"Die ungeklärten Gefahrenpotentiale der Gentechnologie“. Öffentliche Wissenschaft, Inszenierungsstrategien und Rhetorik der Objektivität im Kontext der bundesdeutschen Gentechnologie-Debatte [Debating the “Unresolved Potential Dangers of Genetic Engineering”. Public Science, Strategies of Enactment and Performance of Science in the Context of the West German Debate of Genetic Engineering] (2022)
Anna Maria Schmidt (Author)
NTM: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Medizin
Volume: 30
Issue: 4
Pages: 501-527
Edition Details: Special section: Scientific Political Activism. Zur politischen Geschichte wissenschaftlichen Wissens [Scientific Political Activism. On the Political History of Scientific Knowledge]
Language: German
Im März 1986 veranstalteten verschiedene ‚ökologiebewegte‘ Institutionen in Heidelberg ein öffentliches Fachsymposion mit dem Titel „Die ungeklärten Gefahrenpotentiale der Gentechnologie“, auf dem internationale Wissenschaftler innen unterschiedlichster Disziplinen referierten. Anhand dieses Fachsymposions zeigt der Artikel, wie sich das öffentliche Auftreten von Wissenschaftler als eine Form von politischem Aktivismus lesen lässt. Anhand dieser Perspektive wird herausgearbeitet, wie Biolog innen, Chemiker, Mediziner, Rechts- und Politikwissenschaftler politische Botschaften zu platzieren suchten, indem sie sich gerade als unabhängige Wissenschaftler in Szene setzten. Das Heidelberger Fachsymposion, so die vertretene These, war darum beides: ein Ort der Wissenschaftsvermittlung und der politischen Agitation, und das in einer Zeit, da die schwarz-gelbe Bundesregierung an einer Gentechnikgesetzgebung arbeitete und auf unabhängige Expertisen angewiesen war. Der Beitrag macht deutlich, wie der Rekurs auf wissenschaftliche Unabhängigkeit zu einer Strategie in der kontroversen Debatte um den Einsatz von Gentechnik wurde. Er nimmt dabei eine Dimension politisch-wissenschaftlicher Aktivität in den Blick, die das in der Wissenschaftsgeschichte etablierte Expert-Konzept nicht berücksichtigt. (In March 1986, a public symposium took place in Heidelberg about the “unresolved potential dangers of genetic engineering”. The event was organized by institutions affiliated with the environmental movement. Choosing this symposium as an example, the article shows how the public appearance of scientists can be understood as a form of political activism. The article shows how specialists from fields as diverse as biology, chemistry, physics, law and political sciences tried to place political messages by putting themselves in the limelight as independent scientists. I argue that the symposium was both: a place of science communication intertwined with political agitation that, as should be noted, happened in a time when the West German government was working on the legislation of genetic engineering, legitimated by relying on independent expertise. It can be concluded that the discourse of scientific independence became a strategic tool in the controversial debate about the uses and dangers of genetic engineering. Thus, it draws attention to a dimension of political-scientific activity which cannot be fully grasped by the concept of ‘the expert’ that is established in the history of science.)
...MoreArticle Wulz, Monika; Lukas Held; Germann, Pascal (December 2022) Scientific Political Activism – eine Annäherung an das Verhältnis von Wissenschaft und politischem Engagement seit den 1960er Jahren [Scientific Political Activism - An Approach to the Relationship between Science and Political Engagement since the 1960s.]. NTM: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Medizin.
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