What is the social significance of the ongoing hybridisation of science and engineering? How do we want to control technological aspects of contemporary science in society? How should we deal with technological potentials that come without in-depth understanding?
Kastenhofer, deputy head of the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, addresses these questions. On 19 September, she presented her internationally acclaimed work on ‘techno-epistemic cultures’ and received the positive decision of the habilitation committee.
Kastenhofer has always been interested in the question of how different epistemic cultures are reflected in the quality, expectations and applications regarding scientific output. Her work at the ITA focuses on the reconstruction of technoepistemic cultures and on evidence-informed governance models for controversial technologies such as genetic engineering.