Opening Participation through Participatory Technology Assessment: The Case of Nanotechnologies for Tomorrow's Society

This dissertation examines how participants in a Flemish participatory technology assessment (pTA) on nanotechnologies defined and negotiated the meaning of participation in (nano)science and technology in the course of their engagements. It focuses explicitly on the initiating role that social scientists played in the project and how they performed participation. The dissertation proposes a critical reappraisal of the way in which participation in pTA is planned and implemented, which is explicitly political in character.