Bio-Objects and Bio-Subjects. Exploring the Interface of Science, Technology and Society

FAU own research funding: EFI / IZKF / EAM ...


Start date : 01.01.2012

End date : 31.12.2013

Extension date: 31.12.2014


Project details

Scientific Abstract

Innovations in biotechnology and the life sciences do not only yield great progress in various areas of scientific and technological research and thus also drive economic development, but they also dynamically chart the fundamental relationship between nature, technology, and society. In the future bio-objects will take a key position in dynamic, knowledge-based societies and economies that far exceeds their current importance. They subvert established categories (such as 'natural' vs. 'artificial', and, on a more basic level, 'object' vs. 'subject' and 'nature' vs. 'nurture'), thereby leaving the realm of the purely material and gaining a certain autonomy and independence from the contexts of their origin and use. It is the aim of the project to (1) identify bio-objects as a driving force for biotechnological developments, (2) chart their multidimensionality and (3) study their effect on agents and society. The conflicts that are expected to arise from this complexity are to be anticipated and structured. This approach allows the project to bring together all five FAU faculties; it is complemented by two external experts, Herbert Gottweis from Vienna and Jochen Taupitz from Mannheim.

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