Design-thinking approach to ethical (responsible) technological innovation

Abstract

There is growing interest in and importance of responsible research and innovation (RRI) among academic scholars and policy-makers, especially in relation to emerging technologies such as nanotechnology. It is also to be noted that, although the design-thinking approach has been around since the 1960s, there is renewed interest in this approach to innovation with an increasing number of related publications over the last couple of decades. Furthermore, it is currently introduced in a number of schools and community projects. However, there is a gap in bridging the design-thinking approach to RRI, and this chapter attempts to address this need.