ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I pursue my exploration of the coindustrial and institutional emergence of nanotechnology by focusing on end users. The March 2011 update of the inventory of nanobased consumer products compiled by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the PEN project contained 1,317 products or product lines. The inventory had grown by over 500 percent (from 212 products) since its first release in March 2006. However, nanoproducts were still used by only a very small proportion of the global population at that time. So when using the term ‘end users,’ I am giving it a very broad meaning. It refers not only to people who actually used nanoparticles, but also to potential users. It also includes people who might be affected by nanoproducts not by choice. As was explained earlier, nanotechnologies could in theory affect absolutely everything, as they correspond to modifications of matter at the atomic level. So they could potentially diffuse everywhere and concern the whole of mankind under various forms, including matter that was released incidentally in the environment, or by-products of it. ‘End users’ in this sense refers to all those who would be affected willy-nilly by nanotechnologies as they began disseminating in our daily lives.
