Abstract
In recent years, “Responsible Research and Innovation” (RRI) has become a new buzzword at the core of European science policy discourses and beyond. Using a narrative approach, this paper aims to explore how academic researchers can potentially make sense of RRI and turn it into an academic core value. Narratives on research and its relation to society drawn from different sources in the Austrian context will be used to reflect on how they contribute to creating shared meaning, participate in the constitution of a broader sense of direction and valuation, and enable or constrain researchers’ actions. Using epistemic living spaces and narrative infrastructures as key-sensitizing concepts, the paper identifies and elaborates on three main narrative clusters that collectively frame the ways in which researchers can make sense of their work and engage with questions of RRI. In conclusion, this allows identifying the potential resistances RRI might encounter, the research still to be done in order to understand the dynamics at work and the work needed to support develo** the concept’s full potential.
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Notes
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- 2.
Regulation (EU) No. 1291/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council of 11 December 2013 Establishing Horizon 2020—the framework programme for research and innovation (2014–2020)—of 20 Dec. 2013, Official Journal of European Union, L347/104, http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/legal_basis/fp/h2020-eu-establact_en.pdf
- 3.
My gratitude goes to the many researchers who took the time to participate in interviews and discussion groups in the following projects conducted between 2004 and 2014: “Let’s talk about GOLD. Analysing the interactions between genome research(ers) and the public as a learning process”, funded by GEN-AU as an ELSA project; “Knowing – Knowledge, Institutions and Gender. An East-West Comparative Study”, funded by the European Commission, FP6. “Living Changes in the Life Sciences. Tracing the Ethical and Social within Scientific Practice and Work Culture”, funded by GEN-AU as an ELSA project. “Making Futures Present. The Coproduction of Nano and Society in the Austrian Context, funded by FWF”. “Transdisciplinarity as culture and practice”, funded by BMWFW under the programme provision.
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This notion was first used by Deuten and Rip (2000) to study design processes in an organisation.
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This notion was inspired by Jacob and Riles (2007), who coined it to study informed consent as one expression of such new bureaucracies of virtue. In this paper, the notion is developed in a slightly different direction and is not specifically tied to the core questions of ethics in biomedicine.
- 7.
This notion has been inspired by Hecht’s (2001) use of technopolitical regime.
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Felt, U. (2017). “Response-able Practices” or “New Bureaucracies of Virtue”: The Challenges of Making RRI Work in Academic Environments. In: Asveld, L., van Dam-Mieras, R., Swierstra, T., Lavrijssen, S., Linse, K., van den Hoven, J. (eds) Responsible Innovation 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64834-7_4
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