Communicating through vulnerability: knowledge politics, inclusion and responsiveness in responsible research and innovation.

Published in Journal of Responsible Innovation, v. 3(2):92-109
Authors

Di Giulio, G., Groves, C., Monteiro, M. and Taddei, R.
Publication year 2016
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/23299460.2016.1166036
Affiliations
  • Environmental Health Department, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil
  • School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
  • Science and Technology Policy Department, Institute of Geosciences (IG), State University of Campinas &ndash UNICAMP, Campinas, SP, Brazil
  • Department of Oceanic Sciences, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, Brazi

 
IAI Program

CRN3
IAI Project CRN3035
Keywords
attachment
knowledge politics
participation
responsible research and innovation
vulnerability

Abstract

Responsible research and innovation (RRI) has affirmed the value of 'inclusion' and 'responsiveness' as institutional virtues necessary to ensure that reflexivity towards the social priorities behind innovation processes is made possible. It is argued that this
affirmation links RRI to knowledge politics in other domains (e.g. environmental justice and the politics of development). It is suggested that lessons regarding inclusion and responsiveness can be drawn from these domains, focusing on the ways in which
marginalised perspectives on need and vulnerability, once articulated, can help reconstitute the public sphere in which social priorities are defined. Three case studies are used to explore how entanglements of needs, vulnerabilities, identity and agency are vital to understanding the impacts of innovation and change more generally. It is argued that social science methodologies sensitised to such entanglements are necessary to help constitute a space of inclusion and responsiveness characterised, not by assumptions about idealised rational forms of deliberation, but by styles of communication that recognise vulnerability.