Areas of research

 

The research perspectives of the Chair of Society and Technology encompass the diagnosis of foundational processes of transformation in society.

One aspect concerns the development of theoretical tools for a better understanding of these processes.

Another aspect focuses on the relations between transformations and their consequences for processes of innovation and decision-making. For this reason, we are working on a sociological theory of social fields. The aim of this theory is to analyze not only various pathways of socio-technical change, but also to carve out the alterations of contextual and environmental conditions of socio-technical change.

Another related focus is the examination of transdisciplinary spaces of innovation, be it in science and research, in companies or in real-world labs. In this context, the focus of attention of our analytical and empirical work is on the co-production of knowledge.

It is also a task of the chair to be an active part of concrete processes of socio-technical change and in shaping these. This also means creating a dialogue with sometimes critical publics in order to make their criticism heard so that it can become a constructive part of further developments. In order to do so we employ and further develop methods and procedures from science communication, public participation, citizen science, public engagement with science and technology, and responsible research and innovation (RRI).