ABSTRACT
This chapter describes technology assessment as a ‘flexible arrangement’ because specific technology assessments will take many operational forms depending on the requirements and constraints. It explores various aspects of the distributed design process by adopting an approach to technology assessment specifically concerned with the design nexus. Design thinking is a primary form of integrated thinking and provides an operational approach to mitigation-oriented policy. Drawing public policy into the design nexus is a matter for Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA), an approach spawned by research on technology dynamics done by the Dutch Science Dynamics program. CTA presents an important contrast with the so-called ‘early warning’ approach of technology assessment as it developed in North America during the 1960s and 1970s. In practice, the ideal CTA situation seems to be one that is characteristic of the consensus conference, a European invention whose development is co-extensive with the birth of CTA.
