THE PAST AND FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY-ASSESSMENT

Constructive technology assessment (CTA) is a member of the family of technology assessment approaches, developed in particular in the Nethe rlands and Denmark. CTA shifts the focus away from assessing impacts o f new technologies to broadening design, development, and implementati on processes. Explicit CTA has concentrated on dialogue among and earl y interaction with new actors. The idea has been taken up by actors ot her than governments (consumers, producers). CTA implies a modulation of ongoing technological developments, and an understanding of the dyn amics of such modulation is used to identify and briefly discuss three generic strategies for CTA: technology forcing, strategic niche manag ement, and loci for alignment. Modulation activities are to be located in the broader issue of how our societies handle new technology at al l. The established division of labor between promotion and control sho uld be mitigated by sociotechnical criticism. This underlines the need for reflection on role and value profile of CTA agents. (C) 1997 Else vier Science Inc.