Issue No. 2/2005 of "Technikfolgenabschätzung – Theorie und Praxis" with the thematic focus "Inter- and Transdisciplinarity" published [28.06.2005]

The thematic focus of this issue is devoted to "Method(olog)ical Problems of Inter- and Transdisciplinarity - Considerations for Interdisciplinary Research in Support of Practical Research Problems". Over the past years, inter- and transdisciplinary research has become quite well established in certain areas (e.g. climate research); however the theoretical, conceptual and methodical reflection of this practice is still insufficient, as J.C. Schmidt and A. Grunwald argue in their editorial. Based on methodical and methodological aspects of transdisciplinary practice, the main objective of the 11 authors of the focal theme is to define quality criteria for transdisciplinary research and to improve its application in practice. The authors are: J.C. Schmidt, J. Mittelstraß, G. Ropohl, T. Jahn, M. Röbbecke, G. Hirsch Hadorn, P. Burger, R. Wille, P. Euler, M. Gutmann, A. Guimarães Pereira/S. Funtowicz. The article by Guimaraes Pereira/Funtowicz from the European Commission, DG Joint Research Centre, is on "Quality Assurance by Extended Peer Review: Tools to Inform Debates, Dialogues & Deliberations" (the only English contribution of the focus). The authors present a normative procedure to construct the knowledge base upon which a debate about groundwater governance options could be held. The TIDDD tool was developed and tested within the EU GOUVERNe project.

The majority of the articles in the other segments of the journal are in German. In the following, only the English contributions are presented.

In the Institutions segment, Cynthia Alexander analyses the eGovernment initiatives in Canada. Canada is the country where the introduction of eGovernment is most advanced - it is the "lead country" of the world in this respect. The article describes and analyses the initiatives of government and administrative bodies and comes to the conclusion that under present conditions in Canada the introduction of eGovernment poses the threat of widening the "Digital Divide" with serious democratic implications.

The Conference reports section contains two articles in English: From March 3-4, 2005, the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) conducted a workshop on "The Role of Government in Promoting Electronic Business". The article describes and analyses the presentations addressinggovernment policiesin the field in Germany and other European countries. The second report is on the "Nanoethics Conference" in South Carolina (USA) in March 2005, which was mainly concerned with the "convergence" theme (NBIC - convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science), futuristic visions within the context of NBIC and possibilities of political shaping of technology and the role of the public in this research field.

In the Book Reviews section a recently published anthology edited by H. Rohracher, Director of the Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture (IFZ) in Graz, Austria, is presented in brief. Building on the approach of social studies of technology, the different contributors deal with conceptual issues of the (often active) role of the users in design processes, and discuss the potential of a more structured and conscious involvement of users in technology design and implementation.

  • Contents of issue No. 2 / 2005 of „Technikfolgenabschätzung - Theorie und Praxis“ here