Piccini M. e Ruggiu D. (eds.) Forme
        di responsabilità, regolazione e nanotecnologie, il Mulino, Bologna, pp.
        509-549.
Scott, J.E. and Trubeck, D.M. (2002) Mind the Gap: Law and New Approaches to
210                                                                   Tecnoscienza 5 (1)

        Governance in the European Union, in “European Law Journal”, 8 (1), pp.
        1-18.
von Schomberg, R. (2010) Introduction , in von Schomberg, R. and Davies, S.
       (eds.) Understanding Public Debate on Nanotechnologies Options for Fram-
       ing Public Policy, European Commission, Brussels, pp. 5-12.
Rip, A., Misa, T.J. and Schot, J. (eds.) (1995) Managing technology in society. The
        approach of Constructive technology assessment, Pinter, London.
Tallacchini, M. (2010) I saperi specialistici tra science advice e soft law: technology
       assessment ed expertise etica, in Rodotà, S and Zatti, P. (eds.) Trattato di
       Biodiritto. Ambito e fonti del biodiritto, Giuffré, Milano, pp. 857-884.
Tallacchini, M. (2009) Governing by Values, EU Ethics: Soft Tool, Hard Effects, in
       “Minerva”, 47 (3), pp. 281-306.



                                        ***


Paul Rabinow and Gaymon Bennett
Designing Human Practices: An Experiment with Synthetic Biology
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012, pp. 200

Andrew S. Balmer University of Manchester
Kate Bulpin University of Sheffield

    Rabinow and Bennett’s book addresses their experiments in what they
term the design of human practices, which they conducted whilst work-
ing within the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Centre (SynBERC)
in the USA. Their work sits alongside a number of other projects interna-
tionally that have sought to develop new forms of collaboration between
the natural, engineering and social sciences in the context of synthetic bi-
ology. They outline the phases through which their experiments in col-
laboration proceeded, describing their conceptual and methodological
approach and reflecting on the various factors that eventually contributed
to what appears to have been a rather acrimonious end to the collabora-
tion and parting of ways.
    The book has so far proven controversial in some communities, par-
ticularly perhaps within the synthetic biology community itself. Some in
this field have characterised it as an intractable and intentionally abstruse
description of the events that took place at SynBERC whereas others have
labelled it an undignified airing of dirty laundry. For our part, being ad-
mirers of conceptual developments in human practices so far, we find
ourselves wishing the book could update itself as its own reception un-
folded, further detailing the ways in which the struggle to develop new
