The politics of displacements. Towards a framework for democratic evaluation

The confrontation of values and interests and an impact in the public realm constitutes a broadly recognised political dimension of technological innovation processes. There is, however, a gap between empirical research into these politics of innovation and normative research into their democratic evaluation. Especially methods for evaluating the democratic quality of dynamic and non-formal forms of innovation politics are lacking. This paper aims to fill the gap by developing a framework for analysing the politics of innovation in terms of displacements of issues. Its first part reviews different theoretical approaches and concludes that decision-making about design and use generally takes place in a multitude of settings and that this circumstance calls for theoretical investigation of displacements between settings. In the second part, the notions of ‘issue’, ‘setting’, and ‘displacement’ are further elaborated and related to one another. A conceptual framework is construed that is suggested to be helpful in the democratic evaluation of the politics of displacements. The paper ends with a reflection on the applicability of recently developed democratic criteria. Because these criteria are devised for proceduralised and static decision-making processes, they needed to be reduced to three democratic principles that are general enough to capture local variation and specific enough to make a difference between good and bad politics.

The rise and fall of self-service in Amsterdam trams: User technology relations in a case of service innovation

The stabilisation of innovative technology depends on reconciling technological requirements and user behaviour. This can be achieved by adjusting the technology to the users, by configuring the user, or by a combination thereof. This paper evaluates different strategies in a case of service innovation: the substitution of conductors with self-service machines in the Amsterdam tramways around 1970 and the various forms of fare-dodging that came along. To counteract fare-dodging, the transport company unsuccessfully relied on a strategy to configure users. Alternative strategies, notably configuring users through technological adjustment, are suggested to increase the chance of stabilisation. These observations and suggestions are related to the actual characteristics of services: given that transport services are immediately and collectively used, their misuse, if not corrected by fellow passengers, soon tends to threaten the aspect of stability. Emphasising service characteristics thus contributes to a better understanding of strategies to reconcile services and users.

The distribution of decision-making. The case of a flexible public transport system

Instead of explaining the outcomes of a policy process with reference to a rational planning logic, this paper scrutinises the circumstances in which decisions actually are taken. It follows issues when they displace between different decision-making settings. The approach is applied to a case of decision-making about a flexible public transport system in and around Hoogeveen, the Netherlands: a case in which the decision-making process was distributed over no less than fifteen settings. The main result of the analysis is a typology of five different displacements based on typical framing effects, which could form the basis of a theory with which complex, interactive and opportunistic decision-making processes can be understood in more general terms.decision-making, transport policy, innovation, public transport, displaced politics

The distribution of decision making:The case of a flexible public transport system.

Nowadays, the cockpit model for public policy planning has been largely replaced by a model of distributed decision making. Taking a dramaturgical perspective on politics, this article follows issues when they are displaced between different settings for decision making. A typology of five different displacements is proposed and linked to staging effects of settings. This typology could form the basis of a theory with which complex, interactive, and distributed decision-making processes can be understood in more general terms. The approach is applied to a case of decision making about an innovative flexible public transport system in the Netherlands

User producer interaction in context: a classification

Science, Technology and Innovation Studies show that intensified user producer interaction (UPI) increases chances for successful innovations, especially in the case of emerging technology. It is not always clear, however, what type of interaction is necessary in a particular context. This paper proposes a conceptualization of contexts in terms of three dimensions – the phase of technology development, the flexibility of the technology, and the heterogeneity of user populations – resulting in a classification scheme with eight different contextual situations. The paper identifies and classifies types of interaction, like demand articulation, interactive learning, learning by using and domestication. It appears that each contextual situation demands a different set of UPI types. To illustrate the potential value of the classification scheme, four examples of innovations with varying technological and user characteristics are explored: the refrigerator, clinical anaesthesia, video cassette recording, and the bicycle. For each example the relevant UPI types are discussed and it is shown how these types highlight certain activities and interactions during key events of innovation processes. Finally, some directions for further research are suggested alongside a number of comments on the utility of the classification

The politics of displacements. Towards a framework for democratic evaluation

Although the political dimension of technological innovation is widely acknowledged, there remains a gap between empirical research into this politics and normative research into its democratic quality. Especially methods for evaluating the democratic quality of dynamic and non-formal forms of innovation politics are lacking. This paper develops a framework for analysing the politics of innovation in terms of displacements of issues. It first argues that decision-making about design and use generally takes place in a multitude of settings and that this circumstance calls for theoretical investigation of displacements between settings. Based on an elaboration of the notions of ‘issue’, ‘setting’, and ‘displacement’ a conceptual framework is construed that might be helpful in the democratic evaluation of the politics of displacements. The framework is applied in a case study of public transport innovation, which shows how subsequent displacements served to silence serious concerns and objections

User producer interaction in context: A classification

Science, Technology and Innovation Studies show that intensified user producer interaction (UPI) increases chances for successful innovations, especially in the case of emerging technology. It is not always clear, however, what type of interaction is necessary in a particular context. This paper proposes a conceptualization of contexts in terms of three dimensions – the phase of technology development, the flexibility of the technology, and the heterogeneity of user populations – resulting in a classification scheme with eight different contextual situations. The paper identifies and classifies types of interaction, like demand articulation, interactive learning, learning by using and domestication. It appears that each contextual situation demands a different set of UPI types. To illustrate the potential value of the classification scheme, four examples of innovations with varying technological and user characteristics are explored: the refrigerator, clinical anaesthesia, video cassette recording, and the bicycle. For each example the relevant UPI types are discussed and it is shown how these types highlight certain activities and interactions during key events of innovation processes. Finally, some directions for further research are suggested alongside a number of comments on the utility of the classification.Innovation, users, interaction, learning, typology of UPI