Parliament meets TA
The role of technology assessment in handling social challenges - a study for the Austrian Parliament
Parliaments are currently facing a multitude of complex and often ethically controversial social challenges. In collaboration with members of parliament, this study explores how technology assessment can support and help guide technology policy decisions in the Austrian Parliament.
Background
The solution of key challenges such as climate change, demographic changes and resource scarcity will require taking into consideration different policy areas in research, technology and innovation policy (RTI policy). In a number of countries in Europe and beyond, parliaments have a central role in dealing with these so-called "Grand Challenges". The necessary scientific expertise is often provided by experts from the areas of foresight and technology assessment (F&TA).
In many European countries, a fruitful collaboration between TA institutions and parliaments exists since the 1980s. Now the Austrian Parliament grows more and more interested in collaborating with experts on technology assessment. This is likely part of a general renewal process within parliament. The recent establishment of commissions of enquiry is another indicator for this development.
Goals
The aim of technology assessment is to encourage a transparent debate on the important technology policy issues of our time. Through its interdisciplinary approach TA can help parliamentarians to consciously set an agenda for the future and to be proactive. The study conducted by the ITA in cooperation with the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) will explore the best ways to support the Austrian Parliament through scientific expertise in foresight and technology assessment.
Another key factor is the involvement of citizens: In an increasingly "Europeanized" world more and more people no longer feel represented by a traditional party systems. TA consulting offers not only scientifically based knowledge, but also results from participatory processes. This strengthens the role of Parliament as the centre of political discourse and representative of people’s concerns.
Workflow
While in Austria this study is a first step, Germany and Switzerland already can look back on many years of close cooperation between TA and Parliament. In a first step we will look at the experience gained and analyse in how far it can support the Austrian process.
The needs and areas of interest of the MPs were determined through interviews and workshops. These results formed the basis for a proposal for the future integration of F&TA knowledge in Parliament. Furthermore, we mapped those FTI issues which will have the highest priority for the parliamentary work in the coming years. The final project phase will produce several proposals for further study. These proposals will touch on issues relevant for different parliamentary committees.
Publications
Publications
- . (2016). Parliamentary Technology Assessment Institutions and Practices. A Systematic Comparison of 15 Members of the EPTA Network (ITA-manu:script 16-02). doi:10.1553/ITA-ms-16-02DOIWebsiteDownloadRISENWBIB Abstract
This paper is a systematic comparison of 15 institutions world-wide, which deliver technology assessment (TA) services to their respective parliaments, i.e. perform parliamentary technology assessment (PTA). The fields of comparison are: the role of the parliamentarians (members of parliament) in the TA process; the institutional location inside or outside the parliament; the competence in the parliament for dealing with TA; the type of financing of PTA activities; the mission of the (P)TA institution; its legal status; how topics are selected; whether the topics have a narrower or wider technology notion; what the time frame for the chosen topics is; the working modes; the methods; the number of staff and budget; and finally how they communicate their results.
- . (2016). Acht aktuelle Themen mit hoher parlamentarischer Relevanz und großer Reichweite im Parlament; Ergänzender Bericht zum Projekt F&TA (p. 36). Wien. doi:/10.1553/ITA-pb-e29-2
- . (2015). Zur Institutionalisierung von Foresight und Technikfolgenabschätzung für das österreichische Parlament. Endbericht (p. 148). Wien. doi:/10.1553/ITA-pb-e29
- . (2015). Technology Assessment for Parliaments. Ita-Newsfeed. Retrieved from http://www.oeaw.ac.at/ita/en/news/ta-worldwide/technology-assessment-for-parliaments/
- . (2015). Technikfolgenabschätzung für Parlamente. Ita-Newsfeed. Retrieved from http://www.oeaw.ac.at/ita/news/ta-weltweit/technikfolgenabschaetzung-fuer-parlamente/
- . (2014). More Scientific expertise for MPs. Ita-Newsfeed. Retrieved from http://www.oeaw.ac.at/ita/en/projects/project-news/wissenschaftliche-expertise-als-unterstuetzung-fuer-abgeordnete
- . (2014). Wissenschaftliche Expertise als Unterstützung für Abgeordnete. Ita-Newsfeed. Retrieved from http://www.oeaw.ac.at/ita/projekte/news/wissenschaftliche-expertise-als-unterstuetzung-fuer-abgeordnete
