European Experiments

• Autores: Alfred Nordmann
• Localización: Osiris, ISSN 0369-7827, Año 24, 2009, págs. 278-302
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • European science policy, as well as the creation of research agendas for converging technologies, functions as a testing ground for a transnational European identity. In light of competing conceptions of European identity formation, the European Commission�s Sixth Framework Program (2002�2007) adopted an experimental mode. Given that the quest for European identity is already an open-ended experiment, the policy process invites experiments in governance, for example, by developing participatory schemes. Moreover, as European science studies scholars advance the notion of �real experiments� in the laboratory of society, one basis for identity formation among Europeans is to be the very fact that they all partake in �collective experiments� with new technologies. This analysis draws for its central cases on the creation in 2003/2004 of a �European vision� for converging technologies and a 2007 report on innovation processes in the �European knowledge society.� It thereby highlights also the contribution of historians, sociologists, and philosophers of science and technology to the European quest for identity.