Technology Assessment

Definition and Mission of Technology Assessment

An existing definition of TA states that technology assessment (TA) is a scientific, interactive, and communicative process that aims to contribute to the formation of public and political opinion on societal aspects of science and technology. TA thus provides knowledge, orientation, and procedures on how to cope with problems at the interface between technology and society in the form of policy and public advice.

The definition includes the attribute “societal,” which specifies that the public and political sphere is the place for discussing and dealing with the relevant effects of technological impact. Here the focus of TA dwells in the perspective of “unintended side effects,” like accidents, negative environmental impacts, ethical problems and unintended social consequences. TA has been set up as a scientific and societal means to enable situations to be dealt with constructively while also making use of scientific knowledge, ethical orientation, and participatory processes. TA is intended to bring together scientific knowledge, prospective thinking, and reflective normative orientation in the form of policy advice or advice to societal processes, according to A. Grunwald. The mission of TA is, thus, to contribute to a better technology in a better society.

History

Technology assessment arose from specific historical circumstances in the 1960s and 1970s. Activities and concerns in the United States culminated in the creation of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) by Congress in 1972. The concrete background consisted of asymmetrical access to technically and politically relevant information between the U.S. legislative and executive branches. From this point of view, the aim of legislative TA serving Congress was to restore parity.

Parallel to this very specific development, radical changes were taking place in intellectual and historical respects. The optimistic belief in scientific and technical progress, which had predominated in the post-World War II period, came under pressure. Broad segments of Western society were deeply unsettled by the “limits of growth,” which, for the first time, addressed the grave environmental problems perceived as a side effect [Page 752]of technology. Problems with side effects, the finiteness of resources, and new ethical questions led to societal conflicts on the legitimacy of technology. People were concerned by discussions on technical inventions in the military setting, forecasting the possibility of a nuclear attack that could put an end to humanity. Such concerns and insight into fundamental technological ambivalence led to a crisis of orientation in the way in which society dealt with science and technology. Without this crisis, TA would presumably have never developed, or, more precisely, would never have extended beyond the modest confines of the above-mentioned U.S. Congressional office.

An international community established itself around the concept of TA. Part of this community works in institutions explicitly devoted to TA (e.g., to provide advice to Parliaments, cf., for instance, the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment Network [EPTA]). Part of it is organized in networks, and another part converges on the fringes of disciplinary organizations and conferences, such as in sections of sociological or philosophical organizations, or in the STS Community (Science and Technology Studies), for example, under the auspices of EASST (the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology), and of many IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) activities relating to the social implications of technology.

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