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by Roger Pielke, Jr.
Chapter in The Next Horizon of Technology Assessment
Proceedings from the PACITA 2015 Conference in Berlin
Edited by C. Scherz, T. Michalek, L. Hennen, L. Hebáková, J. Hahn, and S. B. Seitz
This short paper considers two topics of technology assessment in the context of political myth. The two subjects are the role of “basic research” in the innovation landscape and the so-called green revolution in agriculture. I argue that both examples exhibit properties of politic myth – the condensation of expectations of cause and effect into stories that we tell ourselves to justify commitments to one course of action or another. I argue that the making of wise decisions on innovation – in general or in a field such as agriculture – would benefit from opening up our political myths to scrutiny and, in some cases, challenging received wisdom. Read more …
