Journal
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & HUMAN VALUES
Volume 33, Issue 2, Pages 262-294Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/0162243907311265
Keywords
technology choice; social appraisal; participatory deliberation; power; pluralism; diversity
Categories
Funding
- ESRC [ES/D004594/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Economic and Social Research Council [ES/D004594/1] Funding Source: researchfish
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Discursive deference in the governance of science and technology is rebalancing from expert analysis toward participatory deliberation. Linear, scientistic conceptions of innovation are giving ground to more plural, socially situated understandings. Yet, growing recognition of social agency in technology choice is countered by persistently deterministic notions of technological progress. This article addresses this increasingly stark disjuncture. Distinguishing between appraisal and commitment in technology choice, it highlights contrasting implications of normative, instrumental, and substantive imperatives in appraisal. Focusing on the role of power, it identifies key commonalities transcending the analysis/participation dichotomy. Each is equally susceptible to instrumental framing for variously weak and strong forms of justification. To address the disjuncture, it is concluded that greater appreciation is required-in both analytic and participatory appraisal-to facilitating the opening up (rather than the closing down) of governance commitments on science and technology.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available