Nanotechnology Risk Perception and Communication Specialist Meeting

Friday, January 29, 2010 - Saturday, January 30, 2010
The Upham Hotel, Santa Barbara

The purpose of the meeting is to move forward theoretical and empirical knowledge about nanotech risk perception and communication. Early empirical work on public understandings of nanotechnology has largely progressed without extensive reference to risk perceptions theory or methodology.  Equally, it has failed to fully avail itself of long standing insights on the construction of preference and methodological practice for addressing labile values in this upsteam context (i.e., where awareness of this new class of technologies remains low). Some new work on deliberation has emerged, but further discussion of the implications of this ‘upstream’ moment for method and theory is crucial. Finally, the emergence of new media and the as yet nascent status of risk amplification/attenuation has, again, new implications for risk communication that we hope also to explore. We see the workshop as an ideal way of taking stock of these more recent developments in the field.