title: Just a Cog in the Machine? The Individual Responsibility of Researchers in Nanotechnology is a Duty to Collectivize.
abstract: Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) provides a framework for judging the ethical qualities of innovation processes, however guidance for researchers on how to implement such practices is limited. Exploring RRI in the context of nanotechnology, this paper examines how the dispersed and interdisciplinary nature of the nanotechnology field somewhat hampers the abilities of individual researchers to control the innovation process. The ad-hoc nature of the field of nanotechnology, with its fluid boundaries and elusive membership, has thus far failed to establish a strong collective agent, such as a professional organization, through which researchers could collectively steer technological development in light of social and environmental needs. In this case, individual researchers cannot innovate responsibly purely by themselves, but there is also no structural framework to ensure that responsible development of nanotechnologies takes place. We argue that, in such a case, individual researchers have a duty to collectivize. In short, researchers in situations where it is challenging for individual agents to achieve the goals of RRI are compelled to develop organizations to facilitate RRI. In this paper we establish and discuss the criteria under which individual researchers have this duty to collectivize.
authors.affiliation: Department of Values, Technology and Innovation, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5015, 2600 GA, Delft, The Netherlands. S.L.Spruit@tudelft.nl.
authors.forename: Shannon L
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9252-5741
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Spruit
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Gordon D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Hoople
authors.affiliation: Materials Science and Corrosion Practice, Exponent Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Rolfe
mesh_terms: D032984:Ethics, Research; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000941:ethics*; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000941:ethics*
keywords: Collective responsibility; Collectivization duty; Emerging technologies; Interdisciplinary; Nanotechnology; Responsible Research and Innovation