Call for Papers
Social and Ethical Aspects of New and Emerging Technologies from an Asian Perspective
Guest editor: Dr. Soraj Hongladarom, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.
The journal NanoEthics: Ethics for Technologies that Converge at the Nanoscale, published by Springer in the Netherlands, is planning a special issue for August 2012 on social and ethical aspects of new and emerging technologies from an Asian perspective. These technologies include nanotechnology, synthetic biology, neuroscience and information and communication technology. The perspective could be religious, cultural or related to problems unique to or especially important in, the Asian context.
Advances in nanotechnology naturally call for a sustained investigation on how the technology is related to its socio-cultural and normative contexts. Such investigation is inherently interdisciplinary and touches upon the ethical, sociological, legal, and other issues. Public attitudes toward the technology can have a tremendous impact on how the technology is carried forward and even on the direction of technological research and development itself. Furthermore, as Asia and other developing, non-Western regions are also embracing the technology, a sustained look at the ethical, cultural and social implications of nanotechnology in these regions would be very interesting. In addition, the added cultural dimensions present a set of challenges in itself, not least among which is how the ethical problems incurred by nanotechnology are shaped up by the cultural contexts and what kind of responses are there that arise from within the cultural roots and traditions of Asia as well as other non-western regions.
Papers are being called for a special issue of Nanoethics that address the issues outlined above. The following topics are suggested for the issue, though the list is not exhaustive:
- Nanotechnology for development
- Religious perspectives on nanotechnology
- Human enhancement in Asian context
- Nanotechnology policy in Asia
- Nanotechnology policy in the developing world
- Privacy in Asian culture
- Issues in neuroethics through Asian perspectives
In fact, any contributions on any ethical and social aspects of these new technologies relevant to Asia or other non-western economies are welcome.
All papers will be double-blind refereed.
Important dates:
- 29 August 2011: Call for Papers issued
- 15 January 2012: Last day for notifying Guest Editor of intention to submit (extended!)
- 15 February 2012: Papers due
- March-April: Review process
- May-July: Revisions where necessary
- 15 July 2012: Final revised papers due
- August 2012: Special issue published
Submission procedure:
Papers should be submitted online at http://www.springer.com/social+sciences/applied+ethics/journal/11569 (Please note that this applies to sending full papers only. Please send intentions to submit and discussions of proposed topics to the Guest Editor.)
Instructions for authors can also be found here.
Guest editor details:
Dr. Soraj Hongladarom
Department of Philosophy
Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Tel. +66 (0) 2218 4756; Fax +66 (0) 2218 4755
Director, Center for Ethics of Science and Technology
Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University
Email: hsoraj@chula.ac.th
Center for Science, Technology, and Society 