Responsible epistemic innovation: How combatting epistemic injustice advances responsible innovation (and vice versa)

Abstract

Epistemic resources, including concepts, categories, and metrics, are invented regularly. Yet this process of epistemic innovation has not been recognized in responsible innovation (RI) scholarship. I argue that it should be: epistemic innovation can foster central goals of RI, including anticipatory governance and alignment with the goal of epistemic justice. An RI framework can help direct and evaluate epistemic innovation, as shown in three examples of epistemic innovation in communities adjacent to oil refineries: initiated without RI in mind, not all were well aligned with epistemic justice and each would have been strengthened by a stronger commitment to deliberation and foresight. These examples highlight challenges to achieving responsible epistemic innovation: having innovation be mistaken for error; coalescing experience and data into intelligible epistemic resources; and structuring inclusive deliberation. These challenges can be addressed by developing new forms of material deliberation and including resources for responsible epistemic innovation in RI policy.