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Value Isobars

Value Isobars - The Landscape and Isobars of European Values in Relation to Science and New Technology - var et EU-finansiert prosjekt som ble koordinert av UiB.

UIB-logo og nærbilde av et grønt øye i et siktefokus på blå bakgrunn
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Value Isobars

Hovedinnhold

Informasjon om prosjektet på engelsk:

The starting point of the Value Isobars project has been the observation that a number of important debates centering around questions of identity and visions for future development have turned to the issue of values as guiding principles. This holds true not only for current debates about European identity, but also in particular for controversies about contested science and technology (S&T).

Furthermore, the project partners have noted that scholarly contributions pertaining to the identification of fundamental values in our societies not only are scattered between several disciplines, but also to a significant extent provide a confusing picture in regard to their potential policy implications.

Good governance of S&T as it usually is understood and practiced may still be short on precisely those factors that prepare the ground for socially sustainable innovations.

The project thus calls for value-informed governance based on a better understanding of S&T related values of different societal groups and sectors, including more focus on ordinary citizens and identification of actual and potential value conflicts.

The goal of this project was to provide the blueprints for a value-based and value-informed new and flexible governance of the science-society relation in Europe.

Furthermore, the study identified necessary research tasks in order to move from a generic understanding of value-based and value-informed governance to more specific mechanisms of governance that improve current practice.

Emerging biotechnologies with dual use problematic and security technologies (biometrics) served as pilots to test the validity of the framework.

The key research challenges were:

  • Understanding the very concept of social/ethical values in both socio-political and philosophical respect
  • Improving the methodology for the study of values
  • Identifying innovative mechanisms of platforms for value-based dialogue in civil society and citizen consultation
  • Assessing the potential of legal and regulatory instruments, including soft-law, to provide value-oriented framework orientation for scientific and technological development.

The working hypothesis was that social values, though often alluded to, may constitute a crucial dimension that has not yet been fully included in governance of science and technology.

Les mer på prosjektets engelske side.