Paper short abstract:

The ways in which ‘responsibility’ was distributed across people and things, in the design, conduct and completion of a funded project is explored. The notion of ‘care’ is used to illustrate how we might gain an understanding of RRI in practice.

Paper long abstract:

Resources are pouring into the development of synthetic biology as a new field in the UK. A Roadmap has been produced and refreshed, and a research and commercialisation trajectory laid out for the new field to travel. Yet, progress in scientific practice and potential products is lagging behind the policy and rhetoric of the fabulous futures synthetic biology is intended to make. Understanding the mundane and everyday world of practice in synthetic biology is therefore imperative, particularly as the sense of newness presented by the field leaves open greater possibilities for multiple actors to influence and shape the field towards a variety of ends. It is within this context of openness - the yet-to-be decided directions of everyday synthetic biology work - that we can find a space for reflecting on notions of responsibility.

The author was recruited into a collaborative research endeavour with a remit to assess the 'social feasibility' of a synthetic biology project, alongside others conducting assessments of the 'technical feasibility' of the work. This paper gives an analysis of that project, which aimed to address water industry challenges, and that involved different kinds of academic and industrial engineers alongside sociologists. Specifically, I will describe how notions of responsibility played out across people and things, from the early-stage design of the project to its eventual completion. I explore how we might elaborate some of the potential offered by the rhetoric of RRI and will reflect on the everyday performance of 'care' as a crucial motif.