Technology Assessment

Garant předmětu:

Lecturer:

Tutor:

Supervisor:

Institute of Pedagogical and Psychological Studies

Synopsis:

Technology Assessment (TA) is a complex, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary subject of study on the borderline between philosophy and sociology, with close ties to economics and forecasting. It deals with issues of social assumptions and implications of the development of science and technology. A number of foreign technical universities have established the subject of study under the name of Science, Technology and Society (STS). A similar field of study, which has its own methodology, is called Technological Foresight (foreseeing of technology development) - i.e. determination of priorities in the field of science and technology development by using statistical and forecasting methods. The aim of the subject TA is to provide students with theoretical and yet in the practice well-usable knowledge on the status of technology in society and on the role and responsibilities of engineers as creators of technical solutions and artifacts.

Requirements:

The initial paradigm represents the fact that the technique at present becomes a phenomenon that is pervading all spheres of social life; that technology cannot explain the nature of the technique itself and that the technique is in its consequences both ambiguous and contradictory.

Syllabus of lectures:

Syllabus:

1. Technology Assessment - history and institutionalisation

2. Technology Assessment - 6 main concepts

3. Methodological approaches

4. TA - criticism of starting points

5. Participatory TA (pTA)

6. TA in the Czech Republic

7. TA and Sustainable Development

8. Development of relationships between technology and public

9. Consultancy, participation and technology assessment

10. TA and Technology Foresight

11. The importance of the concept of „The Knowledge Society“

12. A technical work and its evaluation in legends, images and metaphors

Syllabus of tutorials:

Study Objective:

The objective of the study subject Technology Assessment is to mediate students with information and experience on activities of the Technical Assesment type - a relatively new, but in practice already well-tried way, used by the developed democratic societies to solve conflicting relationships between producers and users of technology. At the same time, the subject tries to solve the basic question: whether at all, and if the answer is yes, than by using which tools can be the development of science and technology and its consequences rationally foreseen, assessed, formed and/or corrected.

Study materials:

TONDL, L.: Sociální hodnocení techniky, Ediční středisko ZČU Plzeň, 1992

TONDL, L.: Věda, technika a společnost (soudobé tendence a transformace vzájemných vazeb) Filosofia, nakl. FÚ AVČR, 1992

TONDL, L.: Technologické myšlení a usuzování. Kapitoly z filozofie techniky. Praha, FILOSOFIA, 1998. 263 s.

PROVAZNÍK, S.: Hodnocení techniky - příležitost pro demokratickou společnost. Teorie vědy 1/I 1990

SALOMON, J.-J.: Technologický úděl, Filosofia, Praha, 1997

DROZENOVÁ, W.: Technika a lidské hodnoty. Praha: Vydavatelství ČVUT, 1995.

LOUDÍN, J.: Věda, technika a hodnoty, Teorie vědy 1-2/III 1994

MACHLEIDT, P.: Hodnocení techniky (Technology Assessment) aneb jak zvládat technická rizika, sborník Člověk a rozhodování - rizika a nejistoty, Praha, ČVUT, 2005

MACHLEIDT, P.: Nové demokratické formy hodnocení techniky za účasti veřejnosti, Teorie vědy 1-2/III 1994

MACHLEIDT, P.: Hodnocení techniky v České republice - tradice a perspektivy in: Filáček, A. (ed.): Věda, poznání, komunikace. Sborník k osmdesátým narozeninám Ladislava Tondla. Kabinet pro studium vědy, techniky a společnosti při FÚ AV ČR, Praha, 2004 (str.117-129)

Note:

Further information:

No time-table has been prepared for this course

The course is a part of the following study plans: