This social history of science policy development emphasizes the impact on the agricultural community of federal policies regarding release of recombinant DNA (rDNA) organisms into the environment. The history also demonstrates that the U.S. Coordinated Framework for Biotechnology Regulation (1986) is based principally in political criteria, not solidly based in science as its proponents claimed. The power struggle among policy negotiators with incompatible belief systems resulted in a political correction of biotechnology. I also demonstrate that episodes in the rDNA controversy occur in repetitive and periodic patterns. During the 1980s, the first rDNA microbial pesticide, Ice-Minus, struggled through a policy gauntlet of federal agency approval processes, a Congressional hearing, and many legal actions before it was finally released into the environment. At the height of the controversy (1984-1986), the Reagan Administration would admit no new laws or regulations to slow the development of technologies or hinder American international competitiveness. At the same time, Jeremy Rifkin, a radical activist representing a green world view, used the controversy to agitate for social and economic reform. Meanwhile, a group of Congressional aides who called themselves the "Cloneheads" used the debate to fight for more public participation in the science policy-making process. Conflicting perspectives regarding biotechnology originated, not in level of understanding of the science involved, but in personal perspectives that were outwardly expressed as political group affiliations. The direction of federal biotechnology policy was influenced most successfully by politically best-positioned individuals (what I call a "hierarchy effect") who based decisions on how biotechnology harmonized with their pre-existing beliefs. The success of their actions also depended on timing. Historical events during the rDNA controversy followed the same periodic pattern--gestation, threshold, crisis/conflict, and quasi-quiescence--through two consecutive eras--the Containment Era (1970s) and the Release Era (1980s). These periods are modeled after Fletcher's stages through which ethical issues evolve (1990). However, an agricultural perspective on the debate reveals that such stages also occur in finer detail on repeating, overlapping, and multi-level scales. Knowledge of this periodicity may be useful in predicting features of future episodes of the rDNA controversy. / Ph. D.

Il concetto di rete dell'informazione può diventare uno schema logico con cui descrivere l'evoluzione delle politiche sulle energie rinnovabili e sulla sostenibilità? La ricerca è stata svolta analizzando l'architettura delle due reti (internet e reti energetiche) e l'evoluzione del bene prodotto e distribuito nella rete energetica, l'energia, esplicitando l'accessibilità da parte della distribuzione mondiale delle risorse petrolifere tradizionali e delle risorse rinnovabili. La struttura metodologica del progetto di ricerca si basa due tipi di analisi teorica: 1) l'analisi della nascita delle società in rete attraverso le teorie di Manuel Castells (concetto di spazio di flussi) e di Saskia Sassen e l'evoluzione delle città (cap.2 e cap.5) 2) le analisi dei flussi dei materiali e delle energie avendo come riferimento metodologico l'approccio ecologico ideato dai ricercatori dell'istituto per il Clima, l'Ambiente e l'Energia di Wuppertal, Germania (cap.3 e cap.4) La contraddizione tra città innovative e città che sono ai livelli di enormi discariche o di baraccopoli è esposta nel cap.6 attraverso casi studio e progetto dei Programmi Europei. Nell'ultimo capitolo (cap.7) si riassumono le ipotesi di partenza e i risultati della ricerca e si espongono le questioni aperte. / Can internet logic scheme be used as a basis to describe public policies evolution on renewable energies production and sharing in urban areas all over the world? The research project analyses the two networks (internet and energetic grids) architectures in actual and future urban areas. This analysis is connected with present and future forecasts energy productions from traditional fuels and from renewable sources. Theoretical analysis is conducted following a double conceptual pathway: - societal networks (Manuel Castells theory) and urban areas evolution (Saskia Sassen and Mike Davis) in order to picture the evolution of cities and towns in modern economies and in developing countries (Chapters 2 and 5); - Material and Energy Flow Analysis (approach by Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy) applied to renewable energy (Chapters 3 and 4) In Chapter 6 case studies are exposed on the deep cleavage between two different worlds: innovative, rich towns on a side and the landfills cities, slums on the other side. In the last part hypothesis and thesis are put together and open questions are explained (Chapter 7).