Technik und gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz: Herausforderungen der Technikfolgenabschätzung

Modern societies have problems in coping with technological change. There is hardly an area of one's personal or professional life that is not dominated by technological applications. At the same time, however, people demonstrate clear preferences for a natural lifestyle without a strong dependence on a technological infrastructure. As a result of this gap between real life situation and personal preference, people search for orientations that can guide them through major lifestyle decisions, in particular about the desirable level of technology in their personal and social environment. These decisions are partly based on psychological mechanisms of perception and information processing, partly constructed by linking symbolic connotations to technologies. This alignment of cultural and psychological associations to human artefacts is an important element in the building of personal and social identity. For this reason, technology assessment cannot be confined to the task of estimating the potential consequences of technologies, but needs to include the personal and cultural associations that go hand in hand with the implications of technology's objective properties.

However, the valid assessment of the physical consequences is a needed part of technology assessment and also a necessary condition for an evaluation process, in which the symbols and values of the people affected are vital elements of an integrated assessment.