Christopher Nathan
Biographic Data
| ID | 5912934 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christopher Nathan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christopher |
| FAMILY NAME | Nathan |
| SIGNATURE | NATHAN C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Warwick |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2386-3517 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Towards a comprehensive framework for ethical and responsible standardisation
This paper presents a framework for ethical and responsible standardisation by adapting Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles to standard-setting. While standardisation is sometimes viewed as technical and neutral, it has profound social and political effects. We identify relevant potential shortcomings in standardisation: overlooked social impacts, short-run market capture, and loss of expertise during certification. Further, we e…
Global Catastrophic Risk and the Drivers of Scientist Attitudes Towards Policy
An anthropogenic global catastrophic risk is a human-induced risk that threatens sustained and wide-scale loss of life and damage to civilisation across the globe. In order to understand how new research on governance mechanisms for emerging technologies might assuage such risks, it is important to ask how perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes towards the governance of global catastrophic risk within the research community shape the conduct of pote…
The Ethics of Undercover Policing
Despite the media controversies surrounding high-profile cases of undercover policing, it is not always clear what ethical issues are at stake. Can undercover policing be justified? What are the ethical issues surrounding concealment and infiltration? What larger questions does undercover policing raise about the nature of policing and the legitimacy of coercive state action? In this timely and clear account, Christopher Nathan explores these que…
Global policymakers and catastrophic risk
There is a rapidly developing literature on risks that threaten the whole of humanity, or a large part of it. Discussion is increasingly turning to how such risks can be governed. This paper arises from a study of those involved the governance of risks from emerging technologies, examining the perceptions of global catastrophic risk within the relevant global policymaking community. Those who took part were either civil servants working for the U…
Learning to do responsible innovation in industry
There is now almost a decade of experience with RRI (Responsible Research and Innovation), including a growing emphasis on RRI in industry. Based on our experiences in the EU-funded project PRISMA, we find that the companies we engaged could be motivated to do RRI, but often only after we first shifted initial assumptions and strategies. Accordingly, we formulate six lessons we learned in the expectation that they will be relevant both for RRI in…
Life Cycle Assessment and Judgement
It has become a standard for researchers carrying out biotechnology projects to do a life cycle assessment (LCA). This is a process for assessing the environmental impact of a technology, product or policy. Doing so is no simple matter, and in the last decades, a rich set of methodologies has developed around LCA. However, the proper methods and meanings of the process remain contested. Preceding the development of the international standard that…
Current Debates About the Ethics of New Technology
Bureaucratic respectful equality
Ian Carter has recently argued in a series of articles that a certain form of respect, called ‘opacity respect’, gives a moral grounding to people’s equality. This type of respect involves abstaining from making or acting on judgements about others. Aside from arguing for its justificatory role, Carter also argues that, in this role, it has a series of implications for our thinking about liberal politics. I argue, first, that the theoretical impl…
Need There be a Defence of Equality? Winner of the 2010 Postgraduate Essay Prize
Global policymakers and catastrophic risk
There is a rapidly developing literature on risks that threaten the whole of humanity, or a large part of it. Discussion is increasingly turning to how such risks can be governed. This paper arises from a study of those involved the governance of risks from emerging technologies, examining the perceptions of global catastrophic risk within the relevant global policymaking community. Those who took part were either civil servants working for the U…
Life Cycle Assessment and Judgement
It has become a standard for researchers carrying out biotechnology projects to do a life cycle assessment (LCA). This is a process for assessing the environmental impact of a technology, product or policy. Doing so is no simple matter, and in the last decades, a rich set of methodologies has developed around LCA. However, the proper methods and meanings of the process remain contested. Preceding the development of the international standard that…
Bureaucratic respectful equality
Ian Carter has recently argued in a series of articles that a certain form of respect, called ‘opacity respect’, gives a moral grounding to people’s equality. This type of respect involves abstaining from making or acting on judgements about others. Aside from arguing for its justificatory role, Carter also argues that, in this role, it has a series of implications for our thinking about liberal politics. I argue, first, that the theoretical impl…
Need There be a Defence of Equality? Winner of the 2010 Postgraduate Essay Prize
Bureaucratic respectful equality
Ian Carter has recently argued in a series of articles that a certain form of respect, called ‘opacity respect’, gives a moral grounding to people’s equality. This type of respect involves abstaining from making or acting on judgements about others. Aside from arguing for its justificatory role, Carter also argues that, in this role, it has a series of implications for our thinking about liberal politics. I argue, first, that the theoretical impl…
Learning to do responsible innovation in industry
There is now almost a decade of experience with RRI (Responsible Research and Innovation), including a growing emphasis on RRI in industry. Based on our experiences in the EU-funded project PRISMA, we find that the companies we engaged could be motivated to do RRI, but often only after we first shifted initial assumptions and strategies. Accordingly, we formulate six lessons we learned in the expectation that they will be relevant both for RRI in…
Life Cycle Assessment and Judgement
It has become a standard for researchers carrying out biotechnology projects to do a life cycle assessment (LCA). This is a process for assessing the environmental impact of a technology, product or policy. Doing so is no simple matter, and in the last decades, a rich set of methodologies has developed around LCA. However, the proper methods and meanings of the process remain contested. Preceding the development of the international standard that…
Current Debates About the Ethics of New Technology
Global policymakers and catastrophic risk
There is a rapidly developing literature on risks that threaten the whole of humanity, or a large part of it. Discussion is increasingly turning to how such risks can be governed. This paper arises from a study of those involved the governance of risks from emerging technologies, examining the perceptions of global catastrophic risk within the relevant global policymaking community. Those who took part were either civil servants working for the U…
Global Catastrophic Risk and the Drivers of Scientist Attitudes Towards Policy
An anthropogenic global catastrophic risk is a human-induced risk that threatens sustained and wide-scale loss of life and damage to civilisation across the globe. In order to understand how new research on governance mechanisms for emerging technologies might assuage such risks, it is important to ask how perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes towards the governance of global catastrophic risk within the research community shape the conduct of pote…
The Ethics of Undercover Policing
Despite the media controversies surrounding high-profile cases of undercover policing, it is not always clear what ethical issues are at stake. Can undercover policing be justified? What are the ethical issues surrounding concealment and infiltration? What larger questions does undercover policing raise about the nature of policing and the legitimacy of coercive state action? In this timely and clear account, Christopher Nathan explores these que…
Towards a comprehensive framework for ethical and responsible standardisation
This paper presents a framework for ethical and responsible standardisation by adapting Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles to standard-setting. While standardisation is sometimes viewed as technical and neutral, it has profound social and political effects. We identify relevant potential shortcomings in standardisation: overlooked social impacts, short-run market capture, and loss of expertise during certification. Further, we e…
Political science (7 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Economics (4 works) · Environmental ethics (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Engineering (3 works)