A new open access article of mine, titled “Trust in technology. Ethical contributions to technology assessment beyond acceptance and acceptability?” has been published in TATuP 30 (2). It is a discussion on the potential of “trust in technology” and “trustworthy technology” as part of a ethics contribution to technology assessment. Its genesis is quite closely connected with a recent collaboration with Linus Feiten (University of Freiburg) on privacy respecting video surveillance and the need for a socio-technical conception of trust. The collaboration resulted in another journal article (accepted by JICES, scheduled to appear in October 2021), which is a trans-disciplinary, application focused contribution. In contrast to this, the TATuP article is a more general philosophical discussion in the context of technology assessment. Here’s the citation information and the English abstract
Weydner-Volkmann, Sebastian (2021): “Technikvertrauen: Beiträge zur Technikfolgenabschätzung jenseits von Akzeptanz und Akzeptabilität?” TATuP – Zeitschrift für Technikfolgenabschätzung in Theorie und Praxis 30 (2): 53–59. DOI: 10.14512/tatup.30.2.53.
Open access
This article explores the potential for “trust in technology” to make a productive conceptual contribution to the ethical evaluation of technology, complementing the concepts of “acceptance” and “acceptability” already established in technology assessment. It shows that for digital technologies in particular, “trust” can better address aspects of security against attacks as it allows to integrate concepts of IT security. Furthermore, “trustworthy technology” allows for a better inclusion of lay perspectives, since rationally justified trust in the sense of risk expectations can be mediated interpersonally by experts. Especially for the evaluation of digital technologies, “trust in technology” can thus bridge a conceptual gap between acceptance and acceptability.