Creating Inquiry Between Technology Developers and Civil Society Actors: Learning from Experiences Around Nanotechnology.

Lotte Krabbenborg

doi:10.1007/s11948-015-9660-2

Abstract

Engaging civil society actors as knowledgeable dialogue partners in the development and governance of emerging technologies is a new challenge. The starting point of this paper is the observation that the design and orchestration of current organized interaction events shows limitations, particularly in the articulation of issues and in learning how to address the indeterminacies that go with emerging technologies. This paper uses Dewey’s notion of ‘publics’ and ‘reflective inquiry’ to outline ways of doing better and to develop requirements for a more productive involvement of civil society actors. By studying four novel spaces for interaction in the domain of nanotechnology, this paper examines whether and how elements of Dewey’s thought are visible and under what conditions. One of the main findings is that, in our society, special efforts are needed in order for technology developers and civil society actors to engage in a joint inquiry on emerging nanotechnology. Third persons, like social scientists and philosophers, play a role in this respect in addition to external input such as empirically informed scenarios and somewhat protected spaces.

Highlights

The development of newly emerging sciences and technologies (NEST) has for long been a prerogative of science and industry, with increasing attempts of government agencies to nudge and perhaps steer
The participation of civil society actors is visible in the development of newly emerging nanosciences and nanotechnologies where early, so-called upstream public engagement has been piloted in a number of countries and in different ways, ranging from one-day events to fully fledged societal dialogues (Pfersdorf 2012; Krabbenborg 2012)
Instead of waiting for societal impacts to become visible in society, government agencies and some technology developers are trying to anticipate possible societal impacts with the aim to make better, that is, more informed, decisions about the further development of nanotechnology in the here and

Summary

Introduction

The development of newly emerging sciences and technologies (NEST) has for long been a prerogative of science and industry, with increasing attempts of government agencies to nudge and perhaps steer. L. Krabbenborg organizations (CSOs) are expected to participate as new dialogue partners, already during the early stages of the technology development, including the R&D phase (European Commission 2002, 2011; Wilsdon and Willis 2004). The participation of civil society actors is visible in the development of newly emerging nanosciences and nanotechnologies where early, so-called upstream public engagement has been piloted in a number of countries and in different ways, ranging from one-day events (for example, see Katz et al 2009; Van Oudheusden and De Zutter 2012) to fully fledged societal dialogues (Pfersdorf 2012; Krabbenborg 2012). Civil society actors are involved because they are expected to be knowledgeable in giving voice to concerns, needs, and wishes of society (European Commission 2001). The idea is that technology developers can become more responsive to societal needs and issues, and include these in their decisionmaking processes

Objectives

Methods