Issue 3 / 2011 of the ITAS journal "Technikfolgenabschätzung – Theorie und Praxis" (TATuP) published [16.12.2011]

The focus of this issue lies on "Systemic Risk as a Perspective for Interdisciplinary Risk Research". The visibility of crises and the risks they entail is a structural pattern of modern globality. The present problems of worldwide operating finance markets, security gaps in software systems or in critical infrastructures, e.g. in the energy sector, are crisis phenomena of different characters. In the current TATuP, systemic effects of extreme events like these, that, repeatedly, reenforce each other and cause dramatic consequences in this way, are analyzed from different disciplinary perspectives. Hereby, the attempt is made to scrutinize the phenomenon "systemic risks" and to turn it into a productive concept for technology assessment as well as for interdisciplinary risk studies.

In the column "TA-Projekte" two research projects are presented: 1. nano textiles as "best practices" for innovations and 2. CircUse, a project for the testing and implementation of circular flow economy with respect to land use. The column "Diskussionsforum" is of special interest in this issue. Using the example of Ubiquitous Computing a "change of paradigm without revolution" is diagnosed. In this issue you will also find, as usually, reviews and conference papers as well as interesting news from ITAS, TAB, STOA, and from Netzwerk TA.