The relationships between knowledge, technologies, and legal processes are central to the constitution of contemporary societies. As such, they have come to provide the focus for a range of academic projects, across interdisciplinary legal studies and the social sciences. The domains of medical law and ethics, intellectual property law, environmental law and criminal law are just some of those within which the pervasive place and ‘impact’ of technoscience is immediately apparent. At the same time, social scientists investigating the making of technology and expertise - in particular, scholars working within the tradition of science and technology studies - frequently interrogate how regulation and legal processes, and the making of knowledge and technologies, are intermingled in complex ways that come to shape and define each other. This book charts the important interface between studies of law, science and society, as explored from the perspectives of socio-legal studies and the increasingly influential field of science and technology studies. It brings together scholars from both areas to interrogate the joint roles of law and science in the construction and stabilization of socio-technical networks, objects, and standards, as well as their place in the production of contemporary social realities and subjectivities.

"This book focuses on how groups can structure their activities toward making better decisions or in developing technologies for the support of decision-making in groups"--Provided by publisher.

This book presents innovative insights into the intersections between science, technology, and society, and particularly their regulation by the law. Departing from the idea that law and science have similar methods and objectives, the book deals with problems, and solutions, that source from these interactions: concerns on how to integrate scientific evidence into trials, how to best regulate new technologies, or whether technological innovations could improve democratic legitimacy, create new regulatory tools or even new spaces of regulation, and what is the impact on the society. The edited collection, by building on a functionalist and comparatist approach, offers answers to how to best integrate law, science, and technology in policy-making and reviews the current attempts made at the transnational and international levels. Case studies, ranging from emerging technologies via environmental protection to statistics, are complemented by a solid theoretical framework, all of which seek to provide readers with tools for critical thinking in the reassessment of the relationship among theory, practice, political goals, and international regulation.

This unique Research Handbook maps the historical, theoretical, and methodological concepts in sociology of law, exploring the rich and complex nature of this area of research. It argues that sociology of law flourishes due to its strong capacity for interdisciplinary engagement and links to other scientific concepts, methodologies and research fields.

A comparative perspective on the problems and issues of the transfer of knowledge and technology in and between western and former socialist countries, focusing on three key technologies: laser technology, biotechnology, and information technology. The book highlights the specific challenges facing economies in transition in technology policy and commercialisation. Furthermore, it gives an excellent insight into current technology forecasting practice and methodology, and the use of forecasting results in framing science and technology policy. Audience: Those involved in science and technology policy and forecasting, such as industrial and governmental policy makers and researchers.

This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of practice-based organizational learning and knowing. Based on the author's detailed study of safety practices in different corporate settings. The author uses this study to empirically describe how learning, knowing and organizing are practised. Centred on the concepts of "knowing in practice" and the "texture" of organizational knowledge. Gives a rich account of how organizations learn and how corporate practices and policies evolve.

The gap between information technology and the legal profession is narrowing, in particular due to the Internet and the richness of legal sources that can be found online. This book further bridges the gap by showing people with a legal background what is possible with Information Technology now and in the near future, as well as by showing people with an IT background what opportunities exist in the domain of law.

Based on the importance of human beings as creators and managers of knowledge towards the achievement of sustainability in the current digital age, this book is an effort to present many studies taking individuals as centers of knowledge and starting points for environmental, social, and economic development. From various theoretical and empirical studies developed by researchers from Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, this book presents, in an ordered sequence, the individual as the creator of knowledge, the role of human beings as knowledge managers with and for sustainability, the opportunities for knowledge sharing in virtual research collaborations for sustainability, and the advantages and disadvantages with and for sustainability from a human-centered perspective in the digital era. Moreover, this text describes the antecedents of competitive advantage in a sustainable cooperative network, knowledge management in technology projects, an empirical study of knowledge management of tutorial intervention, a model of processes and knowledge management to increase competitiveness, the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for managing sustainable practices, finishing with knowledge management trends with and for sustainability, from a human-centered perspective in the digital era. Offering an innovative approach, this book seeks to expand the understanding of the theme of knowledge management and sustainability from the perspective of the human resource as a generator of knowledge. There is mounting focus on knowledge-intensive work and sustainable development in the corporate world. In light of these trends, this edited volume will be of value to researchers, academics, professionals, and advanced students in the fields of management, environment and sustainability, and development studies.

This volume aims to document the most important worldwide accomplishments in converging knowledge and technology, including converging platforms, methods of convergence, societal implications, and governance in the last ten years. Convergence in knowledge, technology, and society is the accelerating, transformative interaction among seemingly distinct scientific disciplines, technologies, and communities to achieve mutual compatibility, synergism, and integration, and through this process to create added value for societal benefit. It is a movement that is recognized by scientists and thought leaders around the world as having the potential to provide far-reaching solutions to many of today’s complex knowledge, technology, and human development challenges. Four essential and interdependent convergence platforms of human activity are defined in the first part of this report: nanotechnology-biotechnology-information technology and cognitive science (“NBIC”) foundational tools; Earth-scale environmental systems; human-scale activities; and convergence methods for societal-scale activities. The report then presents the main implications of convergence for human physical potential, cognition and communication, productivity and societal outcomes, education and physical infrastructure, sustainability, and innovative and responsible governance. As a whole, the report presents a new model for convergence. To effectively take advantage of this potential, a proactive governance approach is suggested. The study identifies an international opportunity to develop and apply convergence for technological, economic, environmental, and societal benefits. The panel also suggests an opportunity in the United States for implementing a program aimed at focusing disparate R and D energies into a coherent activity - a "Societal Convergence Initiative”. This study received input from leading academic, industry, government, and NGO experts from the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.