Vulnerability in Technological Cultures ― New Directions in Research and Governance

Novel technologies and scientific advancements offer not only opportunities butrisks. Technological systems are vulnerable to human error and technical malfunctioning that havefar-reaching consequences: one flipped switch can cause a cascading power failure across a networkedelectric grid. Yet, once addressed, vulnerability accompanied by coping mechanisms may yield a moreflexible and resilient society. This book investigates vulnerability, in both its negative andpositive aspects, in technological cultures. The contributors argue that viewing risk in terms ofvulnerability offers a novel approach to understanding the risks and benefits of science andtechnology. Such an approach broadens conventional risk analysis by connecting to issues of justice,solidarity, and livelihood, and enabling comparisons between the global north and south. The bookexplores case studies that range from agricultural practices in India to neonatal intensive caremedicine in Western hospitals; these cases, spanning the issues addressed in the book, illustratewhat vulnerability is and does. The book offers conceptual frameworks for empirical description andanalysis of vulnerability that elucidate its ambiguity, context dependence, and constructed nature.Finally, the book addresses the implications of these analyses for the governance of vulnerability,proposing a more reflexive way of dealing with vulnerability in technologicalcultures.

ContributorsMarjolein van Asselt, Martin Boeckhout,Wiebe Bijker, Tessa Fox, Stephen Healy, Anique Hommels, Sheila Jasanoff,Jozef Keulartz, JessicaMesman, Ger Palmboom, C. Shambu Prasad, Julia Quartz, Johan M. Sanne, Maartje Schermer, TeestaSetelvad, Esha Shah, Andy Stirling, Imrat Verhoeven, Esther Versluis, Shiv Visvanathan, Gerard deVries, Ger Wackers, Dick Willems

Anique Hommels is Associate Professor at Maastricht University and author of Unbuilding Cities: Obduracy in Urban Sociotechnical Change (MIT Press). Jessica Mesman is Associate Professor in the Department of Technology and Society Studies, Faculty of Arts and Culture, University of Maastricht, Netherlands. Wiebe E. Bijker is Professor at Maastricht University and the author of Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change (MIT Press) and other books.