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Reflexive Governance

Talk about reflexive governance suggests that the predominant ways in which science and technology (S&T) are governed need substantial revision—i.e., by becoming (more) “reflexive.” If one understands reflexivity to be an actor's capacity to consider his or her own decision-making with respect to the dynamics, characteristics, and institutionalized aims of a particular domain of practice, including the actions of others, it may make more sense to distinguish between different degrees of reflexivity than to suppose a clear-cut distinction between unreflexive and reflexive. This entry will (1) explore some basic ways in which reflexivity is embedded in various institutional contexts of S&T; (2) elaborate on some limitations characteristic for these forms of reflexivity and on how they might be viewed from analytically more distanced—and thus potentially more reflexive—standpoints; and (3) present opportunities for reflexive governance that have emerged together with nanoscale S&T.

Reflexivity in Institutional Contexts

In modern societies, S&T have been institutionalized in ways that reflect what roles S&T are supposed to serve and, on the other hand, which institutions are involved in facilitating the functioning of S&T in society. For example, academic research and higher education are considered to require freedom—i.e., the freedom to pursue, and teach about, true and objective knowledge according to methods deemed appropriate among scientists, as well as the freedom from adverse influence by external powers such as religion and politics. At the same time, academic research and education are expected to produce knowledge and highly qualified individuals that will benefit society. Patent law was set up to protect and thus encourage private inventions, requiring that inventions meet criteria of novelty, usefulness, and non-obviousness—and that information characterizing an invention is published in order to enable both scrutiny and further inventions.

Risk management and safeguards have been institutionalized to counterbalance the free pursuit of research and innovation against health and environmental risks. Regulation of ethical problems attempts to balance conflicting interests and values by way of reflecting on their legitimacy and respective significance. At different points in time, under different sociohistorical circumstances, the institutional configuration of S&T becomes subjected to intensified reflection—and change. Evaluations and theories elaborated in particular institutional contexts about the performance of S&T may then find that new principles and norms are needed to promote knowledge transfer and commercialization; to adapt property rights to emerging fields of S&T or to new demands concerning ethics or global equity; to implement new forms of risk assessment and precaution in light of considerable uncertainties; or to account for emerging ethical quandaries in view of powerful new potentials of S&T.

Analyzing Reflexivity

Besides these institutionalized forms of reflexivity—which are typically articulated and reflected upon by specialized theories—social scientists and humanists (and, to a lesser extent, scientists and engineers themselves) time and again have generated reflections on the purposes and consequences of S&T, in regards to particular contexts as well as interdependencies among them. For example, they have elaborated on the very nature of science and the university, including historical changes that may transform some of their characteristics; the “social contract for science,” together with recent challenges that may require its reformulation; new demands for the accountable and responsible conduct of S&T; and changing modes of knowledge production and validation in new constellations among academic, industrial, and governmental and nongovernmental organizations. Generally, such reflections have contributed to better, and more critical, understanding rather than to improved, that is, more effective, governance.

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