'Don't make nanotechnology sexy, ensure its benefits, and be neutral': Studying the logics of new intermediary institutions in ambiguous governance contexts

This paper suggests a new theoretical approach to studying intermediary institutions, particularly intermediary institutions at the science--policy nexus. Intermediary institutions that mediate between science and politics have often been approached from the perspective of 'boundary organizations'. But this model, incorporating assumptions of principal--agent theory, is not suitable for capturing case studies (of intermediary institutions) in ambiguous governance contexts. Indeed, there is a lack of systemic studies of the material implications that the rise of new governance actors has, for example for governing emerging technologies. Therefore, we need a new theoretical vocabulary to grasp how intermediary institutions emerge and how they work in practice. This paper addresses this gap by analysing the shortcomings of a nanotechnology observatory project. Drawing on both actor network theory and political discourse theory, the paper outlines a three-fold framework based on the concept of logics that shifts the focus of research toward an analysis of context-based case studies of intermediaries. Copyright The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com, Oxford University Press.