International Summer School 2014: “Analyzing the Societal Dimensions of Synthetic Biology”

The aim of this summer school, taking place from 15–19 Sep 2014, was to critically analyze different approaches to the evaluation of new techno-scientific areas, as exemplified by synthetic biology, with a particular emphasis on conceptual foundations.

Participants from all relevant fields of the social and natural sciences and arts presented and discussed their own work in a genuinely interdisciplinary group of young scientists together with some of the leading experts, including: Sheref S. Mansy, Michael Bölker, Nediljko Budisa, Ellen-Marie Forsberg, Christian Illies, and Georg Toepfer. The summer school was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and organized by Kristin Hagen and Margret Engelhard from the European Academy of Technology and Innovation Assessment and Georg Toepfer from the Center for Literary and Cultural Research Berlin.