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Science and technology policy is often confronted with issues that are both complex and controversial and which have to be decided upon in a delicate constellation of policy-makers, experts, stakeholders, non-governmental organizations and the public. One attempt to deal with such a complex problem is via citizen involvement. Participatory technology assessment (pTA) already goes back to several decades, and countries have made various experiences. While in some countries, governments established technology assessment organizations, which also included pTA in their methodological portfolio, others primarily rely on experts to make decisions on science and technology policy. In a third group of countries non-state actors, such as social scientists, experimented with pTA. However, they were often unable to link these experiments to policy-making. This paper deals with the question of why this variation exists and compares the use of pTA in Switzerland and Austria. Despite similarities between the two countries, both had quite different experiences with pTA so far. Whereas several pTAs have been carried out in Switzerland until today, Austrian pTAs have remained infrequent. The aim of this paper is to explain this difference as a result of different ways of policy-making which affect the use and chances of pTA.

Science and technology policy is often confronted with issues that are both complex and controversial and which have to be decided upon in a delicate constellation of policy-makers, experts, stakeholders, non-governmental organizations and the public. One attempt to deal with such a complex problem is via citizen involvement. Participatory technology assessment (pTA) already goes back to several decades, and countries have made various experiences. While in some countries, governments established technology assessment organizations, which also included pTA in their methodological portfolio, others primarily rely on experts to make decisions on science and technology policy. In a third group of countries non-state actors, such as social scientists, experimented with pTA. However, they were often unable to link these experiments to policy-making. This paper deals with the question of why this variation exists and compares the use of pTA in Switzerland and Austria. Despite similarities between the two countries, both had quite different experiences with pTA so far. Whereas several pTAs have been carried out in Switzerland until today, Austrian pTAs have remained infrequent. The aim of this paper is to explain this difference as a result of different ways of policy-making which affect the use and chances of pTA. (author's abstract)

After a very long & at times extremely controversial & emotional political controversy Austria, similar to other OECD countries, replaced a particularly restrictive abortion regulation with an in international comparison rather permissive law (limited-period abortion right). Following Paul Sabatier's advocacy coalition approach this paper raises the following questions: How did the policy change from restrictive to permissive abortion regulation occur? What was the role of policy learning in this context? In which way did formal & informal organizational structures, norms & values of the central political actor in this policy change, the Social Democratic Party (SPO), further or hamper policy learning? References. Adapted from the source document.

In recent years many countries, including Austria, have commissioned citizen assemblies in response to the complex issue of climate change. Based on an explorative qualitative study, this paper examines the impact of climate assemblies on policy making and looks at elements that further or impede their impact. In addition, the paper identifies several other impacts of climate assemblies such as those on deliberative democracy and quality of discourse around contentious topics. The paper compares climate assemblies in France, Germany, Ireland and Scotland.

In recent years many countries, including Austria, have commissioned citizen assemblies in response to the complex issue of climate change. Based on an explorative qualitative study, this paper examines the impact of climate assemblies on policy making and looks at elements that further or impede their impact. In addition, the paper identifies several other impacts of climate assemblies such as those on deliberative democracy and quality of discourse around contentious topics. The paper compares climate assemblies in France, Germany, Ireland and Scotland.

For decades the idea that scientists, policy makers and industry know best in research and innovation has been convincingly challenged. The concept of Responsible Research and Innovation [RRI] combines various strands of critique and takes up the idea that research and innovation need to be democratized and must engage with the public in order to serve the public. The proposed future EU research funding framework programme, Horizon Europe, excludes a specific program line on research in RRI. We propose a number of steps the European Parliament should take to institutionalize RRI in Horizon Europe and beyond.

This paper describes how and why the political regulation of assisted reproductive technology (ART), which has been rather restrictive in Austria for more than 20 years, was recently liberalized. In detail, the paper (1) sketches the content and rationale of the past and present regulation; (2) describes the political configuration that was responsible for the restrictive law; (3) outlines the lengthy political struggle as well as underlying attitudes, aspects of political culture that blocked a liberalization for a long time; (4) indicates sub-politics of individual citizens who appealed to national and European courts to change the law; and (5) describes the societal as well as political transformations that pushed for and supported the reform. Moreover, (6) it describes the effects of the restrictive law on women and couples who wanted to undergo ART treatment. Finally, (7) it looks at potential impacts of the new law on the practice of ART in Austria. The paper is partly based on the research carried out between 2007 and 2012 in the research project "Genetic Testing and Changing Images of Human Life" (LIFE) that was funded by the Austrian Genome Research Program (GEN-AU). The project included a number of qualitative empirical studies on Prenatal Diagnostis (PND) and Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnostis (PGD) in Austria in the political and clinical domain. (author's abstract)

Law-making is a central component of politics. Empirical research however shows that many parliamentary systems do not develop law texts primarily in the legislative body but mainly in the ministerial bureaucracy. This is also true for Austria, where federal laws are almost entirely conceived by civil servants. Despite their vital importance for law making, political science often neglects the role of civil servants & focuses on the part of parliament in regulatory processes. This article aims to remedy this research deficit by analyzing civil servants' contribution to law development. Employing the concept of social practice & analyzing four case studies in family, research, technology & health policy we will identify & discuss key practices civil servants apply in law making. Adapted from the source document.

Der Beitrag zur Technik- und Wissenschaftssoziologie beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, wie Partizipative Technikfolgeabschätzung (PTA) um die Behandlung ethischer Fragestellungen erweitert werden kann. Die Ausführungen präsentieren Ergebnisse des österreichischen Teils eines Projekts, in dem das Potential des Neosokratischen Dialogs (NSD) zur Bearbeitung technikethischer Fragestellungen am Beispiel der Xenotransplantation (XTP) erprobt wird. Im ersten Teil werden die Konzepte Technikfolgenabschätzung, PTA, und Ethik diskutiert. Ferner wird analysiert, wie in Österreich verwendete Verfahren der Technikbewertung ethische Probleme verhandeln. Ausgehend von den Defiziten dieser Ansätze wird schließlich der NSD vorgestellt. Der zweite Teil führt in die Thematik XTP ein und umreißt die diesbezügliche österreichische Diskussion. Der dritte Teil stellt die beiden NSD zu ethischen Problemen der XTP dar, die im vierten Teil im Kontext österreichischer und internationaler PTA-Erfahrungen diskutiert werden.

The sustainability concepts of the 'Brundtland-Report' and the 'Rio documents' call for a combination of ecological, economic, social and institutional aspects of social development. This paper describes briefly several models of sustainability and discusses social sustainability as conceptualised in selected sustainability indicators. In an attempt to remedy the lack of sociological theory, the paper proposes a sustainability concept, which is based on the concepts of needs and work, as an activity to fulfil these needs and as the principal exchange process between society and nature. Moreover, this paper argues to recognize social sustainability as both a normative and analytical concept as well.

Like many developments in modern science and technology (Bonß 1995) xeno- or animal to human transplantation involves enormous potentials as well as high risks and serious ethical problems (e.g. OECD 1997, Hüsing 1998 et al. Schicktanz 2002). Such ethical problems are a major challenge to political decision-making mechanisms: how can they be appropriately and legitimately discussed and resolved? Are the usual democratic institutions adequate and is it sufficient to include only (bioethics)-experts in decision-making? Or do we need broader debates on ethics, involving also other actors as well as civil society. However, if a broad public discussion is necessary, how can we debate and resolve these questions, and which decision-making procedures can we use? This article presents first results of the Austrian part of an ongoing EU research project, which experiments with the Neo-Socratic Dialogue, (in the following NSD), a method for resolving ethical questions primarily used in teaching and consultancy, as a means of discussing ethical problems of xenotransplantation with the respective stakeholders. In this discussion paper we will first sketch several ethical problems of xenotransplantation. Drawing on Marteen Hajer (2003), we will then distinguish several aspects of "institutional void" in the Austrian xenotransplantation "debate". In the next part we will outline the concept of NSD and we will describe the Austrian experiment to discuss ethical problems of xenotransplantation using the instrument of NSD. In the subsequent part we will present first evaluation results of this experiment and in the last part we will draw preliminary conclusions from our experiment.