The new spirit of technoscience : recalibrating symmetrical STS critique

This article situates Responsible Innovation (RI) as part of a largershift in science and technology governance demanding a 'socialfix' for innovation, which we argue amounts to a new spirit oftechnoscience. Inspired by Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello'sanalysis of the development of a 'new spirit of capitalism' fromlate twentieth century, we observe the rise of a new governancerationality in technoscientific innovation which places society, itsneeds, and desires at the center of scientific and technologicaldevelopment. This shift has significant implications for the field ofscience and technology studies, and the modes of critique thatSTS scholars mobilize in understanding and intervening in thepolitics of sociotechnical change. The new spirit of technosciencecalls for a reassessment of familiar formulas of STS critique, with arenewed symmetrical approach to the prescription andproduction of democracy for science and technology governance