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Murphy, J. and Levidow, L. (2006) Governing the Transatlantic Conflict over Agricultural Biotechnology: Contending Coalitions, Trade Liberalisation and Standard Setting, Routledge, London. [230 pages]
Delays in approving genetically modified crops and foods in the European Union have led to a high profile trade conflict with the United States. This book analyses the EU-US conflict and uses it as a case study to explore the governance of new technologies.
The transatlantic conflict over GM crops and foods has been widely attributed to regulatory differences that divide the EU and the US. Going beyond common stereotypes of these differences and their origins, this book analyses the conflict through contending coalitions of policy actors operating across the Atlantic. Governing the Transatlantic Conflict over Agricultural Biotechnology focuses on interactions between the EU and the US, rather than on EU-US comparisons. Drawing on original research and interviews with key policy actors, the book shows how EU-US efforts to harmonise regulations for agricultural biotechnology created a context in which activists could generate a backlash against the technology. In this new context regulations were shaped along different lines. Joseph Murphy and Les Levidow provide new insights by elaborating critical perspectives on global governance, issue-framing, standard-setting and regulatory science.
This accessible book will appeal to undergraduate and post-graduate students, academics and policy-makers working on a wide range of issues covered by political science, policy studies, international relations, economics, geography, business management, environmental and development studies, science and technology studies.
Reviews
“It is easy to over-simplify the transatlantic GM trade dispute and to characterise the main players as adopting competing ideological positions, by portraying the US as a technocratic juggernaut whose population does not care what they eat, and the EU as overly sensitive to the concerns of its paranoid public, for example. Murphy and Levidowʼs study marks a significant shift away from such partisan discussion and explores the subtleties at play within the inter-jurisdictional dynamics... The book is very clearly the result of rigorous research and this is evident throughout in the level of detail provided on the interplay of actors in transatlantic policy networks... In a context where technology, knowledge and expertise are becoming increasingly important in policy decisions, we are going to need more of the kind of rich and subtle analyses that this book provides.” (Kate Getliffe and Jane Calvert, Environmental Values, Vol. 16, pp. 279-281)
“Murphy and Levidow show that trade liberalization is not a thing apart from national politics but rather involves making difficult choices among competing state-by-state political settlements. Their thoroughly researched and carefully argued account puts the governance of new technologies squarely on the agenda of globalization studies. It should be recommended reading for all concerned with the legitimacy of the emerging global order.” (Sheila Jasanoff, Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard University)
“The authors provide a wealth of information and rigorous analysis that helps us better understand tensions between the United States and Europe, including conflicts between their respective citizens, experts, politicians and corporations.” (Frank Fischer, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University)
Reviewed in:
Environmental Values (2007, Vol. 16, No. 2, 279-281).
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