Eurograd message

                Dear colleagues,
<br>
<br>We are pleased to share with you our two panels (see below, Panel 61 and 68)
<br>for the upcoming EASST/4S Conference (August 18-21, Prague) and invite you to
<br>submit an abstract (250 words max.) before 29 February.
<br>
<br>We are a Horizon 2020 project working on Scaling Up Co-creation: Avenues and
<br>Limits for Integrating Society in Science and Technology
<br>(www.scalings.eu) and are interested in various
<br>aspects of the co-creation of innovation concept, and how to upscale it as an
<br>approach.
<br>
<br>How to Submit
<br>To submit the panel, visit the program
<br>website and log in with your
<br>4S credentials. If you have submitted a paper to any recent 4S meeting, you
<br>already have an account. Please exercise due diligence and look for an
<br>existing account before creating a new one. Creating a duplicate account is
<br>likely to cause complications. The same caveats apply to entering co-authors
<br>and session participants.
<br>
<br>If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at
<br>s.tsui@tue.nl.
<br>
<br>King regards,
<br>
<br>Shelly Tsui
<br>Eindhoven University of Technology
<br>61. Exploring Empowerment in The Co-creation of Innovation
<br>
<br>Shelly Tsui, Eindhoven University of Technology; Cian ODonovan, University
<br>College London; Makoto Takahashi, Technical University Munich; Sophie Nyborg,
<br>Technical University of Denmark  DTU; Erik Laes, Eindhoven University of
<br>Technology; Mandi Astola, Eindhoven University of Technology
<br>
<br>Abstract:
<br>
<br>Co-creation continues to be a powerful way to frame practices of technology
<br>development and governance. On its own terms, it transforms passive recipients
<br>into active co-creators, lending a participative hue to innovation imperatives
<br>that otherwise urge disruption and scale-up. And amongst design, business and
<br>policy practitioners, co-creation provides a usefully ambiguous framework with
<br>which to guide the design and deployment of experiments, interventions and
<br>instruments in domains as diverse as energy production, health care and
<br>agriculture.
<br>
<br>
<br>The promise of co-creation is the empowerment of those usually excluded from
<br>processes of knowledge production. Advocates claim it affords more meaningful
<br>and material participation where the inputs of a diversity of stakeholders are
<br>taken on an equal-footing. Yet what exactly empowerment is in co-creation
<br>remains unclear, and this lack of clarity has implications for the extent to
<br>which co-creation will be adopted by influential actors such as policy-makers
<br>as an approach to include society in technoscientific innovation.
<br>
<br>This panel seeks to explore questions about the empowerment and co-creation
<br>nexus. Who or what is empowered, by what means (emergence), and to what ends?
<br>Which concepts of power and agency might help us to think this through? Does
<br>empowerment for some mean disempowerment of others? What are the implications
<br>for ethics, responsibility and governance? What makes empowerment under
<br>co-creation different from existing calls for participation in innovation?
<br>
<br>
<br>We welcome conceptual and empirical papers that explores these questions and
<br>others that deal with the role of empowerment, communities, agency in
<br>practices of co-creation and knowledge production.
<br>
<br>
<br>Keywords: Co-creation, empowerment, knowledge production, stakeholder
<br>engagement, innovation
<br>
<br>68. From Citizen to Citizen-Subject? Exploring (Re)-Configurations of The
<br>Public in Innovation
<br>
<br>Organizers: Shelly Tsui, Eindhoven University of Technology; Benjamin Lipp,
<br>Technical University Munich; Anja Kathrin Ruess, Munich Center for Technology
<br>in Society, Technical University of Munich; Meiken Hansen, Technical
<br>University of Denmark; Bozena Ryszawska, Wroclaw University of Economics
<br>
<br>Abstract:
<br>
<br>In the European innovation policy discourse, the role of the public, namely
<br>citizens, is changing. There have been calls for more forms of public
<br>engagement with citizens in science, technology, and innovation to promote
<br>more transparency, democratization of information and knowledge, and the
<br>matching of societal needs and outcomes. To achieve this, initiatives such as
<br>living labs, demonstration projects, test beds, makers-spaces, innovation labs
<br>and fab-labs are increasing in number in public spaces (e.g. universities,
<br>neighborhoods, and popular streets). The hope is that by including the
<br>citizens directly in the innovation process through real-time feedback loops
<br>through approaches like co-creation and co-design, not only would the needs
<br>and outcomes better align, but citizens would become more knowledgeable
<br>through first-hand experience.
<br>
<br>
<br>However, in co-creating, co-designing, and engaging in the innovations design
<br>process, new trends are emerging. Citizens are no longer passive recipients of
<br>innovative outcomes, and instead take an active role in shaping them.
<br>Simultaneously, citizens are treated as subjects. As a result, the distinction
<br>between end-user, citizen, and subject are no longer clear, and has
<br>implications for agency, power, and challenging existing structures of
<br>participation and knowledge.
<br>
<br>
<br>We seek to explore these emerging configurations of the publics engagement in
<br>innovation and welcome conceptual and empirical contributions. What is the
<br>relevance of the terms users, subjects, and citizens? How does this
<br>ambiguity affect knowledge production and the discourse of expert versus
<br>lay-people expertise? What implications do these trends have for
<br>policymakers as public experimentation initiatives become more commonplace?
<br>
<br>
<br>Keywords: citizens, innovation, configuration, knowledge production, public
<br>engagement
<br>_______________________________________________
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