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Short abstract:

A shift in how the technoscience-society interface is constructed in governance rationalities warrants a recalibration of critique in RI and similar interventionist STS approaches. We argue for a symmetrical approach to technoscience and democracy.

Long abstract:

How can the critical sensibility underwriting the engaged streams of STS account for the institutional rationalities whereby publics are no longer imagined to be outside of technoscientific development, but rather central to its success and legitimation? In this presentation we argue that an appreciable shift has taken place in “the imagined relationship between technoscience and society, and in particular the modalities by which innovation is legitimized as a central organizing principle for the pursuit of human wellbeing.” Analysing the relationship between capitalism and critique, Boltanski and Chiapello (1999) theorize a series of changes in the ‘spirit of capitalism’– a heuristic we take up in our analysis of the new spirit of technoscience (Doezema and Frahm 2023). In this process, various kinds of public participation and application of social values and ethical deliberation and expertise have been normalized as a ‘fix’ for innovation, in turn constructing notions and practices of democracy, ethics, and the public good into technoscientific imaginaries. European funding proposals, for instance, like the JUST2CE project, from which this presentation draws, now demand work packages designed around public or end-user engagement, responsible innovation, and open science activities. This new spirit of technoscience calls for new modalities of critique, and we argue, for a recalibration of symmetry with particular attention to democracy as an object of study, constructed in situ within technoscientific projects and as part of institutional rationalities.

Doezema, Tess & Nina Frahm (2023) The new spirit of technoscience:

recalibrating symmetrical STS critique, JRI, 10:1, 2281112.

Boltanski, Luc, and Ève Chiapello (1999) The New Spirit of Capitalism. Verso.