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The composite professional
Published in Riadh Habash, Professional Practice in Engineering and Computing, 2019
Technological advancement has transformed global society into a knowledge society. Today, more than ever, computing technologies are recognized as the means for sustainable human, social, and economic development. The IoT will fundamentally change how people go about their lives. It is anticipated that the number of objects connected to the Internet is set to exceed 20 billion by 2020. The scale of the IoT is set to have major economic, social, and environmental impacts; the intersection of which forms the future sustainable growth.
The role of civil society organisations in European responsible research and innovation
Published in Journal of Responsible Innovation, 2019
Petra Ahrweiler, Nigel Gilbert, Benjamin Schrempf, Barbara Grimpe, Marina Jirotka
In the following, we trace the development of the current Commission’s view on CSOs and RRI in a literature review of policy documents: The collection examined is listed in supplementary Appendix 1.2 The story starts with a perspective on social science that stresses the importance of social arrangements in research and innovation and emphasises the role of (civil) society (EC 2007a, 7; cf. Gall, Millot, and Neubauer 2009). The underlying concept is the ‘knowledge society’, where ‘the expression “knowledge society” alludes not only to the ever-increasing application of scientific knowledge, but also to the production and recombination of all kinds of knowledge in new settings of knowledge work’ (Gross and Krohn 2005, 76; EC 2007a, 78; reasoning supported by EC 2007b, 2007c, 2008a, 2013c, 2014; Sutcliffe 2011). This especially concerns the connection that is seen as precarious between science and society in relation to the ‘grand challenges’ in European research and innovation (EC 2007a, 17; reasoning supported by Beinare and McCarthy 2012; Benington 2010; EC 2007a, 2008a). It is civil society, in the first instance, that is expected to be a ‘game changer’: Knowledge production encompasses new areas, for example: innovation and implementation; education, training and learning; knowledge management; research governance; science-society dialogue (as parts of the formation of the appliance of knowledge, and as the economic, cultural or social environment of research) … Of course all these concepts imply new relationships and meanings of civil society in the knowledge production process. They take into account mental and cultural frames of citizens engaged in science, consumers’ innovative role, emerging civil intermediaries as mediators between different knowledge actors, etc (EC 2007d, 2; reasoning supported by EC 2007c; Seyfang et al. 2010).The involvement of civil society in research and innovation is seen as a central part of a specifically European ‘social model’, whereas, for example, the US model is seen as having no other role for civil society than being the future costumers of new technologies (EC 2007a, 25; reasoning opposed by EC 2010a; Seyfang et al. 2010). The envisaged role of civil society for research and innovation is highly diversified and ambitious, but clearly targeted towards RRI keys and elements (EC 2007d, 5–6; reasoning supported by EC 2008b; Beinare and McCarthy 2012). Especially in controversial technology debates such as GM crops, BSE etc. civil society is expected to contribute corrective governance (EC 2007a, 43; reasoning supported by Benington 2010; EC 2007b, 2008a, 2009, 2011b, 2013c, 2014; Gall, Millot, and Neubauer 2009; Owen et al. 2013).