On with critique! The necessity of critique in addressing the political deficits of responsible innovation

ABSTRACT

This article responds to the calls to address the political deficits of RI frameworks and uptakes by taking recourse to approaches inspired by the methods and emancipatory ambitions of critical theory. By outlining the results of three existing studies, important and varying dimension of R(R)I’s political deficits are identified. Despite each study identifying different aspects of the political deficit, they all share a concern for the power relations implicit in RI frameworks and uptakes. Yet, what is lacking in the critical literature is an appreciation of the role of social norms, social relations, and social structures, which is vital to an analysis and criticism of power. This article encourages RI frameworks to engage with critical practices by addressing the role these factors play in creating, exercising, and perpetuating hegemonic forms of power with the aim of greater social emancipation.

KEYWORDS:

• RI
• critique
• critical theory
• participation
• social emancipation

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Blake Scott and the peer reviewers for their helpful and constructive feedback. I would also like to extend a word of appreciation to the JRI Editorial team for their assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The normative uncertainty brought about by modern technological developments has been a topic of concern for philosophers for decades. See in particular Hans Jonas’ concern in The Imperative of Responsibility ([1979] 1984).

2 In this article, I will use RI to denote the more general discussion of Responsible Innovation, and RRI to denote it’s specific uptake by the European Commission.

3 The article of Frahm et al. uses not only the European Commission as an instance of this new deficit logic, but also the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. However, for the purposes of this paper, the focus will only be on their treatment of the European Commission’s Responsible Innovation framework.

4 In his work Feenberg also references the student movements of the 1960s and the feminist movements of the 1970s as further examples of democratic interventions that intersect with technical issues (See Feenberg 2015, 501).

5 The main pitfalls Feenberg identifies include the possible “lack of long-term organization” and tendency to focus “on a single issue and sometimes a single location” (Feenberg 2015, 501)

6 The way activism is understood here is in line with Feenberg’s criteria of democratic public participation as respecting the rights of others in their attempts to enhance agency (See Feenberg 1999, 4).