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| Type | Conference Presentation |
| Scope | Discipline-based scholarship |
| Title | LOTA - A software tool to enhance the quality of participatory research |
| Organization Unit | |
| Authors |
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| Presentation Type | speech |
| Item Subtype | Original Work |
| Refereed | Yes |
| Status | Published in final form |
| Language |
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| Event Title | Swiss Inter- and Transdisciplinarity Day 2018 |
| Event Type | conference |
| Event Location | EPFL, Lausanne |
| Event Start Date | November 15 - 2018 |
| Event End Date | November 15 - 2018 |
| Abstract Text | LOTA (Landscape of Opinions in Technology Assessment) is a software tool to be used in participatory research initiatives (e.g. in transdisciplinary processes), which aims at increasing transparency on their normative foundations and enabling a rational discourse among the involved stakeholders. Outcomes of participatory research projects are strongly affected by the normative orientations of involved stakeholders such as policy makers, consumers, business experts, or the researchers themselves. In transdisciplinary research, their normative orientations both influence the co-design of the study as well as its outcomes. Researchers reporting from participatory projects usually aim to provide neutral results, i.e. results that contain both the descriptive aspects of the subject and – clearly separated – the normative aspects in the most possible neutral way. This is a challenge as normative neutrality is hardly possible for a researcher who aims to provide insights to society that contribute to a better live today and for the coming generations (Torgersen, 2018). The normative orientations of all participants in a transdisciplinary project, including the researchers, is framed by basic normative assumptions which may vary considerably from individual to individual. To what extent the research process succeeds in dealing with the tensions among assumed norms and values has a high impact on the quality of the study. Transparency of normative assumptions is thus crucial for transdisciplinary and participatory research initiatives. Making value orientations explicit and transparent is, however, hard for many stakeholders. |
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