Governing through Expertise
The Politics of Bioethics

A unique analysis of bioethical expertise, 'expert knowledge' which claims authority in the ethical analysis of issues relating to science and technology.

Annabelle Littoz-Monnet (Author)

9781108843928, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 November 2020

200 pages
15 x 23 x 1.5 cm, 0.4 kg

Littoz-Monet's fascinating look at bioethical knowledge provides a window into the politics of expertise, the relationship between objective and ethical knowledge, and how a rationalizing world that privileges expert and objective knowledge creates a space for a bureaucratized ethics with all the advantages and disadvantages that accompany it.  Governing through Expertise is a stimulating exploration of how science tames ethics and ethics tames science. Michael Barnett, University Professor of International Affairs and Political Science, George Washington University

Littoz-Monnet provides a fresh analysis of the enmeshment of expert knowledge with politics in global governance, through a unique investigation of bioethical expertise, an intriguing form of 'expert knowledge' which claims authority in the ethical analysis of issues that arise in relation to biomedicine, the life sciences and new fields of technological innovation. She makes the case that the mobilisation of ethics experts does not always arise from a motivation to rationalise governance. Instead, mobilising ethics experts - who are endowed with a unique double-edged authority, both 'democratic' and 'epistemic' - can help policy-makers manoeuvre policy conflicts on scientific and technological innovations and make their pro-science and innovation agendas possible. Bioethical expertise is indeed shaped in a political and iterative space between experts and those who do policy. The book reveals the mechanisms through which certain global governance narratives, as well as the types of expertise they rely on, remain stable even when they are contested.

1. Introduction: Governing Science and Technology
2. Re-Conceptualizing the Enmeshment of Knowledge and Politics
3. The Fabric of Ethics Experts
4. Researching Embryonic Stem Cells
5. Manipulating Particles on a Small Scale
6. Tracking People's Behaviour
7. Conclusions: The Politics of Expertise.

Subject Areas: Medical sociology [MBS], International organisations & institutions [LBBU], International relations [JPS], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]