Technology assessment as transdisciplinary research

Interdisciplinarity is, as it is understood in this chapter, a research approach that is applied in investigating questions for which the expertise represented in one discipline is not sufficient, and transdisciplinarity is an approach that allows to research questions that cannot be adequately investigated by relying only on academic knowledge systems. Transformative research finally is research that aims at transforming society by actually initiating change. It may or may not be transdisciplinary. Transdisciplinarity lends itself in Technology Assessment (TA) projects that necessitate a comprehensive approach covering both several academic disciplines and non-academic fields. We argue that if a transdisciplinary approach is chosen in TA project, some quality requirements have to be observed and some differentiations with regard to whom should participate. And we argue that a transformative approach calls for being attentive to questions of legitimacy with regard to both the design of participation and the justification of the transformative goals.