03.04.2019

TATuP on Normativity in TA

Technology assessment (TA) has to deal with the conflict between commitment and neutrality. The current TATuP issue 1/2019 questions the myth of neutrality in TA and wants to further the debate on its normative aspects.

Since its beginnings in the 1970s, TA asserts its claim to neutrality and impartiality. However, a closer look reveals that normative aspects influence the selection of analyzed technologies and analytical perspectives or the evaluation of research results.

“The spell of neutrality as the myth of TA is broken”, explain Linda Nierling and Helge Torgersen, editors of the TATuP special topic. For TA, this leads to the urgent question of its own implicit and explicit norms and values. What is their nature? And how can they be brought in line with scientific quality criteria? The authors of the current TATuP special topic “Normativity in technology assessment” provide answers to these and other questions.

This issue’s interview contains a controversial discussion: Armin Grunwald (Head of ITAS, KIT) and Pierre Delvenne (Associate Director of SPIRAL Research Centre, University of Liège) debate about commitment and neutrality in TA and the relation between TA and democracy.

Also in TATuP’s spring issue: Reflections on a TA for the society of singularities, a search for traces of the bias of algorithms as well as reviews, conference reports, and news from the community. (04.04.2019)

Further links:

Full issue (PDF/HTML)