Back to search

ISPHUM-ISP - Humaniora

Applied Ethics: Technology and Governance of Health and Natural Resources

Awarded: NOK 1.7 mill.

ISP FIDE - Applied Ethics: Technology and Governance of Health and Natural Resources has been funded by the Norwegian Research Council for the period 1 April 2012 - 31 mail 2015. The primary goal has been to strengthen Applied Ethics in Norwegian philosophy through active cooperation several of the Norwegian philosophical communities. A secondary objective was to improve the quality of publications through co-authorship and the widespread use of informal peer reviews from colleagues at other institutions. This is a declared aim expressed in the evaluation report "Philosophy and history of ideas in Norway. Evaluation of research 2004-2008 ". Programme for Applied Ethics at NTNU has led the project with the University of Bergen, University of Nordland and the University of Tromsø as active partner institutions. Two areas have been particularly important in this project: environmental ethics with a focus on natural resources and bio-ethics / health care ethics. The technology's impact on the management of these areas raises many ethical challenges, such as what kind of policies should be adopted by poor countries that are rich in natural resources. Another issue is how natural resources are shaping policies and institutions. Similar questions about technology and management are of great importance for the development and design of public health policies. Questions about enhancement technologies have been an important topic in the project, at the institutional as well as individual level. The primary objective of strengthening cooperation between the institutions and enhance the quality of investigation in the selected areas has been conducted through the active use of workshops, conferences, PhD seminars and active inclusion of researchers at various levels. The project has resulted in the strengthening of professional networks between our institutions, both as a direct result of project activities, but equally important through the expansion of the networks of international partners who have been invited as experts in our workshops, seminars and conferences. Additionally, the project has also contributed to increased contact and cooperation with other applied ethics projects internally within each partner institution. A large number of publications have come out of the project, about 120 presentations and 6 peer-reviewed articles. Several of the presentations are under preparation for publication in peer-reviewed publication channels. This network project as a whole has contributed to significant strengthening of applied ethics as a discipline in Norway by strengthening national and international networks, improving quality and increasing the publication rate in good publication channels, and has also helped to implement new applications, research and book projects.

The primary objective is to strengthen the area of applied ethics as a growing field within Norwegian philosophy. The main topic of this project is governance and technology as seen from an applied ethics perspective. There are particularly two important fields being addressed, i.e. environmental ethics focussing on natural resources, and bioethics/ health care ethics. The way technology influence governance in both of these fields gives rise to many ethical concerns, such as e.g. governance of resource a bundance, and the way natural resources shape institutions and policies. One of the urgent issues in this project has to do with governance of resource abundance, among others the question of how natural resources shape institutions and policies. As an example, Technology and governance relate to which policies countries rich in natural resources should as this relates to institutional obstacles for sustainable politics and just institutions. Technology and governance also has a great impact on develo ping and designing of public health policies, and thus give rise to several ethical concerns, such as assessing the legitimacy of a normative recruitment approach to public health interventions in terms of screening, vaccination and health surveys. A thir d issue is related to enhancement technologies as these apply to institutional as well as individual levels. We aim at improving the quality of publications, through co-authorship and more extended informal reviewing from colleagues at other institutions . Both topics of the project have great application potentials for two obvious reasons: (i) ethical issues on governance and use/impact of technology are highly debated and contested in the public domain, and (ii) the research to be undertaken is solidly based in several larger projects with international partners. Thus, publications from the project aim at international publications of high quality.

Publications from Cristin

No publications found

No publications found

No publications found

Funding scheme:

ISPHUM-ISP - Humaniora