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Short abstract:

We examine how ethics advice is sought and provided in Australia, Germany and the UK. Often overlooked in STS research, we argue that how governments use national ethics committees and what forms of ethical expertise are present are central to understanding their role in societal transformations.

Long abstract:

We report on the ESRC Ethics and Expertise project examining the seeking and provision of ethics advice at a national level in Australia, Germany and the UK. Existing research has explored the effectiveness, de/politicisation and deliberative aspects of national ethics bodies, but they are often a neglected aspect of science and technology studies. This is despite the potential contribution of STS for understanding epistemic communities, problematising distinctions between facts and values, and unpacking the relationship between technocracy and decision-making. As such the organisational practices and role of specialist ethics advisory committees and national ethics bodies should be of central interest. Yet it is sometimes argued that ethics committees change nothing and serve a purely symbolic function. How they are governed, how they navigate what counts as an ethical moment in policy-making, and how they interact with policy makers and publics are our key concerns. There have been calls to focus on the distinctive normative form of ethical expertise, the limits to democratising expertise and to rethink what decision-makers and public should expect from ethics bodies (Poort and Bovenkerk 2016: 271). Here we consider these debates in light of the problematisation of expertise coming in contrasting ways from both decades of STS research and a growing contemporary public distrust in experts. How governments use ethics committees and what forms of ethical expertise (bioethics, speculative, dialogic, solidaristic, decolonial?) are present are both central to understanding these issues, and for rethinking their role in societal transformations.