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InnovationSpace 337
nomic powers but, rather, toward needs that are economically
not as powerful, such as those prevalent in developing
or threshold countries.
Future-Oriented Shaping of Innovation
Especially in the case of innovation in cross-sectoral
fields, such as nanoscale, S&T can be characterized by its
distributed structure-i.e., a sharing of roles among actors
from different organizations and even institutional
domains. Distributed innovation requires that the different
components that constitute an innovation come together
in a particular manner. This, for example, applies
to new knowledge, methods and techniques; financing
of R&D and markets; innovation policy frameworks and
regulatory procedures; and public or private needs and
preferences. In addition to generating innovations, it is
critical how they are implemented into different societal
contexts and appropriated by various actors. In the
case of emerging S&T, assessing what is needed to appropriately
generate, regulate, and apply innovations is
particularly difficult. As the future of emerging fields of
S&T is uncertain, the various transitions from present
scientific and technological potentials to future innovations
are still undetermined. The future characteristics
of society are uncertain as well, as is the development of
the relationships between S&T and society.
This constellation gives rise to numerous challenges
that affect those who are concerned with the practical
development of innovations as well as those who analyze
such processes as social scientists. Since emerging
innovations are neither fully crystallized nor established
in society, and since their trajectories are subject to at
times abrupt shifts, what is needed are capacities to
cope with dynamic change at various levels-such as
preparedness to cognitively and practically master unforeseen
developments in S&T and society. It is therefore
important to enhance the process of innovation
with reflexive, deliberative, and anticipatory capacities.
Emerging fields of S&T that are considered to result
in revolutionary innovations tend to boost controversial-promissory
and fearsome-expectations. Not
least for this reason it is important to institutionalize
future-oriented assessments of emerging S&T in society
as well as forums that facilitate communication among
actors from various backgrounds.
It would be illusionary, though, to expect that improved
communication across diverging disciplinary or
societal cultures will result in consensual understand-
ings of the significance of new and emerging S&T. Nevertheless,
exploring and discussing what the probable or
potential consequences of such innovations may be will
help envision different scenarios of S&T in society, as
well as identify zones of consent and dissent. This seems
particularly important in areas that carry the potential
to affect fundamental values and norms of a society, such
as those concerning the identity and welfare of human
beings (as well as other forms of life). However, not only
are emerging fields of S&T subject to dynamic change
but also to shifting public perceptions and attitudes.
Therefore, what may be considered undesirable today
because of unknown risks or assumed moral quandaries
might become part of common sense and everyday
culture in the future-which again demonstrates the interdependency
of technological and societal change.
See Also: Anticipatory Governance; Commercialization;
Competitiveness and Technonationalism; Disruptive Technology;
Emerging Technologies; Reflexive Governance; Science
Policy; Social Science; Societal Implications of Nanotechnology;
Technology Assessment; Uncertainty.
Further Readings
Edquist, Charles, ed. Systems of Innovation: Technologies,
Institutions and Organizations. London: Pinter/Cassell
Academic, 1997.
European Commission. "Taking European Knowledge Society
Seriously." Report of the Expert Group on Science and
Governance to the Science, Economy and Society Directorate.
Luxembourg: Directorate-General for Research, 2007.
Hall, Peter A. and David Soskice, eds. Varieties of Capitalism:
The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage.
London: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Nelson, Richard R., ed. National Systems of Innovation. London:
Oxford University Press, 1993.
InnovationSpace
Daniel Barben
RWTH Aachen University
InnovationSpace is a transdisciplinary education and
research lab that teaches students how to develop products
that create market value while serving real societal
needs and minimizing impacts on the environment. The