Broadening out and opening up technology assessment: Approaches to enhance international development, co-ordination and democratisation
Broadening out and opening up technology assessment: Approaches to enhance international development, co-ordination and democratisation
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DOI：
10.1016/j.respol.2013.09.004
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发表时间：
2014-04-01
期刊：
影响因子：
7.2
通讯作者：
Stirling, Andrew
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ely, Adrian;Van Zwanenberg, Patrick;Stirling, Andrew
技术评估（TA）在帮助确定优先事项和改善民族国家技术政策和创新战略的环境可持续性，成本效益和更广泛的利益方面有着悠久的历史。在国际一级，技术援助有可能加强科学、技术和创新在实现千年发展目标、有效执行联合国气候变化框架和促进全球向“绿色经济”过渡方面的作用。然而，当有效地推荐单一的表面上的“最佳”技术或战略，技术援助的做法可以无可争议地服务于“关闭”的辩论，未能充分解决技术的不确定性和社会的模糊性，减少范围内的民主问责和协调的规模和背景。本文探讨了对比过程中的方式“扩大”和“开放”技术援助可以提高技术政策的严谨性和民主问责制，以及促进社会相关性和国际合作。这些方法使技术援助能够阐明各种选择、不确定性和模糊性，从而为更广泛的政治辩论提供信息，说明不同社会利益的相互竞争的问题、价值观和知识往往有利于形成对比的创新途径。通过这种方式，技术援助可以在随后的政策制定中促进技术稳健性和社会合法性。借鉴三个实证案例研究（在地方，国家和国际层面），本文讨论了详细的案例和方法，在最近的TA演习，有助于这种“扩大”和“开放”。报告最后探讨了对侧重于全球可持续发展挑战的国家和国际技术评估进程的更广泛影响和挑战。(C)2013作者Elsevier B.V.出版，保留所有权利。
Technology assessment (TA) has a strong history of helping to identify priorities and improve environmental sustainability, cost-effectiveness and wider benefits in the technology policies and innovation strategies of nation-states. At international levels, TA has the potential to enhance the roles of science, technology and innovation towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, effectively implementing the UN Framework on Climate Change and fostering general global transitions to 'green economies'. However, when effectively recommending single ostensibly 'best' technologies or strategies, TA practices can serve unjustifiably to 'close down' debate, failing adequately to address technical uncertainties and social ambiguities, reducing scope for democratic accountability and co-ordination across scales and contexts. This paper investigates ways in which contrasting processes 'broadening out' and 'opening up' TA can enhance both rigour and democratic accountability in technology policy, as well as facilitating social relevance and international cooperation. These methods allow TA to illuminate options, uncertainties and ambiguities and so inform wider political debates about how the contending questions, values and knowledges of different social interests often favour contrasting innovation pathways. In this way TA can foster both technical robustness and social legitimacy in subsequent policy-making. Drawing on three empirical case studies (at local, national and international levels), the paper discusses detailed cases and methods, where recent TA exercises have contributed to this 'broadening out' and 'opening up'. It ends by exploring wider implications and challenges for national and international technology assessment processes that focus on global sustainable development challenges. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.