ABSTRACT
The following chapter will provide an assessment of the scientific and democratic relevance of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). It will adopt a pragmatist perspective to evaluate the challenges of science and democracy, and the relevance of RRI in addressing them. The chapter is structured as follows: I will first delineate the features and challenges arising from the relation between scientific investigations and democratic models. This appears to be necessary in order to understand what can be considered to be relevant for their development. In fact, as it will turn out, if science requires a broader integration of knowledge, democracy needs to improve its scientific and experimental nature, as suggested by John Dewey. I will then start the assessment of RRI by proposing a multi-level and integrative conception of responsibility, which offers a dynamic theoretical background. I will then provide an analysis of the six keys proposed by the European Commission as the main methodological tool to implement the principles embedded in the notion of RRI. By doing so, it will emerge that RRI, in its formulation through the keys, is highly scientifically and democratically relevant from a pragmatist perspective.
