Collingridge dilemma
The Collingridge dilemma (also known as the "steering or control dilemma ") is a methodological dilemma : Attempts, in particular technology assessment , to contribute to the design of technology development face a typical double-bond problem :
- an information problem: effects cannot be easily foreseen until the technology is sufficiently developed and widely used.
- a power or implementation problem: control and design are more difficult, the more firmly the technology is rooted.
In other words: the more advanced the technology, the better the production conditions, contexts of use and disposal processes, the better the prospects for reliable knowledge of consequences. However, there is then no longer any possibility of influencing the technology or the consequences of technology, because then the development is already complete or at least so far advanced that, for economic reasons, a change of direction is hardly or no longer possible.
This idea was first formulated by David Collingridge of the Technology Policy Unit at Aston University in his 1980 book The Social Control of Technology . The dilemma is a common point of reference and starting point for discussions in technology assessment .
Individual evidence
- ↑ A. Grunwald: Technology assessment - an introduction. 2nd Edition. edition sigma, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-89404-950-8 , p. 165.
- ^ David Collingridge: The Social Control of Technology. Pinter et al. a., London a. a. 1982, ISBN 0-312-73168-X .
- ↑ See, for example, R. Wanger-Döbler: The dilemma of technology control. Ed. Sigma, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-89404-300-8
- ↑ in detail: A. Grunwald: Technology assessment - an introduction. 2nd Edition. edition sigma, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-89404-950-8 , pp. 165ff
- ↑ see also: K. Böhle: DESIDERA-TA. Follow-up remarks to TA'09, the 9th Austrian TA conference. In: Technology Assessment - Theory and Practice (TATuP). No. 2, Volume 18, September 2009, pp. 121–125. (on-line)