Making responsibility matter: the emergence of responsible innovation as an intellectual movement

Research output: ThesisDoctoral ThesisInternal

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Abstract

Around the turn of the millennium, as responsibility became an increasingly important concept in relation to research and innovation within both policy and academic discourse, responsibility was largely framed as a new and emerging matter of concern. ‘Responsible Innovation’ and ‘Responsible Research and Innovation’ quickly became popular ways of talking about responsibility-related issues for policy-makers and academics alike. Yet clearly, responsibility has meant different things to different people for a very long time and contemporary ideas surrounding responsibility within research and innovation did not emerge out of nowhere; rather, they are part of a long history within which different ways of understanding responsibility have been made to matter.
This thesis treats ‘Responsible Innovation’ as an intellectual movement. It zooms in on the emergence, development, outcomes and consequences of antecedent movements in order to show how making responsibility matter within research and innovation often means attempting to strike a balance between opportunity and need, evolution and revolution, continuity and change. It argues that at a time when our world is confronted by numerous inescapable societal and environmental challenges, many of which are seen as the indirect consequences of scientific and technological developments, it is essential that we continue thinking about the different ways in which responsibility matters.
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • Maastricht University
Supervisors/Advisors
  • Mody, Cyrus, Supervisor
  • Cressman, Darryl, Co-Supervisor
Award date8 Dec 2022
Place of PublicationMaastricht
Publisher
Print ISBNs9789464691054
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Keywords

  • technology
  • responsible innovation
  • intellectual movement
  • history

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