History and Past Activities
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History and Past Activities |
Maarten Mentzel
School of Systems Engineering and Policy Analysis (SEPA)
Delft University of Technology
Jaffalaan 5
2628 BX Delft, NL
Tel.: 0031 015 278 8458
Fax 0031 015 278 3429
e-mail: m.a.mentzel@planet.nl
The introduction of science based technologies in European societies: the question of political legitimacy
In the paper I will assume and elaborate that science and technology are highly intertwined. Where science is a way of understanding the world, is technology a way of controlling the world (Derry 1999).Advances in scientific understanding enable the development of new technologies. This development is sometimes seen as a simple linear chain of discrete activities, with each link leading to the next one: pure science — applied science — engineering — technology. But all of these activities overlap all the others in complex ways.
I will, secondly, discuss the importance to (re)think about the ways technology affects society resp. societies. Where society (e.g. the Dutch society), through public policy decisions, is responsible for the uses to which technology is put and also is responsible for the allocation of resources, the supranational political way - in Europe at large - is much more unclear.
This affects, thirdly, the question of political responsibility for the uses of inquiries into research in the European Union. Is there a clear political and social accountability in European government for the shaping of scientific research agendas which will eventually effect the introduction of new technologies?
Sociology of Science and Technology NETwork - last update: April 2006