Review: PACITA conference in Berlin

The conference, organized by ITAS and held at the Umweltforum Berlin, was opened by Patricia Lips, chairwoman of the committee for education, research, and technology assessment of the German Bundestag. The participants discussed current research questions of technology assessment in 50 sessions entitled "The Next Horizon of Technology Assessment". Naomi Oreskes, Professor at Harvard University, used the example of climate research to illustrate in her keynote how political lobby groups were able to discredit American science. Nevertheless, the US are still dominated by an unabated faith in technology ("technofideism"). Numerous speeches during the three-day conference dealt with the question how technology assessment, especially the European (parliamentary) TA institutions, could counter this.

Roger Pielke Jr., Professor at the University of Colorado, reflected on the interaction between technology assessment and politics in his keynote with the title "Technology Assessment as Political Myth?". How are scientific research results incorporated into political processes? And how do science and politics respectively participate in discourses of science policy?

The options for strengthening knowledge-based decision-making processes in Europe were also subject of several thematic sessions. This included methodological reflections on the integration of citizens' knowledge into technology assessment processes. This idea was also expressed – among others – in the final declaration of the conference: "Citizens in Europe have a democratic right to be heard about the technological development, since technology is strongly influencing their lives." The declaration is available on the PACITA website. Also proceedings are planned to be published in summer 2015. (10.03.2015)

Further links:

• Technology Assessment Manifesto
• The Next Horizon of Technology Assessment – conference website
• Vom Protest zur Partizipation der Bürger, die tageszeitung of 27 February 2015