Constructing a global Technology Assessment: ways forward, parameters and limitations

Abstract

Scientific and technological progress has confronted modern societies with challenges which Technology Assessment (TA) supports in coping with. Since its original institutionalization as part of classical policy advice more than 50 years ago, it has undergone practical and conceptual changes. As an integrative approach, TA has reacted to a growing social demand for participation. Overall, TA fulfils functions as policy advice, as part of public debates and part of engineering processes. A new challenge comes with globalization: Technologies extend worldwide and influ­ence the lives of people in very different countries or cultures almost simultaneously. Problems such as climate change extend beyond the borders of nation states. This results in a growing need to assess S&T on a global level. This upscaling of TA raises questions about how to deal with dif­ferent cultural contexts and the search for a common ground. It is essential to understand how TA is understood in the respective cultural contexts, without being tied to Western origins. Four Global TA parameters provide an orientation for this: Political System, Science and Technology Governance System, Socio-Economic Development Stage and National Values. They make it possible to define a TA habitat and develop an understanding of the respective national specifics. By providing insights and descriptions into the national contexts we can see how this is done in practice as well as what is lacking in the national perspectives. Next to the necessary nation-specific TA, we get a better understanding of where is the common ground towards a global TA.