Robert Braun
Assoc. Prof. Habil.
Senior Researcher, Deputy Head
Science, Technology and Social
Transformation
@Masaryk University
2022/2023
Social
Responsibility:
Business,
Research and
Innovation
Latest books
(2024): Automobility violence (with Richard
Randell), Bristol: Bristol University Press
(2022): Towards Post-Automobility (with
Richard Randell), London: Rowman &
Littlefield
(2019): Corporate Stakeholder Democracy,
New York: CEU University Press
Philosophy of
technology
Senior researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna; deputy
head of research group: Technoscience and Societal Transformation.
Main research interest: the politics of knowledge and societal transformation.
Current research focuses on the transition to autonomous mobility and
responsible research and innovation.
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Recent papers:
❖ (2022). Braun, Robert and Randell, Richard. The Political
Ontology of Automobility. Mobility Humanities.
❖ (2022). Braun, Robert and Randell, Richard. Automobility
studies. The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible.
❖ (2022) Marsalek, I., Braun et al. The Social Lab as a
method for experimental engagement in participatory
research. Journal of Responsible Innovation.
❖ (2022) Braun, Robert and Richard Randell. Towards PostAutomobility:
Destituted automobility. Applied
Mobilities.
❖ (2021) Braun, Robert and Richard Randell. The Vermin of
the Street: The politics of violence and the nomos of
automobility. Mobilities.
❖ (2021) Braun, Robert and Richard Randell. “Getting
Behind the Object We Love the Most” Transfers.
❖ (2020) Robert Braun and Richard Randell. “Futuramas of
the present: The “driver problem” in the autonomous
vehicle sociotechnical imaginary.” Humanities and
Social Sciences Communications, 7, 163.
❖ (2020) Novitzky, Peter, Robert Braun et al. “Improve
alignment of research policy and societal values”.
SCIENCE 369, no. 6499, pp. 39-41
What kind of animal is this?
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Book Science paper
Onlineification has its
perils and could be done
in a responsible way
Paper in JRI
Automobility is a violent
and fascist setup that is
to be deactivated
RRI is a normative ideal
but lacks policy
implementation
Learning outcomes and delivery
4
Technical/admin
issues
Learning outcomes:
- Have a general awareness of what the relationship of
technology and society
- Understand the concept of
o CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
o pCSR (Political Corporate Social Responsibility)
o STS (Science and Technology studies)
o SCOT (The social construction of technology)
o Sociotechnical imaginaries
o RRI (Responsible Research and Innovation)
- The relationship of these concepts to the philosophy of
science and sociology
- Understand the concept and methodology of social
phenomenology
- Have sufficient knowledge of different conceptualizations of
technology, of automobility, of research and innovation
- Have practice in theoretical argumentation, understanding
complex sociotechnical problems and conceptualizations.
5
Completion
Students will have to (a) do a
presentation; (b) write one academic
blog post and (c) a final course paper.
➢ Presentation: should reflect on a
current theme analyzed from a critical
responsibility point of view (15 mins);
➢ Academic blog: should reflect some
current sociotechnical challenge,
addressed via learnings acquired in
the course (250-500 words);
➢ Final paper: will address a specific
question within the realm of STS and
analyze it according to general
academic practice, based on literature
review and secondary research (but
not independent primary research)
(2500-3000 words).
Responsible Innovation
Session 1: Society, responsibility &
technology
10:00-11:30
Introduction, general concept, theme,
administrative issues
11:45:13:15
Business, Responsibility & Innovation
13:45-15:15
What is CSR/pCSR?
15:15:16:45
What is STS (Society and Technology
Studies)?
6
Session 2: The concept of
automobility
10:00-11:30
What are sociotechnical systems?
11:45:13:15
What is the concept of the car?
13:45-15:15
Automobility as ‘system’ & ‘regime’
and its social consequences
15:15:16:45
Automobility as ‘nomos’
Session 3: The future of technology
and society
10:00-11:30
What is responsible research and
innovation?
11:45:13:15
What would a post-car world look like?
13:45-15:15
The trouble of artificial intelligence
15:15:16:45
Biotech and biopolitics
Closing & summary
7
Today
Session 1: Society, responsibility & technology
10:00-11:30
Introduction, general concept, background (What is science?)
11:45:13:15
Business, Responsibility & Innovation
Reading: Jarmai K. et al (2020) Responsible Innovation in Business.
In: Jarmai K. (eds) Responsible Innovation. Springer, Dordrecht.
13:45-15:15
What is CSR/pCSR?
Reading: Braun R.: Corporate Stakeholder Democracy (Introduction)
15:15:17:00
What is STS (Society and Technology Studies)?
Reading: Latour, B.: Technology is society made durable
17:00-17:30
1. Introduction
○ “[Engineers] are the unacknowledged
legislators of the world. By designing
and constructing new structures,
processes, and products, they are
influencing how we live as much as any
laws enacted by politicians. Would we
ever think it appropriate for legislators to
pass laws that could transform our lives
without critically reflecting on and
assessing those laws? Yet neither
engineers nor politicians deliberate
seriously on the role of engineering in
transforming our world. Instead, they
limit themselves to celebratory clichés
about economic benefit, national
defense, and innovation.”
Carl Mitcham: The True Grand Challenge for Engineering: Self-
Knowledge
➢ https://issues.org/perspectives-the-true-grand-challenge-for-
engineering-self-knowledge/
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Engineers as legislators
Go to www.menti.com and use the code 4408 2287
The 17th-century “Quest for Certainty”
○ a timely response to a specific historical
challenge-the political, social, and theological
chaos embodied in the Thirty Years' War;
○ Cartesian program for philosophy that swept
aside the "reasonable" uncertainties and
hesitations of 16th-century skeptics in I favor
of new, mathematical kinds of "rational"
certainty and proof;
○ Build a secure body of human knowledge
using "rationally validated" methods.
○ Framing basic theories around ideas whose
merits were clear, distinct and certain and
using only demonstrable arguments, having
the necessity of geometrical proofs.
10
The (his)story of
responsibility
When “is” science?
Kjetil Rommetveit, Roger Strand, Ragnar Fjelland & Silvio
Funtowicz (2013). „What can history teach us about the
prospects of a European Research Area?” Ispra: JRC
11
Thirty Years‘ war
1618-1648
Religious
conflicts
Disorder &
superstition
What is science?
Recap
Kjetil Rommetveit, Roger Strand, Ragnar Fjelland & Silvio
Funtowicz (2013). „What can history teach us about the
prospects of a European Research Area?” Ispra: JRC
12
Thirty Years‘ war
Destitution and
devastation
Religious
conflicts
Insecurity of
knowledge
Disorder &
superstition
Witchcarft and
‘alternative’
knowledge
trajectories
➢ The grand book of the universe
written in the language of
mathematics.
➢ To avoid precipitancy and
prejudice, and to include
judgements nothing more than
what presented itself.
➢ Continual fear and danger of violent
death and the life of man solitary,
poor, nasty: covenants, without the
sword, are but words.
Science as ideology
Science as political hierarchy
2. Introduction
Business, Responsibility & Innovation
Go to www.menti.com and use the code 6408 0328
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15
What is
responsibility?
➢ Social responsibility means that
entities, in addition to maximizing
shareholder value, should act in a
manner that benefits society.
➢ Socially responsible entities should
adopt policies that promote the wellbeing
of society and the environment
while lessening negative impacts on
them.
➢ Activities that are more inclusive,
attitude to work more reflective and
suggest processes that are more
responsive to societal needs and
ethical concerns.
16
Social
Responsibility
Key words:
✓ Giving back
✓ Strategic goals
✓ Cradle to cradle
✓ Management of impacts
➢ The concept of business responsibility has evolved from
the philanthropic approach of “giving back”, to a more
strategic approach to business’ responsibility towards
society being addressed in management literature.
➢ Since the early 2000s scholars have started to connect
strategic goals with roles and responsibilities towards
society
➢ Responsibility was no longer seen as an activity outside a
core operation and core competencies, but rather as
responsiveness to societal needs through creating
products and services, which became a potential avenue
for business growth.
➢ Recent years have seen a strong societal push to
acknowledge that businesses’ value chains, from
sourcing of raw materials to production, sales and
product end-of-life, cause impacts on people and the
environment for which they are responsible.
➢ Responsibility towards society now means responsible
management of business operations, as well as a
responsibility for the impacts of its products and services
on people and the environment. Entities globally are
being expected to take responsibility for doing no harm
to people or the environment, whereas the most
advanced ones are looking into strategies that drive the
business through responsiveness to societal needs.
Who/what is responsible?
• Business
• Managers
• Employees
• Government
• ….
17
Innovation &
Responsibility
Key words:
✓ Giving back
✓ Strategic goals
✓ Cradle to cradle
✓ Management of impacts
➢ Innovation is generally conceived as the basis for
a competitive economy: to develop new market
segments, improve the quality of their products or
reduce the costs of production.
➢ A constant race for novelty and improvement only
those that constantly reinvent themselves and
their products can win. An innovation’s success is,
however, measured in terms of its uptake on the
market and its generation of economic profit for
the owner of the innovation. Societal benefit may
arise as positive externalities of innovation but are
not per-se decisive for action.
➢ Innovation management in companies is mostly
concerned with creating fruitful environments for
new ideas and deciding which of these ideas will
be pursued further and which are to be discarded.
How is (one) responsible?
• Do no harm
• Anticipate impacts
• Do good business
• Bring better solutions
• ….
One quick example of responsibility in innovation
○ Think of an example of an innovation that took
reponsibility into consideration.
○ (5 mins)
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2. Introduction
What is CSR/pCSR
20
What is CSR/pCSR?
➢ CSR: corporate legitimacy based on conformity with
(local) societal rules.
➢Global playing field -- no broadly accepted
normative standards, neither legal, nor moral.
➢ pCSR: a turn towards moral legitimacy from an
economic, utility driven view to a political,
communication-driven concept of organizational
responsibility.
➢ pCSR+: A communicative approach based on
stakeholder theory and political legitimacy to moral
conflicts: exchange of value-based information
between/in a corporation and its societal environment.
➢ Companies are social institutions embedded in a
stakeholder web.
➢ Redifining pCSR: corporations engaging in public
deliberations, collective decision-making and joint
activities with stakeholders in order to anticipate,
respect and be responsive to values of stakeholders
when providing public goods or restricting public bads.
21
Corporations have an economic orientation;
management is attending to stakeholder risks
and claims.
Marketing: focuses on the effective facilitation
of processes of (product) exchange.
Stakeholders express needs and wants and
assumed corporate utility informs managerial
processes.
CSR: focuses on effective social processes that
balance said exchange with social value creation
based on stakeholders’ social wants and needs.
Stakeholders are invited to public deliberations,
collective decision-making and joint activities in
order to balance economic utility with social
value-creation.
pCSR+: engages in social value creation to
anticipate, respect and be responsive to values of
stakeholders when providing public goods or
restricting public bads in managing exchange of
products.
Stakeholders may force firms to engage in public
deliberations on social values and stakeholder
risks and claims.
22
Ethical acceptability,
sustainability and
societal desirability
Discourses of responsibility (STS)
❖ Responsibility: “a transparent, interactive process by which
societal actors and businesses become mutually responsive to
each other with a view to the (ethical) acceptability,
sustainability and societal desirability of the exchange
process and its marketable products (in order to allow a
proper embedding of scientific and technological advances in
our society).”
➢ Anticipation – to ask & discuss with stakeholders ‘what
if’ early enough;
➢ Reflexivity – stakeholders holding a mirror up to the
corporates’ own activities, commitments and
assumptions, being aware of the limits of knowledge;
➢ Inclusion -- framing assumptions of the participation
processes themselves together with stakeholders;
➢ Responsiveness -- a capacity to change shape or
direction in response to stakeholder and public values
and changing circumstances.
23
Engage, anticipate,
respect
Stakeholder democracy
❖ Corporate social responsibility is essentially political corporate
responsibility: corporations, realizing the democratic role they
must play reinventing democracy in a transnational globalized
world.
➢ Engage in public deliberations, collective decisions and
joint activities with stakeholders in order to
➢ anticipate, respect and be responsive to values and
interests of stakeholders;
➢ integrate their stakes and claims into corporate
operations and processes; and
➢ take on the provision of public goods or the restriction
of public bads in cases where public authorities or
other societal actors are unable or unwilling to fulfill
this role
Political CSR is the inclusion of stakeholder values and interests in
business operation, the management of inevitable conflicts stemming
from stakeholder value differences and the dissolution of institutional
hierarchies within the context of power.
3. Introduction
What is Science
Technology and Society
(STS) studies?
25
STS
“Science, technology and innovation shape
life in modern societies in countless ways.
Some of these are perceived as positive,
others are deeply controversial. In turn,
policy, corporations, the media and other
societal actors influence how knowledge
and technologies are produced. Science
and technology studies analyzes these
interactions and aims to foster critical and
reflexive debates on the relations of
science, technology and society.”
University of Vienna STS
“The Anthropocene,” as the scientists proposed to
call it, “could be said to have started in the latter part
of the eighteenth century, when analyses of air
trapped in polar ice showed the beginning of growing
global concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane”.
Even before the proposal was accepted by an
international body of stratographers, the suggestion
of a human-dominated geological epoch provoked
spirited responses across the social sciences and
humanities. In a flurry of conferences and essays over
the last several years, anthropologists, geographers,
historians, and others have debated the merits of
placing humans alongside asteroids and glaciers as
agents of planetary geological change.
http://stsnext20.org/vignettes/
26
STS
Deconstructs the processes and
terminologies of science in order to
help understand how science works,
both internally and within society at
large.
A large body of scholarly work has
examined historical, social,
technological, and political contexts
shaping different modes of scientific
inquiry and how scientific knowledge
is shaped and circulated in particular
places at particular times.
Science and Technology
○ is focused on organizations, networks,
and assemblages and approached
human and non-human actors. STS
considers how technology and society
co-produce each other.
27
Scientific methods
..claim to represent a reality “out there” as
definite and neatly organized, but the
realities reflected in these modes of
knowing may be in flux. Perspectivalism is
the notion that an object or process being
described or observed has definiteness and
singularity prior to and independent of its
observation or description. The strength of
social studies of science is its claim to show
that what we accept as science and
technology could be other than it is; its
great weakness is the general failure to
grasp the political nature of the enterprise
and to work toward change.
○ Constructivist STS approaches also allow us to
ask:
○ “What sort of politics do we want to
characterize our knowledge systems?”
○ “How knowledge is produced in the research
process, and what are practices and methods
for recording or documenting particular
phenomena?”
➢ STS aims to understand its “conditional
validity” and ways in which knowledge
“imposes ‘the’ public meaning on the situation
and its actors”. In more critical terms, this
mode of inquiry allows us to examine the “god
trick” of objective authority that science can
be mobilized to perform.
Thinking
Science as ontology
Who is
thinking?
Moving from
theologians and
philosophers to
astronomers
What is being
thought?
Instead of a
transcendental
space a spatialized
transcendence
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A political ideology that is an ontology.
What is science? Spatialized transcendence:
1. imagining a world “out-there” (in space);
2. that is ‘one’ and can be empirically verified as objective and true
(e.g., happened – transcendent);
3. the mode of verification is called scientific method;
4. the process (falsifiability, incommensurability) is called science.
Q: Can there be a different
science?
• Technological determinism
was taken to comprise two
basic claims: (1) technology
develops autonomously and
(2) technology determines
societal development to an
important degree.
• Development, stabilization,
and even working of
technology are socially
constructed, with the
emphasis on social. Key
concepts are ‘relevant social
group,’ ‘interpretive flexibility,’
‘closure,’ and ‘stabilization.’
The unit of analysis was the
single artifact (that is, a tool,
a device, or a machine).
• Imagined forms of social life
and social order that center
on the development and
fulfillment of innovative
scientific and/or technological
projects.
Society/Technology confluence
29
(social) Construction
Weak programme – decentering the object that is the artefact
Determinism (social) Co-production
• The world as consisting of networks:
these networks can include humans,
things, ideas, concepts - all of which
are referred to as "actants" in the
network.
• Tracing of associations or relationships
between network components (or
actors) is a key activity in ANT.
• The sum of non-social phenomena can
account for something that is social as
a result of constellations of human and
non-human actors constituting the
network.
• Humans are viewed as always
imbricated within networks of
other humans but also with
nonhumans.
• Forces are generated in and
through humans’ relationships
with nonhumans.
• Living things as well as non-living
matter or things possess agency
that can work with – or indeed
against – the agency possessed
by humans, and together
generate new forms of agential
capacities.
• Exploring the reality, agency,
and “private lives” of
nonhuman (and nonliving)
entities—all of which are
considered "objects"—coupled
with a rejection of
anthropocentric ways of
thinking about and acting in
the world.
Society/Technology confluence
30
Vital materialism
Strong programme – decentering the subject that is the human
Actor-network Theory Object-oriented Ontology
Questions
Robert Braun
+43159991134
braun@ihs.ac.at
http://www.ihs.ac.at/
Thank you