Innovating governance for sustainable development?On dynamics of instruments and challenges of ‚responsible innovation‘ in governance

Jan-Peter Voß, TU Berlin

Berlin Sustainability Talk, Environmental Policy Research CentreFU Berlin, 14 January 2014

• Promises (strategically advanced)– unknown societal and political repercussions– backgrounded by modeled functions

• Sustainability of innovation is a matter of process– anticipate implications, discuss values– open negotiation of design, also political aspects

• Also with respect to innnovation in governance?– Yes, because there are similar patterns and dynamics

Ambivalence of innovation

• “The promise of science and innovation brings with it ethical dilemmas and impacts which are often uncertain and unpredictable (…) How do we undertake science and innovation responsibly under such conditions, (…) in a way that is democratic, equitable and sustainable?” (Owen et al. 2013)

• “Responsible Research and Innovation is a transparent, interactive process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually responsive to each other with a view to the (ethical) acceptability, sustainability and societal desirability of the innovation process and its marketable products (in order to allow a proper embedding of scientific and technological advances in our society)” (Schomberg 2011)

• “… normative assessment and governance of knowledge-based innovation … attention to the assessment of the broader and more subtle human and social dimensions of innovation—including moral, cultural, political, and religious dimensions, social risk, and sustainability (…).” (Editorial Journal of Responsible Innovation 2013).

„Responsible Innovation“

• Reconstruct „innovation journeys“(cf. Van de Ven et al. 1999)

– Environmental markets• Emissions trading, biodiversity offsets and banking

– Public participation methods• citizen jury, planning cell, consensus conference

Innovation of governance instruments

Follow instruments across domains

PolicyInstrument B

PolicyInstrument A

GovernanceDomain X

GovernanceDomain Y

PolicyInstrument B

PolicyInstrument A

PolicyInstrument B

PolicyInstrument A

GovernanceDomain X

GovernanceDomain X

GovernanceDomain Y

GovernanceDomain Y

• Reconstruct „innovation journeys“(cf. Van de Ven et al. 1999)

– Environmental markets• Emissions trading, biodiversity offsets and banking

– Public participation methods• citizen jury, planning cell, consensus conference

• Interpretive, constructionist approach– Qualitative process analysis (e.g. Yin 2003, van de Ven 2007)

– „co-production“ of model and social order (e.g. Rip/Schot 2000, Jasanoff 2004, Callon et al. 2009)

• Iterative research design, identify patterns and mechanisms1. Overview of instruments and their genealogies2. Focus on selected innovation journeys3. Probing conceptual propositions on process patterns and mechanisms

• Empirical basis– Academic literature, documents, 67 interviews, 2 group discussions, field notes

Innovation of governance instruments

1. Dynamics of innovation networks– instruments as political actors

2. Co-production of model and social order– entanglement of knowledge production and politics

3. Patterns of innovation between lab and field– interplay of de-contextualisation and re-contextualisation

4. Ambivalence of model based innovation– own dynamics and side-effects

5. Challenges of ‚responsible innovation‘ in governance– exploring concerns and controversial design issues

Selected topics

• Instruments beyond ‚ideas‘– exist in work and communication– lead a social life

• Innovation process as alignment of practices– science, public policy and business– functional and structural promises

• Specialisation and dependence on the instrument– reflexive interests and strategies– organised collective action

• A ‚push factor‘ of innovation in governance

„Instrument constituencies“

1. Dynamics of innovation networks– instruments as political actors

2. Co-production of model and social order– entanglement of knowledge production and politics

3. Patterns of innovation between lab and field– interplay of de-contextualisation and re-contextualisation

4. Ambivalence of model based innovation– own dynamics and side-effects

5. Challenges of ‚responsible innovation‘ in governance– exploring concerns and controversial design issues

Selected topics

Realising order – a mode of governance

Establishment of new research fields and scientific truths

Establishment of new political coalitiions and

institutional orders

Knowledge production

Public policy production

Epistemic authority (representing reality):

orientation and legitimacy for collective action

Political authority (representing social will):

infrastructure, resources and real world experiments for

knowledge production

Real world experiment

a new political reality

Configuration of collective knowing

configuration of collective

practice

UK, climateETG 1999ETS 2002

NAPBP/ Shell

1998

China climate policy

Australia climate

NAP

NAP

NAP

US lead in gas

Knowledge production as global centre of „governing at a distance“ (Latour 1987, Miller and Rose 1992)

Flexible regulation 1972-6CAA 1977 offsets

EPA ET policy 1982-86EPA OPM credits 1979

US EPA

Project 88

CAA 1990 – US Acid Rain 1995RECLAIM 1994

NOx Budget 1999…

US Acid Rain

Montreal protocol

NAP

EU ETS

Japan climate policy

Ellerman et al 2000

US climate policy

OECD 1992, 1997…

Green paper 2000Draft directive 2001Directive 2005 EU-ETS I, II

Linking directive 2009

Coase 1960

Dales 1968

Montgomery 1972

Tietenberg 1985Crocker 1966

Kyoto Prot 1997Flexible mechanisms

ET modeldevelopment

Knowledge production as global centre of „governing at a distance“ (Latour 1987, Miller and Rose 1992)

India,GMO2001

UK, various domains

since 1996 ca 300 citizen juries

France ,GMO

1998 conf. De citoyens

Denmark, technology, environment

Russia,2006

Spain,1991

UK, GMO

Citizen panel 1994

USA, Telecom

1997

CH,Electricity

1998, publiforum

USA (etc.),Mecical assessment

1976

New Zealand,GMO1996

Canada,GMO1999

Norway,GMO1997

Denmark, biodiversity

1987

Australia,GMO1999

Germany, municipal planning

Germany, various domains

USA,Elections, 1973USA,

various domains1984

Japan,since 2005

ca 100 planning cellsKorea,GMO1998

Citizen Jury US

Crosby 1971, Jefferson Centre

1972, Schwelm1976 Hagen

1979 Cologne

League of Womens Voters1989Citizen Initiative Review 2001

Citizens Jury ® 1987

EU,brain science,

2004

World Wide ViewsClimate Change 2009

Biodiversity 2012

Planning cellDienel 1971 article „Planungszelle“

Research centre, Network

citcom, GfB, nexus

1978 book „Planungszelle“

Citizens juryInst. Public Policy Res. (IPPR), Stewart et al. 1994

PEAL 2001: DIY toolkit

consensus conference

Danish Board of Technology

Joss/Durant 1995

TA Networks: EU PATH, CIPAST

Citizen panels

Journals, conferences

professional associations (IAP2)

Design standards

Comparative research, deliberation experiments

1. Dynamics of innovation networks– instruments as political actors

2. Co-production of model and social order– entanglement of knowledge production and politics

3. Patterns of innovation between lab and field– interplay of de-contextualisation and re-contextualisation

4. Ambivalence of model based innovation– own dynamics and side-effects

5. Challenges of ‚responsible innovation‘ in governance– exploring concerns and controversial design issues

Selected topics

Emissions trading: Innovation as implementation „expanding the laboratory“ (Latour 1983, Callon 1998, 2007, Rip/Schot 2002)

22

Citzen panels:Innovation as aggregation„cosmopolitanising design knowledge“ (Deuten 2003, Geels/Deuten 2006)

23

Biodiversity offsets and banking:innovation as folded aggregation & implementation

Local practices and gestation of

theoretical model

Inter-local exchange and partial connect

with theoretical model

Translocal knowledge and expansion of theoretical model

Tension between alternative design

knowledge with global regime

1. Dynamics of innovation networks– instruments as political actors

2. Co-production of model and social order– entanglement of knowledge production and politics

3. Patterns of innovation between lab and field– interplay of de-contextualisation and re-contextualisation

4. Ambivalence of model based innovation– own dynamics and side-effects

5. Challenges of ‚responsible innovation‘ in governance– exploring concerns and controversial design issues

Selected topics

Ambivalence of model based innovation

• Configuring a de-contextualised functional model

+ internal control- external repercussions and side effects

• Worldviews and value decisions remain implicit in model design

+ depoliticisation of design process- bypassing democracy, delayed conflict

• Spreading and installing the design becomes end in itself

+ drive for innovation- strategic marketing und lobbying

- exaggerates promises- makes policy problems fit solutions

• governance innovation takes similar forms as technological innovation– search for functional configurations to be replicated and

upscaled– construction of functionality as a specific reduction of

complexity– politics and wider repercussions not explicated– social dynamics, supply push

• similar challenges as technological innovation– anticipate world-making, explicate and discuss values, hold

politically accountable

Social dynamics and side-effects of innovation – also in governance

1. Dynamics of innovation networks– instruments as political actors

2. Co-production of model and social order– entanglement of knowledge production and politics

3. Patterns of innovation between lab and field– interplay of de-contextualisation and re-contextualisation

4. Ambivalence of model based innovation– own dynamics and side-effects

5. Challenges of ‚responsible innovation‘ in governance– exploring concerns and controversial design issues

Selected topics

TN BOB

• the technical problem: universal measurement standards– How can the value of different pieces of nature be measured and

compared?

• a political issue: diverse experiences and concepts of nature– the (potentially global) normalization of apprehending and handling

nature– shifting politics (and „corruption“) from the public to expert spaces

• alternatives: contextualising the appraisal of trade-offs– (participatory) appraisal of individual cases in context– valuation procedures as ‚indigineous knowledge‘, specific for spaces

of culture/nature– embedding methods development in public debate (watchdogs)

Exemplary issue biodiversity offsets:equivalence of nature(protection)

• the technical problem: quality management– Which standards guarantee well functioning citizen panels?

• a political issue: diverse concepts of the function of citizen panels– What and where is the public? Which intervention is required to bring

it into existence (deliberation, empowerment, collective enquiry)?– Reinventing democracy, standards as de facto constitution building

• alternatives:– Generic principles and a modular methods toolkit– Situational negotiation of participatory procedures– Reflexive quality assurance: open design with transparent and critical

evaluation of specific bias of procedure („despatch note“)

Exemplary issue citizen panels: standards of public participation

• Innovation is more than extra smart problem-solving– Social life and own dynamics, instruments as political actors,

entanglement of knowledge and politics, model-making as a global centre of power, side-effects and displaced politics

– A general problem of autonomous innovation

• Innovating governance for SD requires– anticipate effects in interaction with situational contexts– Repercussions beyond the model: which world is being made?– Cultural and political impacts: implicit normativity– Appraisal is a matter of multiple perspectives

• A challenge of holding innovation politically accountable– …but how?

Conclusion

Thank you

• Schomberg,Rene (2011) ‘Prospects for Technology Assessment in a framework of responsible research and innovation’ in: Technikfolgen abschätzen lehren: Bildungspotenziale transdisziplinärer Methode, P.39-61, Wiesbaden: Springer VS

• Richard Owen, John Bessant, Maggy Heintz (2013): Responsible Innovation: Managing the Responsible Emergence of Science and Innovation in Society. Chichester: Wiley

References