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Shaping the Impact: the Institutional Context of Technology Assessment

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Bridges between Science, Society and Policy

Part of the book series: Wissenschaftsethik und Technikfolgenbeurteilung ((ETHICSSCI,volume 22))

Abstract

This paper addresses the relationship between scientific knowledge and politics, and more specifically the role of knowledge and information about highly technical issues in politics. The connection between science and politics, the relationship between government (the executive) and science (Smith 1992) has been studied at length, both from the viewpoint of science as a system that demands funds and resources (Cozzens and Woodhouse 1995), and of the role that scientists and experts play as advisors in the political process (Barker and Peters 1993; Bimber and Guston 1995), to presidents (Bromley 1995), bureaucrats (Jasanoff 1990) and even to the judicial system (Jasanoff 1995). Some steps have also been taken to gauge the impact of scientific advice (The IPTS Report 2001; The IPTS Report 2003).

We thank TAMI colleagues for their comments, special thanks to Lars Kluver, Jan Staman, Leo Hennen and David Cope for their suggestions. We also thank the European Commission (HPV1-CT-2001-60043) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (SEC-99-0829-C02-01) for their funding.

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Cruz-Castro, L., Sanz-Menéndez, L. (2004). Shaping the Impact: the Institutional Context of Technology Assessment. In: Decker, M., Ladikas, M., Stephan, S., Wütscher, F. (eds) Bridges between Science, Society and Policy. Wissenschaftsethik und Technikfolgenbeurteilung, vol 22. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-06171-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-06171-8_5

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