Technology Assessment (TA) is a dynamic and transdisciplinary field, emerging from the ambivalence of a deeply rooted belief in technological progress’ potential of improving society and unintended effects of technological innovations. The resulting political, social and academic debates focus on the potentially ambivalent consequences of technological development and increasingly object to an essentially optimistic belief in technological progress. Simultaneously, theories and methods of TA are rapidly gaining in relevance as technological innovations are challenging societies on multiple levels. In addition to assessing possible consequences of new developments, the need for innovative solutions to global problems, e.g. the climate crisis with all its social and political implications, is more urgent than ever. And as much as the climate crisis is a result of technological progress, as much will again depend on technological and scientific innovation for its resolution. Apart from technological challenges, these issues need to be addressed from diverse perspectives including ethical, social and political angles and approaches, because eventually we have to discuss ideas about a sustainable society that is worth living in for as many people as possible.
As a transdisciplinary research field, TA sees itself, among other things, as an intermediary that aims to initiate and moderate the cooperation between science, politics and society. Apart from TA, educational actors and political stakeholders are jointly responsible for facilitating, enhancing and attending to the social discourse. However, an analytical discourse both in the scientific and in the societal sphere, is frequently inhibited by the strict separation into disciplines, as well as a lack of awareness of how social processes can be shaped in the context of technical and scientific innovation. This problem is contrasted by the urgent need to work on the mutual interdependencies between technical and social development in a transdisciplinary way involving society as a whole.
Possible approaches are offered by the results and methods of TA in various educational contexts. Practice and methods of TA can be used and are used in a wide variety of educational contexts and can help to bridge disciplinary boundaries in order to address socially relevant issues from different perspectives. At the same time, due to the social necessity of the intensive scientific examination of questions of TA, it must also be discussed if and how TA can and should develop further as a transdisciplinary research field. A development towards disciplinary cohesion harbors the risk of losing connections with politics and business. Transdisciplinarity, in turn, raises the question of which educational contexts actors should be recruited from and how educational processes can be structured
and strengthened. This special issue therefore addresses both perspectives - the practice in various educational contexts, as well as the respective training and educational practices of TA as a discipline.
Expected contributions
Possible approaches could include:
- Policy advice as an educational context for TA
- Outreach, Public Understanding of Science and Science Communication
- TA and early education
- TA and school
- TA and higher (tertiary) education
- TA and inter- & transdisciplinary academic work: implications for university education
- basic theory building and methodological design for TA in educational contexts
The call is open to all thematically relevant contributions, also those beyond the above-mentioned core themes. Submissions are welcome from all disciplines applying methods, theories or concepts of TA in education and all disciplines concerned with empirical educational research and philosophy of science.
Guest editors of this TATuP special topic
Sabrina Eimler, Hochschule Ruhr West – Research Institute Positive Computing
Elke Hemminger, Protestant University of Applied Sciences Bochum – Technology, Media and Empirical Research Methods
Submissions
- Please send your abstract by email to redaktion@tatup.de by 12 May 2021 at the very latest;
- Length of the abstract: max. 1.5 pages;
- Please state full names, email addresses and institutional affiliations of all co-authors of the abstract;
- The editorial office will correspond with the author submitting the abstract.
Editorial Process
12 May 2021: deadline for submitting your abstract
June 2021: decision on inviting authors to submit a full manuscript
September 2021: deadline for submitting your full manuscript, followed by a double non-blind
review process
November 2021: feedback from the reviewers, followed by authors’ revisions by mid-December
January 2022: feedback on revisions
February 2022: end of revision period
March 2022: publication (print and online)