View source for Technology assessment

{{short description|Research area dealing with trends in science and technology and related social developments}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2015}}
{{Futures studies}}
{{for|the healthcare concept|Health technology assessment}}

'''Technology assessment''' ('''TA''', {{Lang-de|Technikfolgenabschätzung}}, {{Lang-fr|Évaluation des choix scientifiques et technologiques}}) is a practical process of determining the value of a new or emerging technology in and of itself or against existing technologies.<ref>{{cite web |title=Technology Assessment |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/technology-assessment |publisher=ScienceDirect |access-date=9 April 2023}}</ref> This is a means of assessing and rating the new technology from the time when it was first developed to the time when it is potentially accepted by the public and authorities for further use. In essence, TA could be defined as "a form of policy research that examines short- and long term consequences (for example, societal, economic, ethical, legal) of the application of technology."<ref>{{Cite journal|title=What is technology assessment?|journal = International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care|volume = 25 Suppl 1|pages = 7–9|last=Banta|first=David|date=July 25, 2009|pmid = 19519979|doi = 10.1017/S0266462309090333|doi-access = free}}</ref>

== General description ==
[[File:A Mind Map on the Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Educational Assessment.jpg|thumb|321x321px|Example of Assessment of ICT for Educational Assessment]]
TA is the study and evaluation of new technologies. It is a way of trying to forecast and prepare for the upcoming technological advancements and their repercussions to the society, and then make decisions based on the judgments. It is based on the conviction that new developments within, and discoveries by, the scientific community are relevant for the world at large rather than just for the scientific experts themselves, and that technological progress can never be free of ethical implications. Technology assessment was initially practiced in the 1960s in the United States where it would focus on analyzing the significance of "supersonic transportation, pollution of the environment and ethics of genetic screening."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Banta|first=David|date=Summer 2019|title=What is technology assessment?|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0266462309090333|journal=International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care}}</ref>

Also, technology assessment recognizes the fact that scientists normally are not trained [[ethicist]]s themselves and accordingly ought to be very careful when passing ethical judgement on their own, or their colleagues, new findings, projects, or work in progress. TA is a very broad phenomenon which also includes aspects such as "diffusion of technology (and technology transfer), factors leading to rapid acceptance of new technology, and the role of technology and society."<ref name=":0" />

Technology assessment assumes a global perspective and is future-oriented, not anti-technological. TA considers its task as an interdisciplinary approach to solving already existing problems and preventing potential damage caused by the uncritical application and the commercialization of new technologies.

Therefore, any results of technology assessment studies must be published, and particular consideration must be given to communication with political decision-makers.

An important problem concerning technology assessment is the so-called [[Collingridge dilemma]]: on the one hand, impacts of new technologies cannot be easily predicted until the technology is extensively developed and widely used; on the other hand, control or change of a technology is difficult as soon as it is widely used. It emphasizes on the fact that technologies, in their early stage, are unpredictable with regards to their implications and rather tough to regulate or control once it has been widely accepted by the society. Shaping or directing this technology is the desired direction becomes difficult for the authorities at this period of time. There have been several approaches put in place in order to tackle this dilemma, one of the common ones being "anticipation." In this approach, authorities and assessors "anticipate ethical impacts of a technology ("technomoral scenarios"), being too speculative to be reliable, or on ethically regulating technological developments ("sociotechnical experiments"), discarding anticipation of the future implications."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kudina and Verbeek|first=Olya and Peter-Paul|date=2019|title=Ethics from Within: Google Glass, the Collingridge Dilemma and the Mediated Value of Privacy|journal=Science, Technology, & Human Values|volume=44|issue=2|pages=291–314|doi=10.1177/0162243918793711|doi-access=free}}</ref>
[[File:Nytte-kostnadsanalyse.png|thumb|289x289px|Comparing costs and benefit of each decision]]
[[File:OTA seal.png|thumb|Seal of the United States [[Office of Technology Assessment]]]]
Technology assessments, which are a form of [[cost–benefit analysis]], are a medium for decision makers to evaluate and analyze solutions with regards to the particular technology assessment, and choose a best possible option which is cost effective and obeys the authoritative and budgetary requirements. However, they are difficult if not impossible to carry out in an objective manner since subjective decisions and value judgments have to be made regarding a number of complex issues such as (a) the boundaries of the analysis (i.e., what costs are internalized and externalized), (b) the selection of appropriate indicators of potential positive and negative consequences of the new technology, (c) the monetization of non-market values, and (d) a wide range of ethical perspectives.<ref>Huesemann, Michael H., and Joyce A. Huesemann (2011). [http://www.newtechnologyandsociety.org ''Technofix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the Environment''], Chapter 8, "The Positive Biases of Technology Assessments and Cost Benefit Analyses", New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, {{ISBN|0865717044}}, 464 pp.</ref> Consequently, most technology assessments are neither objective nor value-neutral exercises but instead are greatly influenced and biased by the values of the most powerful stakeholders, which are in many cases the developers and proponents (i.e., corporations and governments) of new technologies under consideration. In the most extreme view, as expressed by Ian Barbour in  '’Technology, Environment, and Human Values'’, technology assessment is "a one-sided apology for contemporary technology by people with a stake in its continuation."<ref>Barbour, I.A. (1980). ''Technology, environment, and human values'', Praeger, p. 202.</ref>

Overall, technology assessment is a very broad field which reaches beyond just technology and industrial phenomenons. It handles the assessment of effects, consequences, and risks of a technology, but also is a forecasting function looking into the projection of opportunities and skill development as an input into strategic planning."<ref>UN Branch for Science and Technology for Development. United Nations Workshop on Technology Assessment for Developing Countries. Hosted by the Office of Technology Assessment. Washington, DC: 1991</ref> Some of the major fields of TA are: information technology, [[hydrogen technologies]], [[nuclear technology]], [[molecular nanotechnology]], [[pharmacology]], [[organ donation|organ transplant]]s, [[biotechnology|gene technology]], [[artificial intelligence]], the Internet and many more. 

===Forms and concepts of technology assessment===
The following types of concepts of TA are those that are most visible and practiced. There are, however, a number of further TA forms that are only proposed as concepts in the literature or are the label used by a particular TA institution.<ref>Among those concepts one finds, for instance, '''Interactive TA''' [http://www.itas.fzk.de/deu/tadn/tadn298/rath298a.htm ITAS.fzk.de], '''Rational TA''' [http://www.ea-aw.com/the-europaeische-akademie/aimstasks.html EA-AW.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100918235522/http://www.ea-aw.com/the-europaeische-akademie/aimstasks.html |date=September 18, 2010 }}, '''Real-time TA''' (cp. Guston/Sarewitz (2002) Real-time technology assessment, in: Technology in Society 24, 93–109), Innovation-oriented TA [http://www.innovationsanalysen.de Innovationsanalysen].</ref>
[[File:Epta.jpg|thumb|Logo of the [[European Parliamentary Technology Assessment]]]]

*'''Parliamentary TA (PTA)''': TA activities of various kinds whose addressee is a parliament. PTA may be performed directly by members of those parliaments (e.g. in France and Finland) or on their behalf of related TA institutions (such as in the UK, in Germany and Denmark) or by organisations not directly linked to a Parliament (such as in the Netherlands and Switzerland).<ref>Those TA institutions that perform PTA are organised in the [[European Parliamentary Technology Assessment]] (EPTA) network; see [http://eptanetwork.org EPTAnetwork.org].</ref>
*'''Expert TA''' (often also referred to as the '''classical TA''' or '''traditional TA''' concept): TA activities carried out by (a team of) TA and technical experts. Input from stakeholders and other actors is included only via written statements, documents and interviews, but not as in participatory TA.
*'''Participatory TA (pTA)''': TA activities which actively, systematically and methodologically involve various kinds of social actors as assessors and discussants, such as different kinds of civil society organisations, representatives of the state systems, but characteristically also individual stakeholders and citizens (lay persons), technical scientists and technical experts. Standard pTA methods include consensus conferences, focus groups, scenario workshops etc.<ref>Cp. the 2000 EUROpTA (European Participatory Technology Assessment – Participatory Methods in Technology Assessment and Technology Decision-Making) project report [https://web.archive.org/web/20110719132928/http://www.tekno.dk/pdf/projekter/europta_Report.pdf].</ref> Sometimes pTA is further divided into '''expert-stakeholder pTA''' and '''public pTA''' (including lay persons).<ref>Van Eijndhoven (1997) Technology assessment: Product or process? in: Technological Forecasting and Social Change 54 (1997) 269–286.</ref> The participatory assessment makes room for the inclusion of laypeople and establishes the value of varied point of views, interests and knowledge. It shows importance of the need for decision makers and actors to have a varied set of mindsets and perspective to make a combined, informed and rational decision.
*'''Constructive TA (CTA)''': This concept of TA, developed in the Netherlands, but also applied<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://run.unl.pt/handle/10362/31566|title=Battery storage systems as balancing option in intermittent renewable energy systems - A transdisciplinary approach under the frame of Constructive Technology Assessment. PhD Thesis|last=Baumann|first=Manuel Johann|publisher=Universidade Nova de Lisboa|year=2017|location=Lisbon|pages=187}}</ref> and discussed elsewhere<ref>Schot/Rip (1997), The Past and Future of Constructive Technology Assessment in: Technological Forecasting & Social Change 54, 251–268.</ref> attempts to broaden the design of new technology through feedback of TA activities into the actual construction of technology. Contrary to other forms of TA, CTA is not directed toward influencing regulatory practices by assessing the impacts of technology. Instead, CTA wants to address social issues around technology by influencing design practices. It aims to "mobilize insights on co-evolutionary dynamics of science, technology and society for anticipating and assessing technologies, rather than being predominantly concerned with assessing societal impacts of a quasi-given technology."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Konrad|last2=Rip|last3=Greiving|first1=Kornelia|first2=Arie|first3=Verena Schulze|date=November 2017|title=Constructive Technology Assessment - STS for and with Technology Actors|url=https://easst.net/article/constructive-technology-assessment-sts-for-and-with-technology-actors/|journal=EASST Review|volume= 36|issue=3}}</ref> This assessment established the value of involving users in the development and innovation process, encouraging the development and adaptation of new technology in their daily life. 
*'''Discursive TA''' or '''Argumentative TA''': This type of TA wants to deepen the political and normative debate about science, technology and society. It is inspired by ethics, policy discourse analysis and the sociology of expectations in science and technology. This mode of TA aims to clarify and bring under public and political scrutiny the normative assumptions and visions that drive the actors who are socially shaping science and technology. This assessment can be used as a tool to analyse and evaluate the background of each and every reaction or perception that takes place for each technology; often some of the reactions these assessors receive are not related to science or technology. Some of the ways of analyzing actors and their reaction is by "studying prospective users' everyday-life practices in their own right, and in naturalistic settings."<ref>{{Cite journal|author1=M. Veen|author2=B. Gremmen|author3=H. te Molder|author4=C. van Woerkum|date=April 13, 2010|title=Emergent technologies against the background of everyday life: Discursive psychology as a technology assessment tool|journal=Public Understanding of Science|volume=20|issue=6|pages=810–825|doi=10.1177/0963662510364202|pmid=22397087|s2cid=12306256}}</ref> Accordingly, argumentative TA not only addresses the side effects of technological change, but deals with both broader impacts of science and technology and the fundamental normative question of why developing a certain technology is legitimate and desirable.<ref>van Est/Brom (2010) Technology assessment as an analytic and democratic practice, in: Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics.</ref>

==Technology assessment institutions around the world==
Many TA institutions are members of the [[European Parliamentary Technology Assessment]] (EPTA) network, some are working for the STOA panel of the [[European Parliament]] and formed the [[European Technology Assessment Group]] (ETAG).
* [[Centre for technology Assessment TA-SWISS|Centre for Technology Assessment (TA-SWISS)]], [[Bern]], Switzerland.
* [[Department of Science, Technology and Policy Studies, University of Twente]]
* [[Institute of Technology Assessment|Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna]]
* [[Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS)|Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis]], [[Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)|Karlsruhe Institute of Technology]], Germany
* (former) [[Office of Technology Assessment|Office of Technology Assessment (OTA)]]
* [http://www.tekno.dk/ The Danish Board of Technology Foundation], Copenhagen
* [[Norwegian board of technology|Norwegian Board of Technology, Oslo]]
* [https://www.oficinac.es/ Oficina de Ciencia y Tecnología del Congreso (OficinaC), Spain]
* [[Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices]] (OPECST), Paris
* [[Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology|Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), London]]
* [[Rathenau Institute]], [[The Hague]]
* Science and Technology Options Assessment (STOA) panel of the European Parliament, Brussels
* [[Science and Technology Policy Research|Science and Technology Policy Research (SPRU), Sussex]]
* [https://www.tc.cz/cs Technology centre CAS (TC CAS)], Prague, Czech Republic

==See also==
* [[History of science and technology]]
* [[Horizon scanning]]
* [[Scientific lacuna]]
* [[Technology]]
** [[Technology dynamics]]
** [[Technology forecasting]]
** [[Technology readiness level]]
** [[Technology transfer]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.europarl.europa.eu/stoa/default_en.htm  Scientific Technology Options Assessment (STOA), European Parliament]
*[http://www.itas.fzk.de/eng/etag/etag.htm  European Technology Assessment Group for STOA]
*[http://www.itas.kit.edu/english/index.php  Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany]
*[http://www.tab-beim-bundestag.de/en/  Office of Technology Assessment at the German Parliament (TAB)]
*[http://www.ta-swiss.ch TA-SWISS Centre for Technology Assessment]
*[http://www.oeaw.ac.at/ita/en/ Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA), Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081123122014/http://www.tekno.dk/subpage.php3?page=statisk%2Fuk_profile.php3&toppic=aboutus&language=uk The Danish Board of Technology]
*[http://www.rathenau.org Rathenau Institute]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100822072709/http://www.teknologiradet.no/default1.aspx?m=3 The Norwegian Board of Technology]

{{Science and technology studies}}

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[[Category:Technology assessment| ]]
[[Category:Technology forecasting]]
[[Category:Design for X]]
[[Category:Technology transfer]]
[[Category:Technology systems]]