Introduction
New technologies and machines have a big impact on our lives. But where is man’s position in this constellation? Integrated research is based on the idea that ethical, social ad legal aspects are integrated into the development of technologies from the outset and help to shape transformational processes.
The mode of integrated research provides for experts of technological development interact closely with those of ethics, law and social sciences and in addition involve users and specialists with practical experience. The cluster focusses on future interaction between man and technics and is developping the new mode of research, including evaluation and reflection.
Definition
Integrated research emerged as the guiding principle of the BMBF research programme “Together through Innovation”. The core of this idea is an orientation of research and development processes “towards the human being”. These include dimensions such as privacy, autonomy, equity, inclusion, participation, or well-being. Overall, a stronger, equal integration of humanities and social sciences as well as legal perspectives in technology design and regulation is sought. As such, it describes an inter- and trans-disciplinary research and development mode that enables better products and processes. According to its claim, Integrated Research aims at a paradigm shift similar to “Post-Normal Science” or “Mode 2 Science” and encompasses practices of integrating researchers into specific contexts of technology development and embedding them in different areas of society (integrated research), but at the same time also the integration of previously excluded perspectives (integrated research).
Problem
Integrated research can be understood as a transformative response to three different problem horizons of current technological development.
- Human-technology interaction is perceived as a major societal challenge. Integrated research is assigned the task of:
a) attending the social responsibility of technological developments
b) explaining and justifying its actions in a generally comprehensible manner - At the level of the participating researchers, the inappropriate monodisciplinarity for dealing with societal challenges is expanded collaboratively and existing concepts of inter- and trans-disciplinarity are developed constructively.
- In addition to such a determined research perspective, which aims at assuming social responsibility, Integrated Research also reflects the framework conditions for the success of Integrated Research (funding programmes, teaching, structures of the academic landscape, nature of larger innovation ecosystems, etc.).
Goals
- Integrated research empowers non-technical subjects to an active, equal participation in technology development and design, e. g. in the form of an agenda setting.
- Integrated research provides participants with certain research skills, ambiguity tolerance and intellectual openness.
- Integrated research can shake up understanding of problems, fertilize imagination and make flexible approaches – even abandoning research – feasible.
Conditions
Integrated research has a variety of conditions: it requires a special attitude that must be institutionally enabled, practiced and guided; this includes the ability to open up to heterogeneous perspectives and to respond productively to the constellations of power, possible irritations and dissent contained therein. This attitude is achieved through practice; success depends on concepts and skills, the presence of role models, spaces and opportunities for (initially failing) practice, feedback on the practice process and the opportunity for repetition.
In addition, resources and opportunities for open research practice must be made available. Research practice should also explicitly provide for the possibility of justifiable abandonment of research without sanctions. A prerequisite for successful practice is explicitly a culture of error. The voluntary nature of participation in Integrated Research must be guaranteed institutionally.
In the field of Human-Technology Interaction, all of the above-mentioned aspects are reciprocal for technical and non-technical actors. Both sides should inform each other, irritate each other and transform their positions and perspectives in the course of the process.
Practices
Integrated Research practices could be:
- Collaborative processes (taking joint decisions, defining or sharpening terms together).
- imparting specific research skills to stakeholders and researchers (e.g. a scientifically cultivated tolerance of ambiguity or an intellectual openness, curiosity and willingness to cooperate, digital maturity).
- Facilitate understanding, e.g. through role exchange practices or exchange programmes, through multi-perspective encounters, mediation formats, translation services, observations and self-observations, reflect and relate: Negotiate foreign and self-understandings.
- training (courses of study, teacher training, further training, workshops, etc.) enabling people to transfer knowledge between individual sciences and disciplines.
- Integrated teaching by working on complex human-technical problems in an interdisciplinary manner (humanities, law and natural sciences). This requires knowledge to be conveyed in ways that maintain connections and linkages, and
at the same time do not hide the differences and differences. - Expanding or limiting the scope for thought and action at the individual and societal level.