Challenging Futures: Embracing Innovation by Criticising Technocracy

The Riksbank's Jubilee Fund has granted an application for research initiation. The project leader is Linda Soneryd and the project aims to bridge two specializations in science and technology studies (STS) that rarely meet: 1) an approach that is critical of science and technology development by focusing on its technocratic consequences and 2) an approach that is more inclined to embrace technological and scientific innovations and with a focus on the new combinations and forms of commitment these can lead to. Bridging between these approaches is especially important today as society becomes increasingly focused on stimulating innovations. A great deal of interest among policy makers has recently been directed towards the idea of ​​social innovations. Social innovations are an interesting empirical case for investigating how 'innovation-loving' and 'technocracy-critical' approaches can meet. The project has a broader empirical focus than on science and technology, but is motivated by and based on core issues and methodological approaches within STS. The project is conducted as a series of workshops and in order to be able to organize these, RJ has granted SEK 170,000. The project is international but aims in particular to build long-term collaboration between researchers at the Department of Sociology and Work Science, Center for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK), University of Oslo and Technologies in Practice (TiP), IT University of Copenhagen.