Articulation of Sustainability in Nanotechnology: Funnels of Articulation

Abstract

Sustainability is a broad ‘umbrella’ term that can be articulated in many different, and sometimes even contradictory, ways. Typically, processes of articulation involve two funnels: the specification of broader terms into more specific ones (top-down), and the legitimation of activities by relating them to encompassing goals (bottom-up). The nanotechnology field provides interesting cases for studying processes of articulation. Because this field is young, the processes of articulation are explicit, which makes them traceable. This chapter will investigate and compare two cases where the funnels of articulation differ: some specifications of sustainability have become taken for granted: when mentioning a solar panel, it is safely assumed that people know that this is sustainable. Other specifications of sustainability are not obvious and require explanatory work to connect them to the umbrella term in order to gain legitimacy. The funnels of specification and legitimacy can thus differ in the degrees in which they are more or less fixed. This chapter compares these dynamics and translations in both funnels of sustainability. It thus will show that what counts as sustainable depends on the degrees of freedom to specify and legitimise research efforts.