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http://hdl.handle.net/2003/26718
2024-03-29T10:20:17ZScience, Technology & Innovation Studies Vol. 3, No 2, December 2007
http://hdl.handle.net/2003/26764
Title: Science, Technology & Innovation Studies Vol. 3, No 2, December 2007
Editors: Schulz-Schaeffer, Ingo; Werle, Raymund; Weyer, Johannes2007-12-01T00:00:00ZEthics vs. Innovation?
http://hdl.handle.net/2003/26763
Title: Ethics vs. Innovation?
Authors: Fink, Simon
Abstract: The article assesses the empirical veracity of the frequently heard thesis that strict embryo research laws can hinder innovation in embryo and stem cell research, and thereby impede the innovative ability of the medical biotech sector. Based on a comparative study of the OECD countries, and case-study material, the article argues that this thesis can only partly be confirmed. Strict embryo research laws are associated with a lower innovation quota in stem cell research. But this correlation mostly reflects stable structural differences between national innovation systems rather than dynamics triggered by policy measures. Permissive embryo research laws are not automatically associated with an innovative biotechnology sector, and the innovativeness sometimes is a partly unintended consequence, rather than the result of an active political strategy. The results of the analysis caution against undue simplified theses on the impact regulation can have on the innovative ability of national economies. If there are impacts of embryo research laws on the innovative ability of the biotech sector, they will be visible only in the long term. Shortterm political steering efforts have to be judged very sceptically.2007-12-01T00:00:00ZThe Expansion of Renewable Energies in Germany between Niche Dynamics and System Integration
http://hdl.handle.net/2003/26762
Title: The Expansion of Renewable Energies in Germany between Niche Dynamics and System Integration
Authors: Mautz, Rüdiger
Abstract: The main assumption is that the expansion of the renewable energies in Germany is not only the result of technical innovations, but also the outcome of specific social and institutional innovation processes. The article first examines the reasons for the increasing diffusion of renewable energies. Some attention will be directed to the relevance of political regulation and to actor networks, which have been important for the process of innovation. Secondly, the question will be discussed if there is another side to the rapid growth of the sector for renewable energies, in the sense of specific problems and ambivalent results caused by the growth. One example could be conflicts, which emerge from divergent interests of actors involved or from the risks of technological niche promotion. The third main topic takes as its point of departure the fact that the relationship between the 'renewables' and the traditional industry of power generation was marked from the outset by competing paradigms. The renewable energies could at first only be propagated in small niches, which had to be protected by political regulation. The question will be discussed whether the increasing expansion of the niches causes growing problems with integrating the renewable energies into the given centralized electricity system and what kind of different interests and ideas about system integration have to be taken into consideration.2007-12-01T00:00:00ZInterviewing Scientists
http://hdl.handle.net/2003/26761
Title: Interviewing Scientists
Authors: Laudel, Grit; Gläser, Jochen
Abstract: With this article, we would like to initiate a discussion about a methodological problem that is central to many empirical science studies but has received far too little attention, namely scientifically informed interviewing. To what extent do we have to understand scientists work scientifically in order to explain their behaviour sociologically? As far as it is existent at all, the methodological debate in science studies has focused on ethnographic observations. In this debate, the two approaches of naïve observation and informed observation (which sometimes takes the form of native observation) can be distinguished. The general methodology of ethnographic observation clearly favours the informed approach, as does the general methodology of qualitative interviewing. Scientifically informed interviewing specifies this general methodological insight for science studies but is also necessary because in some investigations we must systematically collect data on the content of our respondents research. This kind of interviewing requires extensive preparation of interviews, the construction of an ad hoc - pidgin for the communication during the interview and the negotiation of an appropriate level of scientific depth between the interviewer and the interviewee. We make suggestions how to solve these tasks (and how not to) and discuss limitations of the approach of informed interviewing.2007-12-01T00:00:00ZEditorial
http://hdl.handle.net/2003/26760
Title: Editorial
Authors: Schulz-Schaeffer, Ingo; Werle, Raymond; Weyer, Johannes2007-12-01T00:00:00ZScience, Technology & Innovation Studies Vol. 3 (2007), No 1 (May)
http://hdl.handle.net/2003/26759
Title: Science, Technology & Innovation Studies Vol. 3 (2007), No 1 (May)
Editors: Schulz-Schaeffer, Ingo; Werle, Raymund; Weyer, Johannes2007-05-01T00:00:00ZThe role of public policy in promoting technical innovations
http://hdl.handle.net/2003/26758
Title: The role of public policy in promoting technical innovations
Authors: Conrad, Jobst
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to demonstrate and to discuss on the basis of an indepth case study the range and limitations of public policy aiming at promoting the development of regional innovation networks and clusters. This is done first by denominating main criteria, potentials and problems of a public policy promoting regional clusters (section 1), second by describing the development of the network association InnoPlanta and its major framework conditions (sections 2 and 3), third by summarizing the actor constellation of the network and the innovation pattern and market perspectives of InnoPlanta's research projects (sections 4 and 5), fourth by then pointing out the structure and role of public promotion policy in this process (section 6), fifth by comparing promotion objectives with results achieved (section 7), and sixth by drawing some conclusions concerning successful promotion policy in the case investigated and in general (section 8). As shown in the case study, the role, success or failure of public policy promoting the development of regional innovation networks and clusters depend on its favourable interaction dynamics with the existing social and economic contextual conditions. Therefore, referring to the in-depth case study of Conrad (2005), on the one hand these framework conditions are sketched in somewhat more detail, and on the other hand the article does not focus on one specific theoretical question, but tries to combine various analytical perspectives to explain the role and success of public promotion policy in the case of InnoPlanta. Consequently, this article concentrates on explaining the role of the BMBF InnoRegio program, in particular, for the development of the regional innovation network InnoPlanta, and not on this type of public promotion policy per se.2007-05-01T00:00:00ZProducing difference in an age of biosociality
http://hdl.handle.net/2003/26757
Title: Producing difference in an age of biosociality
Authors: Lipphardt, Veronika; Niewöhner, Jörg
Abstract: This paper brings together thinking from the history of science, science and technology studies and social/cultural anthropology to better understand how human diversity is handled in everyday practices in science and beyond. Our aim is to take the social and historical contingency of practice as a starting point and to focus on the patterning of practice, which arises from the constraints of socio-material alignments and leads to the co-production of diversity. Under the headings of race and ethnicity, sorting practices with regards to human diversity have been at the centre of anthropological thinking and critique since the age of Enlightenment. Constructivist critique has insisted on understanding "race" as a social construct and warned of reifying differences of a socio-cultural making. This critique has so far not been particularly fruitful in dealing with human biological difference as produced in different everyday practices in science and beyond. Recently, molecular genetics have reinvigorated the interest to stratify human populations into subpopulations to improve drug development and targeting, to ascertain vulnerabilities and plasticity, to adjust nutritional intake or therapeutic strategies or to trace ethnic ancestries. We suggest that the shortcomings of constructivist critique in the face of these latest developments are due to its focus on theoretical concepts and self-descriptions rather than the practices and their implicit logics within and outside science proper. By employing Hacking's concepts of 'making up people' and 'looping', Rabinow's 'biosociality', as well as Callon's concept of 'translation', we hope to show the interactive dynamics of classification and response which take place at the interface between different knowledge practices. We trace translations through the life sciences into clinical practice and beyond into different social constellations, involving medical practice, made-up people and social bodies in order to show how human diversity is produced in practice. We put an emphasis on the different roles that biohistorical narratives, standardised packages and forms of resistance and appropriation play within these constellations.2007-05-01T00:00:00ZIntegrating path dependency and path creation in a general understanding of path constitution
http://hdl.handle.net/2003/26756
Title: Integrating path dependency and path creation in a general understanding of path constitution
Authors: Meyer, Uli; Schubert, Cornelius
Abstract: Path dependency as it is described by Arthur and David portrays technological developments as historically embedded, emergent processes. In contrast, Garud and Karnøe's notion of path creation emphasises the role of strategic change and deliberate action for the development of new technologies. In this article, we integrate both concepts into a general understanding of path processes which accounts for emergent as well as deliberate modes of path constitution. In addition, we distinguish between three consecutive phases of technological path developments. Both conceptualisations are used to create an analytical grid against which empirical cases of path processes can be matched. Based on this general understanding, we further outline how concepts from science and technology studies and institutional theory can help to elaborate the role of deliberate action and emergence in the stabilisation of technological paths over time.2007-05-01T00:00:00ZTechnology and (Post-)Sociality in the Financial Market
http://hdl.handle.net/2003/26755
Title: Technology and (Post-)Sociality in the Financial Market
Authors: Langenohl, Andreas; Schmidt-Beck, Kerstin
Abstract: The article takes issue with recent influential work on the paradigmatic relevancy of technologically induced modes of communication and sociality on the financial markets. According to Karin Knorr Cetina and Urs Bruegger, the technological infrastructure of the global financial markets engenders novel forms of sociality and social integration: intersubjectivity with non-present others and (post)sociality with (imagined) objects. The article differentiates these hypotheses by way of confronting them with results from interviews conducted with financial market professionals such as asset managers and financial analysts. They reveal that financial professionals attribute the role of technology a varying meaning and engage in divergent technological practices depending on their market positionality: while, for instance, intraday traders report on an intimate and quasi-social relationship with the technologically institutionalized "object" of the market, equity analysts display a more distanced stance toward the market and attribute the technological nature of mass communication (especially the real-time circulation of information) paramount importance. In conclusion the paper calls for a nuanced and contextualized understanding of the impact of technology upon changing social relations.2007-05-01T00:00:00ZEditorial
http://hdl.handle.net/2003/26754
Title: Editorial
Authors: Schulz-Schaeffer, Ingo; Werle, Raymund; Weyer, Johannes2007-05-01T00:00:00Z