Between Science, Technology and Society

The intersection and permeability of science, innovation and society result in a series of benefits and challenges, underlying the important role the latter can and should play. The following paragraphs present the theoretical background and the objectives of the SISCODE (Society in Innovation and Science through CO-DEsign) project investigating this interconnection, the issues that emerged through its journey and the results gained. Therefore, it frames the knowledge obtained throughout the threeyear duration of the project, situating the notion of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in the co-creation domain, and introducing the issues that emerge when moving from the theoretical concept to practice [1, 2]. It inspects how co-creation and design knowledge and tools can be applied to engage citizens in shaping solutions that are meant to be more inclusive, responsible and sustainable, and how these approaches and methodologies could be applied to operationalize RRI. Particular attention is drawn to how small-scale experimentations can lead to significant scalein, scale-up and scale-out processes. The book will show how these processes can lead to organizational learning and transformation, but also how they can provide evidence-based knowledge which nurtures policy making processes with the potential of achieving broader societal impacts in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy making [3]. Investigating the benefits and implications of applying participatory research and innovation approaches in society, this chapter embraces a context-sensitive perspective [4] and explores the crossroads of diverse forms of innovation: not only research-driven but also practice-based, and not only technological but also social. This reasoning provided the theoretical background which led to the construction of a learning framework, adopted as a guide for the 10 co-creation labs in which the real-life experimentations described in this volume were conducted.