About the project
Past developments in the domain of modern biotechnology, such as for example the fate of GM food in Europe, have shown that the consideration of public concerns is crucial for sustainable technology development.
Such concerns are likely not only to be based on sound science understandings of risks and utilities but, and increasingly so, to involve ethical issues and general ideas about 'how we want to live'. This is especially likely with sensitive technologies in the life sciences such as embryonic stem cell research, synthetic biology or human-animal chimeras, to name but a few.
The purpose of the STEPE project is to investigate these broader public concerns – which we conceptualise as 'public ethics'. It is our aim to stimulate new, empirically grounded, thinking on public ethics as a contribution to wider debates and policy making on responsible technological innovation.
STEPE involves 13 European laboratories from 10 countries and is coordinated at the London School of Economics and Political Science by Professor George Gaskell.
• NEWS
Eurobarometer 2005 in the news as UK GM debate is re-activated
See the following article from The Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/22/gmcrops.food
