Cosmopolitan technology assessment? Lessons learned from attempts to address the deficit of technology assessment in Europe

Pierre Delvenne,Benedikt Rosskamp

doi:10.1080/23299460.2021.1988433

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines ineffective efforts to address the Technology Assessment deficit in Europe and asks how TA approaches can spread across diverse socio-political contexts while considering the specificities of receiving environments. Based on participatory observations and in-depth empirical case studies, we draw on Sheila Jasanoff's work and identify a discursive shift from an institutional deficit to a knowledge deficit of TA, co-produced with an asymmetrical form of cosmopolitan epistemic subsidiarity. Our analysis highlights the epistemic supremacy of existing TA institutions, a situation in which newcomers fully consent to become reliant on foreign imports of TA practices and knowledge. We argue to carefully disentangle the normative dimensions and power inequalities of the standardization of TA approaches, as this can threaten the diversity of perspectives of the knowledge produced and, consequently, the effectiveness and legitimacy of public decision-making. We conclude by identifying research avenues into epistemic subsidiarity for TA practice and scholarship.

Highlights

Nowadays, the production of anticipatory knowledge about the development of science, technology and innovation (STI) is actively sought and organized through specific institutional arrangements and practices
We ask: how can Technology Assessment’ (TA) approaches spread across diverse socio-political contexts while considering the specificities of the receiving environments? To address this research question, we focus on the case study of a particular project funded between by the European Commission (2011–2015) under the 7th Framework Program: PACITA (Parliaments and Civil Society in Technology Assessment)
We find that, facing unsuccessful attempts to increase the number of TA institutions, the diagnosis of institutional deficit, which was the cornerstone of the PACITA project, mutated into one of a knowledge deficit

Summary

Introduction

The production of anticipatory knowledge about the development of science, technology and innovation (STI) is actively sought and organized through specific institutional arrangements and practices. A relevant example of such arrangements and practices has been institutionalized under the label ‘Technology Assessment’ (TA) since the 1970s, first in North America and in Western Europe. TA can be defined as a process which includes policy tools and whose objective is the early identification of technological changes and their possible impacts. This process primarily aims to support policy-making. ‘It combines an element of anticipation of future developments (of the technology, and its relation to markets and society) and an element of feedback of this anticipation work to relevant decision-making arenas’ (Rip 2001, 15512), especially Parliaments ( the term ‘Parliamentary Technology Assessment’, PTA).

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Conclusion