The last issue of STI-Studies (vol. 5, no. 2) contained two articles on mode 2 issues, written by Janus Hansen and Monika Kurath, addressing the theoretical basis as well as the empirical foundation of this concept.
The editors of STI-Studies received a substantial number of comments on these two articles indicating that the mode 2 debate is still vivid – and that relevant issues still are contested such as the de-differentiation thesis or the question of legitimacy of public participation.
Following the two main articles of this issue, readers will find a discussion section with contributions of Laurens Hessels and Harro van Lente, Arie Rip, Peter Wehling, and finally two comments of Janus Hansen and Monika Kurath on each other’s article. All of them point to the value and the additional insights of the current debate, but also to some weaknesses of Hansen’s proposal to include systems theory as well as of Kurath’s attempt to measure social robustness.
The two main articles also refer to the interaction of science and society. In his paper "Emerging Technologies and Waiting Games", Haico te Kulve presents a case study of institutional entrepreneurship and the evolution of rules and practices of using emergent technologies, such as nanotechnology, in the food packaging sector.
In their paper "Strategies for the Scientific Progress of the Developing Countries in the New Millennium", Vuk Uskokovic, Milica Ševkušic and Dragan P. Uskokovic put forward the question, how developing countries can catch up or even leap-frog the leading states by mobilizing science – and at the same time avoid the pitfalls and risks of modernization which have shown up in many developed countries.
Many thanks to Franziska Perlick for language assistance, Fabian Lüke for layout editing, and Jens Kroniger for web publishing.