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Short abstract:

The paper highlights Humanizing RRI strategies of compliance, Contingency, and structured action, fostering RRI practices, as seen in a Chinese case study bridging RRI theories and real-world practice.

Long abstract:

Responsible innovation, a policy and academic concept originating from the EU, has experienced a gap in its application outside Europe due to cultural and practical differences. The Journal of Responsible Innovation thus introduces humanizing responsible innovation to explore more proactive development of the concept.

This paper uses the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB), a famous Chinese project, as a case to investigate the agency practices and strategies within responsible innovation. The HZMB authority innovatively integrates health, safety, and environmental (HSE) management from the petrochemical industries, embedding responsible principles such as safety and environmental protection into practice. As a structured action, the HSE Management System enforces responsibility more rigidly and mandatorily than the voluntary self-awareness emphasized in European practice. Under the HSE, the paper identifies two types of agency practices: compliance, which strictly adheres to HSE regulations, and contingency, which involves addressing unforeseen situations through procedural documentation and negotiation with stakeholders, followed by incorporating successful solutions into the HSE.

The paper underscores that humanizing RRI is not solely individual-centric but requires collaborative efforts from both collective and individual agents. Collective entities are pivotal in maintaining compliance, while individuals contribute with innovative, context-specific solutions. The structured action of HSE is a critical prerequisite, allowing responsible innovation to be institutionalized into binding procedures and behaviours, offering valuable insights for further reflection and emulation from the perspective of Chinese practice.