The Limits to Governance

Does the state still frame debates about new technology? Can policy-makers ensure the benefits of health developments through genomics while still satisfying the expectations of society and the economic imperatives? In this critique of the new governance agenda for research and innovation in life sciences, the authors discuss the world-wide policy decisions needed, with particular reference to genomics. They suggest the many facets of policy and could be treated as a government-governance continuum, where different aspects of genomics may sit at different points, and co-exist. Their findings offer valuable insights for the future and will help promote a global solution to this problem.

Dr Catherine Lyall is Deputy Director of the ESRC Innogen Centre at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Theo Papaioannou is Lecturer in Innovation and the Politics of Development at the Open University and a member of the ESRC Centre for Social and Economic Research on Innovation in Genomics (INNOGEN). He is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Brighton and a Sessional Lecturer at the University of London. Dr James Smith is a Co-Director and Senior Lecturer in the Centre of African Studies and Director of Developing Country Research in the ESRC Innogen Centre, University of Edinburgh. He is a Co-Director of the Edinburgh International Development Centre and a visiting research fellow in Development Policy and Practice at the Open University.

Contents: Foreword; Preface; The challenge of policy-making for the new life sciences, Catherine Lyall, Theo Papaioannou and James Smith; Part 1 Principles: Governance and justice: the challenge of genomics, Theo Papaioannu; The roles of values and interests in the governance of the life sciences: learning lessons from the 'ethics+' approach of UK Biobank, Graeme Laurie, Ann Bruce and Catherine Lyall; Governing reproductive treatment and research: from the moral to the political to the legal - and back again? Or 'there and back again, a regulator's (Hobbit's) odyssey (holiday)', Shawn H.E. Harmon. Part 2 Processes: Evolution along the government-governance continuum: impacts of regulations on medicines innovation in the United States, Christopher-Paul Milne and Joyce Tait; Governments and governance of bioscience as a 'new security challenge', Paul Nightingale and Caitríona McLeish; Biosciences, 'development' and the abstraction of governance, James Smith; Ever-changing policy context: the one stable threat to biotech governance in Africa?, Julius Tazvishaya Mugwagwa. Part 3 People: Advocacy groups as research organizations: novel approaches in research governance, Nadja Kanellopoulou; Non-governmental limits: governing biotechnology from Europe to Africa, Matthew Harsh; Deliberative governance: political fad or a vision of empowerment?, Peter Bryant; Governance in action in the life sciences: some lessons for policy, Catherine Lyall, Theo Papaioannou and James Smith; Index.