Paper long abstract:

My proposal seeks to cross-fertilize between sts, (social) innovation studies and studies of social movements by focussing on manufactured uncertainties and the 'antagonism of risk' (Beck 2009) as drivers for societal self-reflection and re-politicisation. This post-industrial antagonism between 'those who enjoy the benefits of risks (decision-makers) and the ones who have to bear the costs (the affected)' (ibd.) plays a vital role in all three disciplinary backgrounds, even though in different terms. While conceptual discussion is often about interpretative flexibility and social contingency of given technical, economic and/or political orders, many empirical studies focus on socio-technical struggles and their contribution to enrich political debates. All three backgrounds emphasize the significance of collective experimentation and learning, particularly in the face of manufactured uncertainties, in order to explore 'states of possible worlds' in more democratic forums (cf. Callon et al. 2001, Latour & Weibel 2005, Offe 1985, Mouleart et al. 2013, Klein et al. 2014). Thus, they are concerned with the contested shaping of human development. The interest in the asymmetric conflicts between technocratic and emancipatory rationalities and in innovative actor networks, which demonstrate the 'capability of society to take action upon itself' (Touraine 1977), creates a methodological preference for localized approaches from below. Taking these affinities into deeper inspection, the paper wants to reconsider the meaning of the 'innovation paradigm shift' discussed at the disciplinary crossroads (Rammert 1997, Rip et al. 2010, Kropp 2013) by focussing on 'uncertainty', 'knowledge production and 'civic rationality'.