The Next Industrial Revolution? The Role of Public Administration in Supporting Government to Oversee 3D Printing Technologies

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12988
• Author: Helen Dickinson
• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Date: 01 November 2018

922

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 78, Iss. 6, pp. 922–925. © 2018 The

Authors. Public Administration Review

published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12988.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

and is not used for commercial purposes.

Helen Dickinson

University of New South Wales, Australia

The Next Industrial Revolution? The Role of Public

Administration in Supporting Government to Oversee 3D

Printing Technologies

Helen Dickinson is associate professor

of public service research and director of

the Public Service Research Group in the

School of Business, University of New South

Wales, Canberra, Australia. Her expertise

is in public services, particularly in relation

to topics such as governance, disability,

primary health, and models of stewardship.

She has published 18 books and more

than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles on

these topics. Further detail can be found

at https://helendickinson.wordpress.com.

E-mail: h.dickinson@adfa.edu.au

Abstract: In recent years, developments in 3D printing have grasped the public’s attention. There are a range of

different applications for these technologies that have a number of social, economic, and environmental implications.

This essay considers these advancements and what the role of government should be in overseeing these technologies. It

argues that although these technologies have been absent from the public administration literature to date, there is an

important role that the field can play in supporting governments in this endeavor. In illustrating this, the final section

of the essay draws considers how a multilevel governance framework of technology might allow us to consider the

broader implications of these technologies.

Additive manufacturing—or 3D printing, as it

is better known—is a new set of technologies

receiving significant attention for their

potential to change many facets of our everyday lives.

Some have gone so far as to suggest that their advent

signals that we are on the cusp of the next industrial

revolution, with technological, social, environmental,

and economic implications stemming from these

innovations. If this is true, what role should

government play in overseeing these technologies, and

how can the field of public administration support

this endeavor? Should government let the market

flourish, or should it seek to control developments in

a top-down way? This essay suggests that the reality, of

course, is somewhere in between, and there is a critical

stewardship role for government to play as we navigate

the changes associated with these developments.

The argument is set out as follows: The first section

provides an overview of 3D printing technologies and

some early applications. The following section goes on

to consider the argument that 3D printing represents

the next industrial revolution and demonstrates

some of the ways in which these technologies

have potentially far-reaching and unanticipated

consequences. The final section concludes by drawing

on the public administration literature to consider

how a multilevel governance framework of technology

might allow us to consider the broader implications of

these technologies.

3D Printing: An Overview

Although 3D printing is often viewed as a new

concept, it has existed for more than two decades.

Much of the early application of these technologies

was in rapid prototyping, but advancements have seen

this approach applied in mainstream manufacturing

and even individuals owning their own printers to

produce objects at home.

The first part of any 3D printing process involves

creating a digital model of the object to be printed.

This can be done by buying a model online,

customizing an existing design, or creating your own.

Approaches to creating digital models require varying

degrees of skill in design, although we are seeing the

rapid development of 3D scanners that allow the

user to analyze a real-world object and use these data

to construct a digital model. Once the design of the

object is finalized, it is sent to a printer to produce

the object. There are a number of approaches to 3D

printing, including extruding semi-liquid material

that builds up object layers, applying a laser to a vat

of liquid photopolymer, spraying a liquid that is set

with ultraviolet light, laser-fusing layers of powder,

and sticking together sheets of cut paper, plastic, or

metal. Each of these approaches differs in terms of

the equipment required, materials used, quality of the

end product, and price. At one time, the common

material used for 3D printing was plastic, but it also

possible to print using metal alloys, wood particles,

ceramics, food substances, and even bacterial

cultures.

This array of approaches and materials is attributable

to the fact that there are many different applications

for 3D printing. This is reflected in predictions about

the global economic impact of these technologies,

which has been estimated in the range of $230 billion

to $550 billion per year by 2025 (McKinsey Global

Viewpoint

Stephen E. Condrey

and Tonya Neaves,

Associate Editors