Visions and versions of governing biomedicine: narratives on power structures, decision-making and public participation in the field of biomedical technology in the Austrian context

In recent years, governance and public participation have developed into key notions within both policy discourse and academic analysis. While there is much discussion on developing new modes of governance and public participation, little empirical attention is paid to the public's perception of models, possibilities and limits of participation and governance. Building on focus group data collected in Austria within the framework of a European project, this paper explores lay people's visions and versions of government, governance and participation for two biomedical technologies: post-natal genetic testing and organ transplantation. Building on this analysis, we show that people situate their assessments of public participation against the background of rather complex lay models of the governance and government of the respective technology. Because these models are very different for the two technologies, participation also had very different connotations, which were deeply intertwined with each socio-technical system. Building on these findings we argue for a more technology-sensitive approach to public participation.     

Preliminary Studies in Automated Teaching

Known learning principles cannot be efficiently applied in the traditional classroom environment. To achieve efficient learning it is necessary to remold the teaching-learning configuration to one in which the state of the art can be applied. Teaching machines provide such a configuration, and have proved to be dramatically effective in teaching a wide variety of subject matters. There is a need for more sophisticated machines with which to research possibilities of automating instruction in the maintenance of complex electronic systems. Engineers can contribute to teaching machine technology through programming of technical content, through design of appropriate hardware, and through support of teaching-automation research.