Responsible Research and Innovation: Konsten att (re)producera en samhällsordning

Sammanfattning: In this Bachelor thesis I examine the relationship between knowledge and power against the Zeitgeist of politicized science and depoliticized politics. I aim to uncover and problematize the understanding of legitimate knowledge production articulated in Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), the framework for research within the current European research programme. I use Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory and Jasanoffs idiom of co-production to scrutinize a leaflet published by the EU-commission and analize interviews with representatives of RRI Tools, thought to implement the framework. I argue that the new spirit of capitalism, the rise of deliberative democracy and the conception of Europe as a union in crisis constitutes the fertile ground necessary for the blooming of the particular understanding of legitimate knowledge production expressed in RRI; characterized by utilitarianism and moral rationalism encouraging context-driven, problem-focused and interdisciplinary research. By stressing the contextual character of rationality, and how what is percieved to be socially desirable and responsible is contingent upon the discoursive field, I argue that RRI encourage research and innovation that might limit the scope of our political imagination instead of broadening it. It might thus also be concieved as a political strategy that normalizes and legitimizes the current political system.