Abstract
This text critically analyzes agricultural bio-technology policies and the social process of developing a position to regulate genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Canada and Mexico from the point of view of the governance of science and technology and centered on the interaction of politics, science and society. To do this, the article reviews the conditions in which GMOs are introduced, the social construction of the debate, the process of legislative and legal decision making, the role the main actors play, their interests and particular perceptions, and the different concepts risk evaluation is based on. It starts with the need for a social contract for defining socially acceptable risk, which would have to be specific to Canada and Mexico, and goes on to analyze both countries' advances, taking into consideration their specificities. The analytical focus is a combination of aspects of political economy, the social study of science, technology, and deliberative democracy.Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.