The RRI challenge : responsibility in tension with market regulation

259 Pages·2019·4.05 MB·English

by  Nikolova, Blagovesta

The RRI Challenge

Innovation and Responsibility Set
coordinated by
Robert Gianni and Bernard Reber
Volume 3
The RRI Challenge

Responsibilization in a State of
Tension with Market Regulation

Blagovesta Nikolova
First published 2019 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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© ISTE Ltd 2019
The rights of Blagovesta Nikolova to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by her in
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2018967372

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78630-142-0
Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Robert GIANNI
List of Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Introduction. On the Imperative for Responsible Innovation in
Contemporary Market Societies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Chapter 1. RRI as Social Critique:
Achievements and Drawbacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1. RRI and its “precursors” – what’s new? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2. Addressing the mischiefs of free markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.3. Democracy in distress: the prospects of collective responsibility . . . . 20
Chapter 2. Responsibility and the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.1. The anticipatory aspect of RRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.2. Innovation and manageability of the future: on uncertainty,
control and regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.3. Why responsibility? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Chapter 3. EU Governance of RTD and the Market . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.1. On governance and good governance:
order with/out authority? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.2. The economic “imprint” on the EU governance of RTD . . . . . . . . . 66
vi The RRI Challenge
3.3. EU governance of RTD: is “Science versus
Society” actually the problem? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Chapter 4. EU Institutional Rationality on RRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.1. On ends and means: EU institutional
discourse on the instrumentality of RRI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.2. The RRI “keys”: keys to what? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
4.2.1. Public engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4.2.2. Open access/open science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
4.2.3. Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.2.4. Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.2.5. Science education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.3. Walking the tightrope between democratization and
responsibilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Chapter 5. Ethics and the RRI Promise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.1. Ethics in the EU governance of RTD: achievements, problems and
challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.2. RRI and rediscovering the promises
of the Nuremberg Code (1947) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.3. The future of ethics in the context of RRI:
a gatekeeper of an open door? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Chapter 6. Responsibilization in Tension with
Market Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
6.1. Ethics in the Bermuda Triangle of market mechanisms: innovation,
responsibility and the perennial reinvention of capitalism . . . . . . . . . . . 145
6.2. On the traps behind the notion of “responsibilization”
in a market-driven context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
6.3. Going beyond New Public Management? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Foreword
When reflecting on the relationship between science and democracy,
John Dewey noticed that the “climate of opinion differs so widely from that
which marked the optimistic faith of the Enlightenment; the faith that human
science and freedom would advance hand in hand to usher in an era of
indefinite human perfectibility”1. By acknowledging this change, the
American philosopher was already pointing towards the perilous influence
of capitalism on democratic systems.
The book written by Blagovesta Nikolova analyzes the development of
this relationship by highlighting the explicit but also implicit strategies of the
market on the ethical development of research and innovation. According to
the author, the normativity at play when implementing research and
innovation is often established by the market. Therefore, an authentic
attempt to responsibilize researchers and innovators should not prescind
from considering this main bias.
This book is part of the Innovation and Responsibility set of books. Other
books in this set have addressed the challenges inherent to the present and
future of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). Lenoir investigates
the possible balance between efficiency and legitimacy when implementing
innovations2. Pansera and Owen start to raise questions about the policy
mechanisms implemented around innovation in developing countries,
highlighting how they are entrenched in the modern European discourse of

1 Dewey, J. (1989). Freedom and Culture. Prometheus Books, New York, p. 106.
2 Lenoir, V. (2019). Ethically Structured Processes. ISTE Ltd, London and John Wiley &
Sons, New York.
viii The RRI Challenge
development and progress3. In a similar way, Nikolova addresses the risk
and challenges that a market society can present to integrating plurality by
calling for a new understanding of the original meaning of progress.
Another related set, Responsible Research and Innovation, also addresses
current issues relating to RRI. Gianni criticizes the inflation of the
responsibility discourse by linking the very possibility of responsible
practices to their institutional enablers4. Maesschalck highlights the
necessity for governance processes to be reflexive in order to implement
their ethical objectives5. Grunwald suggests a hermeneutic approach to
tackle the challenges arising from multidisciplinarity6. Reber deepens these
issues by pointing out different kinds of pluralism influencing the
establishment of normative trajectories, as well as by indicating practical
ways to deal with these pluralities7.
The current book is rich in terms of suggestions and analyses of different
aspects. Nikolova first describes the potential for social criticism inherent in
RRI and in the concept of responsibility. Given the challenges connected to
an acceleration in our societies8, responsibility faces a more complex and
difficult task. However, Nikolova reminds us that the promises embedded in
RRI need to come to terms with and be supported by the actual governance
mechanisms in place. Therefore, she offers the reader an overview of the
rationality and the current strategies that are framing research and
innovation. By doing so, she warns us about the tensions and the
short-circuit between what we might call an ethics of the intentions and the
actual reality.
The author lists a series of actual problems that are undermining the
future of research and innovation. The first is the incapacity of the legal

3 Pansera, M. and Owen, R. (2018). Innovation and Development: The Politics at the Bottom
of the Pyramid. ISTE Ltd, London and John Wiley & Sons, New York.
4 Gianni, R. (2016). Responsibility and Freedom. The Ethical Realm of RRI. ISTE Ltd,
London and John Wiley & Sons, New York.
5 Maesschalck, M. (2017). Reflexive Governance for Research and Innovative Knowledge.
ISTE Ltd, London and John Wiley & Sons, New York.
6 Grunwald, A. (2016). The Hermeneutic Side of Responsible Research and Innovation. ISTE
Ltd, London and John Wiley & Sons, New York.
7 Reber, B. (2016). Precautionary Principle, Pluralism and Deliberation. ISTE Ltd, London
and John Wiley & Sons, New York.
8 Rosa, H. (2015). Social Acceleration. A New Theory of Modernity. Columbia University
Press, New York.