Paper short abstract:

In conventional rice production, rice straw is left over as a by-product. This rice straw is usually burnt, which produces toxic smoke and wastes biomass. We investigate how straw can alternatively be made into biogas while preserving the social structures of rice-producing communities.

Paper long abstract:

In conventional rice production, rice straw is left over as a by-product. This rice straw is usually burnt, producing toxic smoke and wasting an energy-rich form of biomass. An alternative use of the rice straw would be its processing into biogas. While fermentation processes have been proven to work in the laboratory, some additional steps are to be made for the process to be viable at the level of local communities where the production of rice takes place. We discuss a feasibility study of how such an implementation could be made 'socially responsible'. The paradox observed is that on the one hand it needs to be recognized that local communities have some intrinsic value that merits preservation, while on the other hand an innovation like this by definition entails disruptions of some sort and hence the modification of local communities in some sense. This reflects a tension that at a more abstract level informs the idea of responsible innovation, which as a programme underlies several current funding schemes: the reflexivity of innovations that potentially alter the normative frameworks by which they are themselves to be evaluated. We propose a framework that helps identify and evaluate the mechanisms that provide stability as well as mechanisms that allow for change, thus allowing a reflexive assessment of the change itself.