Problematizing GM technology in India: exploring the communications role of Indian scientists in the Bt-Brinjal controversy
Date
2017-12-18
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
While most research in science communication has focused on media coverage and public
understandings of scientific controversies in the past, less attention has been directed to the role
of scientists in the public communication of such controversies. In my thesis, I address this gap
in the literature by investigating the role of the Indian scientists in the controversial case of Bt-
Brinjal−the first genetically modified eggplant in India that was approved for commercial
distribution in 2009, but was subjected to a moratorium in 2010 as a result of the ensuing
controversy, a status which remains to the present. I particularly focus on the ways by which the
Indian scientists communicated the issue by implicating the discursive practices around the
identification of problem and their reinterpretations in the public sphere. I specifically draw
upon the Foucauldian concept of ‘problematization’ which proposes examining how an idea
becomes interpreted as problematic in particular ways. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA),
I compare the content of the diverse media platforms in a qualitative analysis to investigate how
the Indian scientists classified, framed, questioned and analyzed Bt-Brinjal as a social problem or
opportunity. I conclude that the forms of extended participation in the public arena on policy
controversies via an extended range of media platforms offer a perspective on ‘deviation’ from
scientists’ normal science communication practices that are illustrative of post-normal science
conditions.
Description
Keywords
Bt-Brinjal, post normal science, problematization, Public communication of science, GMOs, Biotechnology, deviations
Citation
Ritika,R. (2017). Problematizing GM technology in India: exploring the communications role of Indian scientists in the Bt-Brinjal controversy (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.