How to Weigh Values in Value Sensitive Design: A Best Worst Method Approach for the Case of Smart Metering

Proactively including the ethical and societal issues of new technologies could have a positive effect on their acceptance. These issues could be captured in terms of values. In the literature, the values stakeholders deem important for the development of technology have often been identified. However, the relative ranking of these values in...

Conflicting values in the smart electricity grid a comprehensive overview

This paper aims to anticipate social acceptance issues related to the deployment of the smart electricity grid by identifying underlying value conflicts. The smart electricity grid is a key enabler of the energy transition. Its successful deployment is however jeopardized by social acceptance issues, such as concerns related to privacy and...

Design for value change

In the value sensitive design (VSD) literature, there has been little attention for how values may change during the adoption and use of a sociotechnical system, and what that implies for design. A value change taxonomy is proposed, as well as a number of technical features that allow dealing with value change.

Varieties of responsibility: two problems of responsible innovation

The notion of responsible innovation suggests that innovators carry additional responsibilities (to society, stakeholders, users) beyond those commonly suggested. In this paper, we will discuss the meaning of these novel responsibilities focusing on two philosophical problems of attributing such responsibilities to innovators. The first is...

A Review of Value-Conflicts in Cybersecurity: An assessment based on quantitative and qualitative literature analysis

Cybersecurity is of capital importance in a world where economic and social processes increasingly rely on digital technology. Although the primary ethical motivation of cybersecurity is prevention of informational or physical harm, its enforcement can also entail conflicts with other moral values. This contribution provides an outline of value...

The Food Warden: An Exploration of Issues in Distributing Responsibilities for Safe-by-Design Synthetic Biology Applications

The Safe-by-Design approach in synthetic biology holds the promise of designing the building blocks of life in an organism guided by the value of safety. This paves a new way for using biotechnologies safely. However, the Safe-by-Design approach moves the bulk of the responsibility for safety to the actors in the research and development...

Safe-by-Design: from Safety to Responsibility

Safe-by-design (SbD) aims at addressing safety issues already during the R&D and design phases of new technologies. SbD has increasingly become popular in the last few years for addressing the risks of emerging technologies like nanotechnology and synthetic biology. We ask to what extent SbD approaches can deal with uncertainty, in...

Company strategies for responsible research and innovation (RRI): A conceptual model

Responsible research and innovation (RRI) has become an important topic in the academic community and in policy circles, but it has not yet been systematically included in the innovation process of companies. We discuss how companies can integrate RRI into their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and business strategy. To this end...

Waardenbewust ontwerpen

Bij het ontwerpen van nieuwe technologie kan je al rekening houden met belangrijke waarden. Zo willen we auto’s die zuinig én veilig zijn, en databases die onze privacy respecteren. Dit leidt tot keuzes in het ontwerpproces. Laten we die keuzes over aan technici? Of speelt de overheid hierin een rol?

An Ethical Framework for Evaluating Experimental Technology

How are we to appraise new technological developments that may bring revolutionary social changes? Currently this is often done by trying to predict or anticipate social consequences and to use these as a basis for moral and regulatory appraisal. Such an approach can, however, not deal with the uncertainties and unknowns that are inherent in...

Informed Consent in Asymmetrical Relationships: An Investigation into Relational Factors That Influence Room for Reflection

In recent years, informed consent has been suggested as a way to deal with risks posed by engineered nanomaterials. We argue that while we can learn from experiences with informed consent in treatment and research contexts, we should be aware that informedconsent traditionally pertains to certain features of the relationships between doctors and...

An Ethical Framework for Evaluating Experimental Technology

How are we to appraise new technological developments that may bring revolutionary social changes? Currently this is often done by trying to predict or anticipate social consequences and to use these as a basis for moral and regulatory appraisal. Such an approach can, however, not deal with the uncertainties and unknowns that are inherent in...

Teaching ethics to engineering students

Design for values in engineering

Values have probably always played a role in engineering design. However, in current practices and design methods, the attention for values in engineering design tends to be implicit and unsystematic. Establishing Design for Values in engineering would require overcoming this situation. This contribution discusses which values play a role in...

Technology and Parental Responsibility: The Case of the V-Chip

In this paper, the so-called V-chip is analysed from the perspective of responsibility. The V-chip is a technological tool used by parents, on a voluntary basis, to prevent children from watching violent television content. Since 1997 in the United States, the V-chip is installed in all new televisions sets of 12" and larger. We are interested...

Methodological problems in QFD and directions for future development