Ethical reflexivity as capacity building: Tools and approaches

© 2017 Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. The notion of ‘reflexivity’ has emerged as a key dimension of responsible research and innovation (RRI), a policy discourse particularly visible at European Union (EU) level since around 2010 [1-3]. The interest in RRI seeks to extend scientific responsibility so as to include future societal impacts of technological development [4]. As Stilgoe et al. note, this call for responsibility ‘demands reflexivity on the part of actors and institutions (…)’ [5:1571]. Reflexivity ‘at the level of institutional practice, means holding a mirror up to one’s own activities, commitments and assumptions, being aware of the limits of knowledge and being mindful that a particular framing of an issue may not be universally held’ [5:1570].