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The New, the Good, and the Desirable

The New, the Good, and the Desirable. Barriers and Opportunities for Social Appropriation Sheila Jasanoff Harvard University Social Appropriation of Science, Technology, and Innovation Universidad EAFIT, Medellin, October 20, 2007. What innovation, whose appropriation?.

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The New, the Good, and the Desirable

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  1. The New, the Good, and the Desirable Barriers and Opportunities for Social Appropriation Sheila Jasanoff Harvard University Social Appropriation of Science, Technology, and Innovation Universidad EAFIT, Medellin, October 20, 2007

  2. What innovation, whose appropriation? • ASCTI: descriptive or normative? • Society does appropriate STI • Society should appropriate STI • Conventional wisdom • Blurs distinction • Blames society for lack of uptake • Contrary view • Normative theories of appropriation need to be made explicit, unpacked, and critiqued Medellin-ASCTI

  3. What Is Innovation? • “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.” • Ted Kennedy, quoting Robert F. Kennedy (1968) • But what have we learned since 1968? • Even dreamers need resources to dream with. • Where do those resources come from? • Who gets to do the dreaming? Medellin-ASCTI

  4. Social Contract • The right to govern seen as a contract between ruler and ruled. • The people give up some rights but hold the king or ruler to responsible exercise of powers. Medellin-ASCTI

  5. The Social Contract for Science • Science--The Endless Frontier (1945) • Basic research as “pacemaker of technological progress.” • Contract: Funds and autonomy for science in exchange for innovation. Medellin-ASCTI

  6. Contractual Assumptions • Central dogmas of US S&T policy after WWII: • More science = more innovation • More innovation (in science) = more social welfare • National governments have a duty to foster S&T innovation • S&T are self-regulating institutions and should be left free to set own agendas for innovation • Imperfections exist in the ideal contract, but they can be rectified by three mechanisms of governance (market, regulation, ethics) Medellin-ASCTI

  7. 20th Century Technological Visions Medellin-ASCTI

  8. “Big Science”: A Brief History • Focal points: • Weapons (Manhattan Project) • Instruments (Sputnik, Hubble) • Facilities (Superconducting Supercollider) • Projects (war on cancer, moon landing, HGP) • Common elements • National undertakings • Not just science but also technology • Big money • Distinct (and tangible) endpoints • Assumptions • Linear model: discovery, innovation, uptake • States know what innovation is good for society Medellin-ASCTI

  9. An Innovative Moment – Buzz Aldrin’s Moon Landing Medellin-ASCTI

  10. Illustrations: 1950-1990 • Privatization of nuclear power and “atoms for peace” • Expansion of National Institutes of Health • Establishment of National Science Foundation • Apollo Program and NASA • Presidential ethics commissions (1970s-) • Bayh-Dole Act (1980) • Product framing of biotechnology (1984-) Medellin-ASCTI

  11. Changes in the Landscape • Changing face of S&T: technoscience; “Mode 2”; mission-oriented science; dual use technologies… • Disasters and crises of confidence: Bhopal, TMI, Chernobyl, Challenger, BSE, GM crops, 9/11, financial markets, research misconduct, “capital misconduct”… • Globalization of “the environment” • New “convergent” technologies and their social problems: nanotech, synthetic biology, robotics… • From managing risk to managing ignorance and uncertainty Medellin-ASCTI

  12. Missing Perspectives on Innovation • Collaborative and reflexive research on hybrid (cross-disciplinary) knowledge • Long-term studies of Mode 2 knowledge-making: impacts, learning, and transformations • Social science paradigm shifts and “emergence studies” • Knowledge-making outside the lab • Cross-cultural studies of science and policy • Ethnographies of power (“studying up”) • Failure and disaster studies Medellin-ASCTI

  13. Alternative visions for scholars • Instrumental (for policy, for discipline) • Give policymakers what they want • Use opportunities for field development • Interpretive • Explain what is going on • Critique existing dominant understandings from other standpoints (S&T critics) • Normative • Address what is to be done, but not (necessarily) from inside dominant policy framings Medellin-ASCTI

  14. New Frame: Co-Production • Making the worlds we study (e.g., global knowledge, populations [at risk], “geneticization,” digitization) • Focal points • Emergence • Controversy • Intelligibility and portability (standardization) • Cultures and practices of research (ethical assumptions) • Mechanisms • Identities • Institutions • Discourses • Representations Medellin-ASCTI

  15. Object: Publics • Who are the publics the research intends to benefit, and are they included in research design? • How do relevant publics assess the need for more knowledge? • What are the attitudes of such publics with respect to knowledge (Luddites, passive consumers, active producers, patronized outsiders)? • When is consultation appropriate, and with/between/among whom? Medellin-ASCTI

  16. Innovating Forms of Life Medellin-ASCTI

  17. Assumptions of Competence Medellin-ASCTI

  18. Global Asymmetries • Captive technological imaginations • Call centers • Clinical trials • Liberated social imaginations • Khadi movement • Grameen Bank • Links and translations • National Institutes of Health vs. Ashoka Medellin-ASCTI

  19. Constitutional Moments • Formal constitutional amendments are rare in many countries • However, informal changes occur and can be constitutional in effect • Constitutional moments • Redefine relations between states and citizens in fundamental ways • Change the terms and/or venues of public reasoning and justification • Reformulate epistemic rights and responsibilities • Are we at a constitutional moment for ASCTI Medellin-ASCTI

  20. US Case: Stirrings of Openness • 1946 Administrative Procedure Act • Historical context • New Deal struggles and compromises • Courts, Congress, and the Presidency • Further developments • Social movements and participatory engagements in the 1960s • NEPA (1969) and its environmental progeny Medellin-ASCTI

  21. Rights of the Knowledge-Able Citizen • Epistemic rights of citizenship in post-1960s United States: • Right to know • Of exposure to risks • For informed consumption • To level the economic and social playing field • Right to give informed consent • Right to demand reasons • Right to participate and offer expertise • Right to challenge irrational decisions • Right to appeal Medellin-ASCTI

  22. Privatization, Ethics, Engagement • 1980s: a sea change • Deregulation • End of bipolar world order • Rise of neo-liberalism and “market fundamentalism” • Birth of public ethics • Introduction of “public engagement” • Persistence of deficit model Medellin-ASCTI

  23. Is “public engagement” discourse a new constitutional moment? • New language and concepts • Engagement (not participation), upstream, interactional • New problematizations of the “public” • Empty signifier, deficit model, constructed interlocutor of the state, partner, “evidence-based” • New forums and processes • Juries, consensus conferences, consultations, referenda • New horizons • Anticipation, scenarios, futures Medellin-ASCTI

  24. What should we appropriate, and is “public engagement” the way to get it? • If it restores communication between emotion and intellect, affect and reason, imagination and argument • If it abandons procedures that have • Bureaucratized technical reason • Privatized values and emotions • Delegated deliberation to experts (e.g., climate change) • If it restores • Value conflicts to the public sphere • Contestation among imaginations of the future • Demote science to same level as other modes of democratic imagination Medellin-ASCTI

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