(Page 2 of 33) - Participatory Technology Assessment for Reflexive Design authored by Grin, John.

ABSTRACT
Not coincidentally, deliberative policy analysis has been practiced often in cases that in a very
essential sense involve value dissent and major uncertainties: cases of what Beck, Giddens and
others have designated 'reflexive modernisation.' Deliberation under such circumstances is to
support a synthesising kind of judgment across existing differentiations and distinctions, that is a
process of judgement in which assumptions, knowledge claims, distinctions, roles and identities
normally taken for granted must be critically scrutinised. Thus existing institutions tend to
provide inadequate guidance for such 'reflexive design'.
In this paper, we shed some light on this challenge by telling and reviewing the story of Programme
348: 'Future Livestock Production Systems' for the reflexive modernisation of Dutch agriculture,
following major crises in the country's husbandry sector. Although an institutional arrangement
had been created that was rather favourable to reflexive design, the programme encountered
significant difficulties which we argue to be rooted in the institutions that have emerged
throughout agricultural modernization over the past century. We then use Wenger's insights on
'communities of practice,' as a framework to both understand how established institutions could
manifest themselves in P348's reflexive arrangement, and how these difficulties have been dealt
with in more and less successful ways. With the insights thus gained, we wish to contribute to the
still underdeveloped literature on reflexive design in the trail of recent work by Forester and
Fischer.

ON THE AUTHORS
John Grin (MSc in physics, 1986) is a professor in policy science at the Department of Political
Science, University of Amsterdam. He obtained his PhD in 1990, at the VU University,
Amsterdam, with a thesis on defence technology assessment. After having worked on the same
theme at VU University and Princeton University, he joined the Department of Political Science
in 1992. His research focuses on designing and instigating socio-technological innovation, in
particular in the areas of sustainable development and increasingly also on health care. Grin is
director of a post-graduate course on methods for system innovation and responsible for the
governance cluster of the Dutch knowledge network on systemic innovation, comprising ten
universities and a range of practitioners’ organizations.

Francisca Felix (MSc in Chemical Technology and the Philosophy of Science, Technology and
Society, 1996) is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Political Science, University of
Amsterdam. In that capacity, she is working with projects on system innovation in animal
husbandry going on in Animal Sciences institutes of the Wageningen Agricultural University and
Research Centre, providing methodical guidance and analysing the experiences thus gained. She is
also involved in drafting a methodical guide for such projects. Felix obtained her PhD in 2002 on
the design and testing of a policy support system for dealing with hazardous waste.

Bram Bos (MSc in Biology and Science Dynamics (1993) is finishing his PhD thesis in the twilight
zone of philosophy of technology and science and technology studies, dealing with the role of
living organisms in technological systems. Since 2002 he works as a postdoctoral researcher at the
Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam, as well as a methodical adviser in
several interdisciplinary innovation projects for sustainable husbandry at the Animal Sciences