Ethics Expertise as a Tool of Conflict Manoeuvring

This paper examines how ethics/bioethics expertise can act as a mechanism for the management of policy conflicts, making the case that its mobilization can either pre-empt, bypass or tame policy conflicts related to scientific and technological innovation. By involving experts into policy, policy-makers can more easily leave aside or hide the political nature of problems, insulate policy or provide alternative avenues for the building of workable policy scenarios. Experts can be mobilised to such avail because the production of ethics expertise does not take place independently from politics. It is produced at the junction of policy and science in an iterative space between experts and policy-makers. Ultimately, ethics expertise makes policies on scientific and technological innovation possible, rather than provide it with either guidance or oversight. These arguments are explored in the case of the EU’s nanotechnology policy.