Long presented as a universal policy-recipe for social prosperity and economic growth, the promise of innovation seems to be increasingly in question, giving way to a new vision of progress in which society is advanced as a central enabler of technoeconomic development. Frameworks such as “Responsible” or “Mission-oriented” Innovation, for example, have become commonplace parlance and practice in the governance of the innovation–society nexus. In this paper, we study the dynamics by which this “social fix” to technoscience has gained legitimacy in institutions of global governance by investigating recent projects at two international organizations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Commission, to mainstream “Responsible Innovation” frameworks and instruments across countries. Our analysis shows how the turn to societal participation in both organizations relies on a new deficit logic—a democratic deficit of innovation—that frames a lack of societal engagement in innovation governance as a major barrier to the uptake and dissemination of new technologies. These deficit politics enable global governance institutions to present “Responsible Innovation” frameworks as the solution and to claim authority over the coproduction of particular forms of democracy and innovation as intertwined pillars of a market-liberal international order.
To the Editor -Emerging neurotechnologies raise important governance questions related to, for example, dual use, brain data privacy, and manipulation of personal autonomy. Although many public sector research initiatives have implemented measures to address these issues, similar systematic measures in the private sector have yet to emerge. This gap is critical, as neurotech innovation today is largely driven by a set of companies that are subject to growing public scrutiny [1][2][3][4][5] . Here we detail lessons, emerging practices and open questions for responsible innovation in the private sector that are the result of three years of policy deliberations that began with a 2018 conference in Shanghai convened by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and led to the release of the "OECD Recommendation on Responsible Innovation in Neurotechnology" last year 6 . The principles therein cover opportunities and challenges for better innovation practices in company settings-including the use of ethics advisory boards, company-level principles, and ethics-by-design approaches-with broad relevance beyond neurotech to digital medicine and corporate R&D activities in today's era of 'tech-lash' . We argue that it is time for a radical shift in the conversation about governance of emerging neurotech: effective governance must focus on the private sector as a central actor early on-before trajectories are locked in and scaling takes off-and requires a new set of policy perspectives and collaborative tools to do so. These tools must complement existing efforts in public-sector research ethics, post hoc product regulation and corporate social responsibility. They must also reflect the growing recognition that we cannot rely on industry self-regulation alone to steer innovation activity in socially desirable directions.
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This article aims to reflect on the role of Science, Technology and Society (STS) research(ers) in co-constructing Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in the Global South. By reporting on RRI research in the Global South, here the Indo-Dutch NWO-MVI project on rice straw burning in Punjab, we make an argument for approaching RRI as a symmetric process of knowledge production mobilised by local actors and researchers alike. For STS researchers to responsibly engage with local innovation systems, their activities need to go beyond knowledge provision and towards facilitating the ownership and circulation of local meanings and means to responsibly innovate. Rather than understanding RRI as a fixed framework to govern innovation practices, this article reflects on RRI as an approach that combines research with intervention. We propose that following the principle of symmetry can turn RRI into a productive tool for the mobilisation of embedded local principles that can organise innovation systems in a responsible way. In particular, symmetry allows the re-location of meanings and practices of innovation as well as the re-negotiation of multiple notions of responsible governance.
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