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Technology Assessment and Policy Advice in the Field of Sustainable Development

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Technology, Society and Sustainability

Abstract

Sustainable development as a societal vision meets with correspondingly broad approval across all societal groups and political positions, nationally and internationally. The number of nations which have signed and ratified the documents of Rio 1992 and the corresponding follow-up papers and the numerous local or regional activities are impressive. However, the pathway to a more sustainable society needs high effort. Scientific analysis and policy advice is required for monitoring and assessing developments and trends relevant to sustainability as well as for designing political instruments, measures and strategies for sustainability governance. In particular, strategies have to be developed to deal constructively with the enormous uncertainties involved. Therefore, sustainability has become a major issue in technology assessment giving scientific advice to political bodies. In this Chapter I will briefly describe the main motivations and origins of technology assessment and its relations with sustainable development as well. As an institutional case of policy advice, the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag will be introduced, followed by the presentation of some of its reports on different issues such as energy, tourism, and access to information.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This paper provides a summary of several earlier papers of the author and brings together work from the fields of technology assessment, policy advice, and sustainable development.

  2. 2.

    This section is a modified version of the corresponding section in Grunwald (2003) where TAB’s work was analysed with respect to expectations concerning “democratizing expertise”.

  3. 3.

    This section and the following one are based on the corresponding sections in Grunwald (2011).

  4. 4.

    For more information see the homepage of TAB (www.tab.beim-bundestag.de) which includes English versions of the Work Programme and of the summaries of finished projects. The descriptions given at the following pages are short versions of the information which can be found there. Also contact persons can be identified and approached via TAB’s homepage. The full text of finished reports is available for download (German language).

  5. 5.

    The European Parliamentary Technology Assessment institutions constitute the EPTA network. See www.eptanetwork.org for information about the European landscape of parliamentary TA.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Armin Grunwald

  2. Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag, Berlin, Germany

    Armin Grunwald

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  1. Armin Grunwald
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Correspondence to Armin Grunwald .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Kozminski University, Warsaw, Poland

    Lech W. Zacher

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Grunwald, A. (2017). Technology Assessment and Policy Advice in the Field of Sustainable Development. In: Zacher, L. (eds) Technology, Society and Sustainability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47164-8_14

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