Turning the tide or surfing the wave? Responsible Research and Innovation, fundamental rights and neoliberal virtues

Abstract

The notion of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has increasingly attracted attention in the academic literature. Up until now, however, the literature has focused on clarifying the principles for which research and innovation are responsible and on examining the conditions that account for managing them responsibly. Little attention has been reserved to exploring the political-economic context in which the notion of RRI has become progressively more prominent. This article tries to address this aspect and suggests some preliminary considerations on the connections between the specific understanding of responsibility in RRI and the framing of responsibility in what has been synthetically defined as ‘neoliberalism’. To do so, we try to illustrate how the idea of responsibility has evolved over time so that the specific characteristics of RRI can be better highlighted. These characteristics will then be discussed against the features of neoliberalism and its understanding of responsibility. Eventually, we reaffirm a view of RRI centred on fundamental rights as a possible point of departure between these two perspectives on responsibility.

Responsible research and innovation: a systematic review of the literature and its applications to regional studies

“…The dominant influence of such a principle-based decision-making culture in research policy restricts a responsive attitude by abandoning innovations that might bear further negative consequences for society (Holbrook & Briggle, 2014). Creating harmonious or standardized RRI on a global scale could encounter obstacles due to multiple values, interests and perceptions of what is 'responsible' or 'irresponsible' research and innovation (Arnaldi & Gorgoni, 2015;Ruggiu, 2015).…”

Inescapable Frameworks: Ethics of Care, Ethics of Rights and the Responsible Research and Innovation Model

“…In political theory, there is increasing attention being paid to the role of human rights in the field of governance of techno-scientific progress, and in particular within the debate on RRI (Ruggiu 2013a; 2015a; 2018a; 2018b; 2019; Koops et al 2013;Arnaldi and Gorgoni 2016;Leenes et al 2017 etc.). This argument empathises the centrality of judicial practices in the concretization of rights, which, therefore, differently from the Rawls' conceptualisation, belongs to an ethical framework which is neither abstract nor universalist.…”

Responsible Research and Innovation and the Governance of Human Enhancement

“…future-oriented, and is essentially linked to the idea of assuming and actively exercising responsibility, both in the sense of complying with some duties, but also by (pro)actively assuming responsibilities when the contents of our duties and tasks are not or cannot be established in advance. Taken in this sense, responsibility is called "prospective" [6] in that responsibility is not an ex post judgement over a certain state of affairs, but it concerns a possible future state of affairs.…”

“…Therefore, the integration of Human Rights within RRI is precisely what can characterise RRI as a distinctive governance approach to the management of the responsibilities of research and innovation -at least if we want to take it seriously and give credit to its ambitions. Otherwise the risk would be that "the undirected disposability of purposes can create the risk that RRI could be realised in ways that de facto contradict its premises, thus becoming worthless rhetoric or an instrument for covering purposes other than its authentic promises" [6].…”

“…Indeed, a normatively-framed version of RRI seems to grant flexibility on one side, but within a framework of rights and duties. Actually, the integration of Human Rights within governance mechanisms and instruments can be seen precisely as the element characterising RRI as a distinctive governance approach compared to other forms of governance, if we want to give credit to its ambitions [6].…”