Short Abstract:

RRI has been declared dead. But has the intellectual community responsible for it had the opportunity to mourn its untimely passing? This workshop will serve as a funeral for RRI to allow participants to collectively grieve and process their feelings of anger, fear, and loss, and hope. RIP RRI.

Long Abstract:

“RRI is dead. Long live RRI!” This is how a 2021 paper in the Journal of Responsible Innovation marked the untimely passing of the RRI experiment (Fisher 2021). Signalled by the end of Horizon 2020 and the European Commission’s (EC) towards newer ideas of technoscientific governance such as open science and mission-oriented innovation.

The EC has moved on, but what of the countless academics and practitioners who invested a countless amount time, effort, and emotional energy into this concept? We believe that RRI deserves a proper send off, and so, with this workshop, we will offer STS scholars the opportunity to properly mourn their beloved three letter technoscientific governance framework. This will allow participants to work through some of their feelings at RRI’s passing – the sadness, grief, and anger that may be simmering below the surface. Known and invented funeral rituals will cultivate hope, allowing participants to bring what they loved about RRI into the future, leaving some bits behind.

In practical terms, the workshop will offer guidance through funeral rituals, providing the space and (crafting) materials required for reflection and commemoration. People may join and leave at any stage with about 20 people in the space at one time. While the workshop will provide guidance on the RRI shrine, participants can leave items of remembrance at any stage during the conference.

Note: This workshop will make sure to provide a safe space as much as possible in this open format and introduce ways of achieving this jointly.

(This workshop will ideally happen in a large room with space to build and craft, which can happen on the floor of on tables. Ideally there is a little podium or space, corner, that can be transformed into the space for the ritual to happen)