Haico te Kulve

Constructive Technology Assessment and Socio-Technical Scenarios

PREFACE: Since the 1980’s, Rip has been instrumental in developing and applying an approach to broaden the scope of participants and considerations that go into technological developments that is known as Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA). A number of organizations have employed CTA, including the Rathenau Institute (formerly, the Netherlands Office of Technology Assessment). Since 2005, the Dutch national nanotechnology consortium, NanoNed, has under Rip’s coordination included CTA as a program component. In this chapter, Rip and Te Kulve suggest that because many nanotechnology applications remain little more than promises, studying their implications amounts to an exercise in “social science fiction.” To address this challenge, they employ socio-technical scenarios. Scenarios are a well-established foresight method that are gaining wide use in the study of nanotechnology (Turk, Chapter 8; Kosal, Chapter 12). Here, Rip and Te Kulve, are interested in linking theory and practice and thus describe two scenario construction frameworks that take into account complex and often overlooked socio-technical dynamics. CTA scenarios can accordingly serve as “useful fictions” for strategic purposes as well as for modulating ongoing socio-technical change.

Constructing Productive Engagement: Pre-engagement Tools for Emerging Technologies

Engagement with stakeholders and civil society is increasingly important for new scientific and technological developments. Preparation of such engagements sets the stage for engagement activities and thus contributes to their outcomes. Preparation is a demanding task, particularly if the facilitating agent aims for timely engagement related to emerging technologies. Requirements for such preparation include understanding of the emerging science & technology and its dynamics. Multi-level analysis and socio-technical scenarios are two complementary tools for constructing productive engagement. Examination of the emergence of nanotechnologies in the food packaging sector demonstrates how these tools work. In light of recent policy demands for responsible innovation, but also more generally, the role of organizers of engagement activities is one that deserves reflection insofar as it can extend beyond that of preparation and facilitation.

Evolving Repertoires: Nanotechnology in Daily Newspapers in the Netherlands

In new and emerging science and technology, such as nanoscience and nanotechnologies, newspaper coverage is important in a number of ways.1 Newspapers can act as a ‘catalyst’ when reporting on controversial issues, exacerbating the degrees of opposition between actors. However, newspapers may also have a mediating function through the creation of an arena in which proponents and opponents can interact (Rip, 1986). Proponents of the development of new technologies are often concerned about the ways in which new science and technology are represented in the media—and by the results of negative perceptions. Typically, the concern is that print and audio-visual media have the power to form public perceptions. This concern is often overstated. For example, Nisbet and Huge (2006) suggest that in media debates about the regulation of plant biotechnology other national news received more media attention. They argue that in the end, media coverage of plant biotechnology had little effect on public concern.In new and emerging science and technology, such as nanoscience and nanotechnologies, newspaper coverage is important in a number of ways. Newspapers can act as a ‘catalyst’ when reporting on controversial issues, exacerbating the degrees of opposition between actors. However, newspapers may also have a mediating function through the creation of an arena in which proponents and opponents can interact (Rip, 1986). Proponents of the development of new technologies are often concerned about the ways in which new science and technology are represented in the media—and by the results of negative perceptions. Typically, the concern is that print and audio-visual media have the power to form public perceptions. This concern is often overstated. For example, Nisbet and Huge (2006) suggest that in media debates about the regulation of plant biotechnology other national news received more media attention. They argue that in the end, media coverage of plant biotechnology had little effect on public concern. Still, newspaper coverage does frame issues and contributes to agenda building (Nisbet et al., 2003). In this view, recipients of newspaper coverage are not considered to be merely passive, but actively take up issues covered by media. This supports Swidler’s (1986, p. 273) concept of ‘repertoires’ which views culture as providing actors with a ‘“tool kit” of symbols, stories, rituals, and world-views’ from which they can select different elements to shape their action and solve problems. In this perspective, newspaper coverage can be viewed as an expression of a ‘newspaper repertoire’ which can be used by actors to engage in public dialogues on new and emerging science and technology. There is no simple one-to-one relation between the presentation of media coverage and subsequent effects on public attitudes (Ten Eyck, 2005). However, such coverage is still important because newspapers are publicly available and enable readers to become aware of new scientific and technological developments and, more specifically, engage in dialogues about nanotechnology. Especially when most people have little experience of a new technology, media coverage can provide heuristics for understanding and assessment (Scheufele and Lewenstein, 2005). Because of this wider relevance, newspaper coverage of nanotechnology is an important domain to study, not only as a potential catalyst and Science as Culture Vol. 15, No. 4, 367–382, December 2006

Dual dynamics of promises, and waiting games around emerging nanotechnologies

Newly emerging science and technologies (NEST) are shaped by dynamics of promises. There is a paradoxical effect: diffuse and open-ended promises are forceful in policy discourse, but may hinder the realisation of these promises. Innovation actors are reluctant to invest in concrete developments because the promises are open-ended, and eventual demand is not articulated. This is a structural issue, and leads to ‘waiting games’ in which actors are entangled. We show how the occurrence of waiting games is linked to dual dynamics of promises in two fields where nanotechnology offers an open-ended (‘umbrella’) promise: organic and large area electronics and nano-enabled drug delivery. Based on such understanding of dynamics, our scenario exercises explored strategies to overcome waiting games.

Civilian–military co-operation strategies in developing new technologies

Dual use technology has been advocated as the solution for the twin problem of maintaining a high tech defence technology base and improving economic competitiveness. The concept of dual use technology turns out to be rather imprecise representing a multitude of different meanings. This paper focuses on one important aspect, notably the co-operation between civilian and military actors in developing a new technology, by analysing the evolution of a socio-technical network related to the development of an advanced battery in The Netherlands. The analytical framework used for interpreting the empirical case builds on theories of socio-technical networks and on two previous and complementary analyses in Research Policy on dual use technology. Our analysis of the dynamics underlying the evolution of the ‘battery network’ shows how the emerging notion of the battery’s duality became a window of opportunity for a co-operation strategy of either joint or concurrent development of the battery for both civilian and military applications. The interactions within the evolving network are steered by the search for expertise and funding. In view of the difficulties of realising civilian–military integrated joint development projects, the establishment of ‘dual capacity networks’ is suggested as part of a possible strategy towards an integrated civilian–military technology and industrial base.

Anticipatory interventions and the co-evolution of nanotechnology and society

In contrast with earlier emerging technologies, in the case of nanotechnology there is a lot of anticipation sourrounding how it might, or should, become embedded in society. These ‘anticipatory interventions’ not only affect ongoing processes in the present, but also provide directions for the future development and embedding of nanotechnologies. This move toward anticipation of embedding of nanotechnologies is itself part of a more general move toward ‘reflexive co-evolution of science, technology and society’. I focus on the analysis of dynamics in ‘anticipatory interventions’ at the level of domains of application and discuss emerging patterns in reflexive co-evolution. Methodologically, I use interventions as ‘windows on the world’: they allow me to see what is happening in terms of emerging patterns in embedding processes. One ‘window’ is opened by following ‘anticipatory interventions’ by institutional entrepreneurs and forums and assessing what they add up to. Another ‘window’ is opened by conducting Constructive Technology Assessment workshops supported by scenarios. I examine ‘anticipatory interventions’ in two contrasting domains: the application of nanotechnologies for food packaging technologies and for drug delivery systems. Striking across all of my studies is that actors take into account broader aspects of societal emgedding than one would expect on the basis of their position in a sector. One emerging pattern already visible in the present is that pro-active activities to bridge promotion and control of nanotechnologies do not occur ‘across the board’, but in a distribution of labour to shape societal embedding of nanotechnologies. While the substance of anticipations will differ between domains, the reduction of uncertainties via emerging rules and the promotion of anticipatory coordination are general and acknowledged routes for interventions. A second pattern is the ohenomenon of ‘games of societal embedding’. Actors engage in strategic interactions concerning societal embedding. Waiting games are one specific example, which were very visible in my domain studies. Future development are still open-ended. I developed two scenarios, where anticipation of embedding becomes recognized and institutionalized, or is backgrounded in the end. At the moment, however, my observations and analysis indicate that reflexive co-evolution of nanotechnology and society if here to stay.

Economic and societal dimensions of nanotechnology-enabled drug delivery

Introduction: There is an increasing interest in nanotechnology-enabled drug delivery systems which are expected to have significant impacts for health care. The economic and societal aspects are uncertain, even ambiguous, at this stage of development, and often not addressed, or only as part of the promises about present options. Areas covered: In our review we will report on assessments of actors regarding economic and societal aspects and, occasionally, of expected impacts. Topics discussed include: present and future markets of nano-enabled drug delivery, industry dynamics, regulation, cost-effectiveness, and broader ethical issues. We also include a brief discussion of anticipatory activities of actors who are concerned about these aspects. Expert opinion: Performance of nano-enabled drug delivery, a necessary step to have future impacts at all, needs to be improved further, and in interaction with demands of users along the product value chain and with further stakeholder such as regulatory agencies and health insurers. When supported by analysis of societal embedding of new products and scenarios, this allows relevant societal and economic aspects to be taken into account at an early stage. A key issue in realizing impacts will be liability, and roles and responsibilities of technology developers and stakeholders more generally.

Anticipating Market Introduction of Nanotechnology-Enabled Drug Delivery Systems

Nanotechnology-enabled drug delivery systems (NDDS) are associated with high expectations regarding their economic and societal value. NDDS are expected to contribute to important issues in healthcare such as enabling novel pharmaceutical therapies which only target the site of the disease and help to reduce costs of healthcare. To date, more than two dozen NDDS have been developed into marketed products and many more are under development [1]. Market forecasts have estimated that the market for these technologies will grow from US

Context Matters: Promises and Concerns Regarding Nanotechnologies for Water and Food Applications

1 billion in 2010 to US

Novel naval technologies: Sustaining or disrupting naval doctrine

136 billion in 2021 [2, 3].