Responsible Innovation in light of Levinas: rethinking the relation between responsibility and innovation

Abstract

To date, much of the work on Responsible Innovation (RI) has focused on the 'responsible' part of RI. This has left the 'innovation' part in need of conceptual innovation of its own. If such conceptual innovation is to contribute to a coherent conception of RI, however, it is crucial to better understand the relation between responsibility and innovation first. This paper elucidates this relation by locating responsibility and innovation within Emmanuel Levinas' phenomenology. It structures his work into three 'stages', each described in terms of their leading experience and objectivation regime. This analysis identifies a need for constant innovation of political and technological systems, originating from and motivated by our responsibility to others. It also shows the relation between responsibility and innovation to be threefold: foundational, ethical and structural. These insights could help RI to avoid some pitfalls of 'regular' innovation, and provide moral grounding for important aspects of RI. ARTICLE HISTORY

The Development of Responsibility and Leadership Through Sport Education Model

“…The results obtained in this study found that SEM leads to the positive benefits of exposing and engaging students to SEM Peda the learning process that uses the Lead Sports Education Model process [30]. In this case responsibility is the main experience in learning [31], then reword can be given to motivate their learning. Prizes (Awards) are a great motivation for elementary school students.…”

To-Do Is to Be: Foucault, Levinas, and Technologically Mediated Subjectivation

“…As such, knowledge and power are inextricably linked (as they are in Foucault), and objectification constitutes "a great betrayal" of the other (Levinas 1969 p. 44) which is nevertheless necessary for justice. And it is this dilemma at the heart of what it means to be in society that should motivate me to remain susceptible to the other and criticize and improve our techno-political systematizations accordingly, ad infinitum (Bergen 2017).…”

“…Levinas mainly sees technology as setting up the world as "raw materials" for justice and as a secularizing force that should allow humanity to come together more sincerely. He is also acutely aware, however, of the potential of politics and technology to enslave others, threatening their identity and dignity(Bergen 2017).…”

Politics of scientific reflection

“…In the third and final research article, Bergen (2017) notes that scholarship on responsible innovation has tended to emphasize 'responsibility' while leaving 'innovation' undertheorized. This approach leads to a view of responsibility as something to be added to rather than cultivated from within innovation.…”

“…As the contents of this issue suggest, both the scholarship and practices of responsible innovation will do well to take into account the 'constant innovation of technological and political systems' (Bergen 2017) out of which they arise.…”