Understanding Relations between Science, Politics, and the Public

The Case of a GM Field Trial Controversy in Belgium

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4445756
AutoresMichiel P M M De Krom (0000-0003-4895-9248, Department of Sociology Ghent University Korte Meer 5 9000 Ghent Belgium, autor de correspondencia), Joost Dessein (0000-0001-6879-6269, Social Sciences Unit Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO) Burg. Van Gansberghelaan 115, box 2 9820 Merelbeke Belgium, autor de correspondencia), Nathalie Erbout (Social Sciences Unit Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO) Burg. Van Gansberghelaan 115, box 2 9820 Merelbeke Belgium, autor de correspondencia)
Año2014
Volumen54
Número1
Páginas21-39
Fecha de publicación2014-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociologia Ruralis (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0038-0199 • E-ISSN: 1467-9523
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/soru.12031
OpenAlexW1506939827
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas26

In 2011, a Belgian field trial with genetically modified crops triggered fierce public protests and debates. Opponents of the trial protested against its performance and some advocated its destruction, in response to which scientists and the government defended a scientific freedom to perform the trial. This article investigates why the different stakeholders came to occupy such mutually exclusive positions towards the trial. Based on analyses of qualitative interviews with key stakeholders, document analyses, and field observations, the article argues that the different stakeholders were involved in an ontological politics. This politics centred on the question of which ontologically different, co-existing versions of the trial should be attended to in institutionalised scientific and political appraisals of the trial. The article concludes that the institutional handling of the trial as if it represented a single reality that merited only epistemological struggles contributed to turning a multifaceted debate into a dichotomous one, figuring field trial proponents and opponents. As such, the opposition between the different stakeholders was not antecedent to the institutional handling of the trial - as different stakeholders claimed - but rather an outcome of it

Antecedent (behavioral psychology) · Field (mathematics) · Field trial · Government (linguistics) · Opposition (politics) · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Animal Genetics and Reproduction · CRISPR and Genetic Engineering · Genetically Modified Organisms Research · Law · Psychology · Public Administration · Social Psychology