The Hermeneutic Side of Responsible Research and Innovation

Foreword

The author of this book has three precious skills to offer in the understanding and implementation of responsible research and innovation (RRI). He has been trained in physics, he is a philosopher and an important practitioner in the field of technological assessment (TA) and its inclusive form of participatory technological assessment (PTA). For this last reason, this book is very welcome to extend the content of the previous volume (Volume 4) in this set of books, Precautionary Principle, Moral Pluralism and Deliberation. Sciences and Ethics. Some of the problems addressed in both texts, practically and theoretically, are common to both the PTA and RRI fields. Armin Grunwald thinks that there is quite nothing new with RRI compared to PTA. In this way he replaces the novelty of RRI in a 30-year tradition, mainly developed in Europe, at least with public institutions, when these experiments are operated mainly by the private sector or universities out of this area.

As a physicist in charge of one of the biggest TA and PTA institutions, he could have insisted on the different ways to calculate the different risks of emerging technologies. Instead of calculation he appeals to forms of discourse. Indeed, before emerging in research programs, new technologies are produced in different narratives. What is a new trend in political discourses, “tell us a story for this project”, from a small program up to a European building, is true in innovation and research as well. As ...