João Nunes

During the last few decades we have witnessed a proliferation of exercises dealing with the public participation of citizens in various different dimensions of their societies, including issues of science and technology. On the one hand, these mechanisms provide more robust forms of public engagement with matters that were traditionally dealt with by experts; on the other hand, they raise concerns relating to their design, efficiency or potential for the empowerment of citizens. As part of the EC-funded project DEEPEN (Deepening Ethical Engagement and Participation in Emerging Nanotechnologies) a research team in Coimbra, Portugal, was put in charge of identifying the ethical and social “impacts” of emerging nanotechnologies, transforming the traditional focus groups through the incorporation of two methodological innovations: the Pedagogy of the Oppressed and the Theatre of the Oppressed. This article reflects on the outcomes and complexities of the introduction of these two methodologies. Since the participants had little or no information on nanotechnologies, we reflect on the politics of these focus groups by exploring how issues of intervention, subjectivity, representation and agency were interconnected during this exercise of public participation in Science and Technology, analyzing the role of social sciences in developing nanoethics

This article analyzes a deliberative forum on nanotechnologies, organized in Portugal within the scope of the research project DEEPEN—Deepening Ethical Engagement and Participation in Emerging Nanotechnologies. This event included scientists, science communicators and members of the “lay public”, and resulted in a position document which summarizes collective aspirations and concerns related to nano. Drawing upon our previous experience with focus groups on nanotechnologies—characterized by methodological innovations that aimed at suspending epistemological inequalities between participants—this paper delves into the performativity of the deliberative event, exploring some of the tensions and power/knowledge asymmetries generated by the forum. Recognizing that the design of participatory assemblages matters, we reflect on our role as facilitators and explore the difficulties in organizing exercises of upstream engagement with emerging technologies.

The idea for this volume came out of a desire to assess the trajectory of critical thinking in the study of world politics. We saw critical theory as having reached an impasse, after the highly successful period in which its popularity surged – almost to the point of becoming ‘mainstream’ or common sense in some parts of the academic world. We the editors are part of a generation of researchers for whom the word ‘critical’ has become, to a great extent, a household name. The proliferation of ‘critical approaches’ led us to ask a number of questions. Does it still make sense to use the ‘critical’ label to designate an approach or methodology? Is there an emerging ‘critical orthodoxy’? What has the critical literature achieved? Where has it failed or remained silent? What are its limits and challenges? How can critical thinking be pushed forward? Finally, what has happened to ‘traditional’ thinking? We set out to provide a fresh perspective upon the ‘critical turn’ in International Relations and Security Studies – one that would revisit its origins, celebrate its eclecticism, consider its limitations and open doors to future developments.

Pretende-se, neste artigo, caracterizar e analisar a forma como, em Portugal continental, nas décadas de 1870 a 1950 e no subsector mineiro do tungs-ténio, se estruturou o relacionamento entre actividade industrial ou artesanal e ruralidade envolvente em vectores como as condições de trabalho e de vida, os acidentes e doenças profissionais, a poluição e o tipo de integração na economia global. Mais do que julgar ou tomar posição face ao objecto de estudo, visou-se descrever e explicar, contextualizando, os traços de ¿normali-dade¿ e de ¿excepcionalidade¿, as permanências e mutações detectadas. In this article, one intends to characterise and analyse the way in which, in Mainland Portugal, from the 1870s to the 1950s, and in the mining tungsten sub-sector, the relationship between industrial or artisanal activity and neighbouring rurality was structured, in aspects such as the working and living conditions, work accidents and illnesses, pollution and the type of integration into the global economy. More than judging or taking a stand on the object of study, one seeks to describe and explain, contextualising, the traits of ¿normality¿ and of ¿exceptionality¿, the permanences and mutations detected