Editing Technology assessment (section)

===Forms and concepts of technology assessment===
The following types of concepts of TA are those that are most visible and practiced. There are, however, a number of further TA forms that are only proposed as concepts in the literature or are the label used by a particular TA institution.<ref>Among those concepts one finds, for instance, '''Interactive TA''' [http://www.itas.fzk.de/deu/tadn/tadn298/rath298a.htm ITAS.fzk.de], '''Rational TA''' [http://www.ea-aw.com/the-europaeische-akademie/aimstasks.html EA-AW.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100918235522/http://www.ea-aw.com/the-europaeische-akademie/aimstasks.html |date=September 18, 2010 }}, '''Real-time TA''' (cp. Guston/Sarewitz (2002) Real-time technology assessment, in: Technology in Society 24, 93–109), Innovation-oriented TA [http://www.innovationsanalysen.de Innovationsanalysen].</ref>
[[File:Epta.jpg|thumb|Logo of the [[European Parliamentary Technology Assessment]]]]

*'''Parliamentary TA''' ('''PTA'''): TA activities of various kinds whose addressee is a parliament. PTA may be performed directly by members of those parliaments (e.g. in France and Finland) or on their behalf of related TA institutions (such as in the UK, in Germany and Denmark) or by organisations not directly linked to a Parliament (such as in the Netherlands and Switzerland).<ref>Those TA institutions that perform PTA are organised in the [[European Parliamentary Technology Assessment]] (EPTA) network; see [http://eptanetwork.org EPTAnetwork.org].</ref>
*'''Expert TA''' (often also referred to as the '''classical TA''' or '''traditional TA''' concept): TA activities carried out by (a team of) TA and technical experts. Input from stakeholders and other actors is included only via written statements, documents and interviews, but not as in participatory TA.
*'''Participatory TA''' ('''pTA'''): TA activities which actively, systematically and methodologically involve various kinds of social actors as assessors and discussants, such as different kinds of civil society organisations, representatives of the state systems, but characteristically also individual stakeholders and citizens (lay persons), technical scientists and technical experts. Standard pTA methods include consensus conferences, focus groups, scenario workshops etc.<ref>Cp. the 2000 EUROpTA (European Participatory Technology Assessment – Participatory Methods in Technology Assessment and Technology Decision-Making) project report [https://web.archive.org/web/20110719132928/http://www.tekno.dk/pdf/projekter/europta_Report.pdf].</ref> Sometimes pTA is further divided into '''expert-stakeholder pTA''' and '''public pTA''' (including lay persons).<ref>Van Eijndhoven (1997) Technology assessment: Product or process? in: Technological Forecasting and Social Change 54 (1997) 269–286.</ref> The participatory assessment makes room for the inclusion of laypeople and establishes the value of varied point of views, interests and knowledge. It shows importance of the need for decision makers and actors to have a varied set of mindsets and perspective to make a combined, informed and rational decision.
*'''Constructive TA''' ('''CTA'''): This concept of TA, developed in the Netherlands, but also applied<ref>{{Cite thesis|url=https://run.unl.pt/handle/10362/31566|title=Battery storage systems as balancing option in intermittent renewable energy systems - A transdisciplinary approach under the frame of Constructive Technology Assessment. PhD Thesis|last=Baumann|first=Manuel Johann|publisher=Universidade Nova de Lisboa|year=2017|location=Lisbon|pages=187}}</ref> and discussed elsewhere<ref>Schot/Rip (1997), The Past and Future of Constructive Technology Assessment in: Technological Forecasting & Social Change 54, 251–268.</ref> attempts to broaden the design of new technology through feedback of TA activities into the actual construction of technology. Contrary to other forms of TA, CTA is not directed toward influencing regulatory practices by assessing the impacts of technology. Instead, CTA wants to address social issues around technology by influencing design practices. It aims to "mobilize insights on co-evolutionary dynamics of science, technology and society for anticipating and assessing technologies, rather than being predominantly concerned with assessing societal impacts of a quasi-given technology."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Konrad|last2=Rip|last3=Greiving|first1=Kornelia|first2=Arie|first3=Verena Schulze|date=November 2017|title=Constructive Technology Assessment - STS for and with Technology Actors|url=https://easst.net/article/constructive-technology-assessment-sts-for-and-with-technology-actors/|journal=EASST Review|volume= 36|issue=3}}</ref> This assessment established the value of involving users in the development and innovation process, encouraging the development and adaptation of new technology in their daily life. 
*'''Discursive TA''' or '''Argumentative TA''': This type of TA wants to deepen the political and normative debate about science, technology and society. It is inspired by ethics, policy discourse analysis and the sociology of expectations in science and technology. This mode of TA aims to clarify and bring under public and political scrutiny the normative assumptions and visions that drive the actors who are socially shaping science and technology. This assessment can be used as a tool to analyse and evaluate the background of each and every reaction or perception that takes place for each technology; often some of the reactions these assessors receive are not related to science or technology. Some of the ways of analyzing actors and their reaction is by "studying prospective users' everyday-life practices in their own right, and in naturalistic settings."<ref>{{Cite journal|author1=M. Veen|author2=B. Gremmen|author3=H. te Molder|author4=C. van Woerkum|date=April 13, 2010|title=Emergent technologies against the background of everyday life: Discursive psychology as a technology assessment tool|journal=Public Understanding of Science|volume=20|issue=6|pages=810–825|doi=10.1177/0963662510364202|pmid=22397087|s2cid=12306256}}</ref> Accordingly, argumentative TA not only addresses the side effects of technological change, but deals with both broader impacts of science and technology and the fundamental normative question of why developing a certain technology is legitimate and desirable.<ref>van Est/Brom (2010) Technology assessment as an analytic and democratic practice, in: Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics.</ref>