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Dr. K.E. Konrad (Kornelia)

Background

Kornelia Konrad is Assistant Professor of Dynamics and Assessment of Emerging Technologies. She received a master’s degree (Magister Artium) in sociology, physics and mathematics from the University of Freiburg i.Br (1997) and her PhD from the Technical University of Darmstadt (2002), where she participated in the Graduate School “Technology and Society”. 1996-2000 she conducted a number of studies for the Center for Technology Assessment in Stuttgart. 2002-2009 she held a postdoc, then senior researcher position at Eawag, a Swiss federal research institute of the ETH domain in Zurich, within the social science department Cirus, which conducts research on sustainable innovation and transformation processes within infrastructure sectors.

Research

Main research interests

Large parts of her work relate to the role of anticipation in innovation processes, ranging from the dynamics of collective expectations in societal discourses to anticipation as part of foresight and technology assessment processes. She is currently developing an approach to investigate the governance of and by expectations, as a way to trace the interplay of different forms of expectation-building as well as the interplay of both promises and risk concerns and their respective role in innovation processes. Empirically, her current research focuses on nanotechnologies; former work related to energy and information technologies. Furthermore, her work and interests relate to sectoral transformations and technological transitions, and to modes of knowledge production, in particular at the science-industry interface. Finally, technology use and the role of user scenarios and user involvement in design has been a major theme of her research.

Current projects

Kornelia Konrad is heading a group of PhD and postdoc projects investigating the societal embedding of nanotechnologies into society, funded by the Dutch national research programme NanoNextNL (2011-2015). The projects examine the co-evolution of nanotechnologies with sectoral and industry structures and develop related socio-technical scenarios, which serve also as an input to strategy workshops for key application areas as food and water. The projects furthermore investigate the governance of promises and risks – the way how promises and risk concerns are shaped and coordinated and how they shape and coordinate research and innovation – as well as the concrete practices, institutionalization and impact of the quest for ‘responsible innovation’ in the governance of nanotechnology research and innovation.

She is supervising a PhD project on Future Scenarios of Innovation Processes in Medical Genomics, which investigates how genomics and its promises are taken up and adapted in different fields of common disease research, and applies these insights for scenario-building. The project is sponsored by the Centre for Society and Genomics (CSG).

She is involved in the EU-FP7 funded project RIF – Research and Innovation Futures 2030: From explorative to transformative scenarios (2011-2013), which explores emerging patterns, trends and drivers of change in ways of doing and organising research and she is involved in a UT research network on Smart Energy Systems.

In the past she has headed, acquired and participated in various research projects, funded e.g. by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the European Union and the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). She has organized various sessions at conferences, organized academic workshops and PhD Schools; she is currently co-organizer of the 2012 conference of the Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies (S.NET) and she was co-organizer of the Conference on ‘Tentative Governance in Emerging Science and Technology’ held at the University of Twente in 2010. She serves as a reviewer for Research Policy, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, Public Understanding of Science and Minerva.

Teaching

Kornelia Konrad teaches within the master programme Philosophy of Science, Technology & Society, the master programme Nanotechnology, the minor Innovation & Entrepreneurship and the programme Nanotechnology at the University of Applied Sciences, Saxion.

Recent courses:

- Governance of Technology (PSTS)

- Research Training Project – Societal Discourses on New Technologies (PSTS)

- Societal Embedding of Nanotechnology (M-NT, Saxion)

- Technology Dynamics and Strategy Implications for Innovation & Governance (Minor I&E)

- Shaping Technology & Use (PSTS)

Networks

Member of the Executive Committee of the Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies (S.NET)

European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)

Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)

Netherlands Graduate Research School of Science, Technology and Modern Culture (WTMC)

European Forum for Studies of Policies for Research and Innovation (EU-SPRI)

Sustainable Transitions Research Network (STRN)

Swiss Association for the Study of Science, Technology & Society (STS-CH)

Publications (Selected)

Articles and book chapters

Konrad, K., Markard, J., Ruef, A., Truffer, B. (in press): Strategic Responses to Fuel Cell Hype and Disappointment. Technological Forecasting & Social Change,

Treibich, T., Konrad, K., Truffer, B. (submitted): A dynamic view on interactions between academic spin-offs and their parent organizations.

Konrad, K. (2010): Brennstoffzellen zwischen Euphorie und Ernüchterung: Versprechen neuer Technologien und ihre Bedeutung für Akteursstrategien, in: Kehrt, C., Schüßler, P. und Weitze, M.-D.: Neue Technologien in der Gesellschaft – Akteure, Erwartungen, Kontroversen und Konjunkturen, transcript, 149-169.

Konrad, K. (2008). Dynamics of Type-based Scenarios of Use: Opening Processes in Early Phases of Interactive Television and Electronic Marketplaces, Science Studies, 22(2), 3-26 [link]

Konrad, K., Truffer, B., Voss, J.-P. (2008). Multi-Regime Dynamics in the Analysis of Sectoral Transformation Potentials - Evidence from German utility sectors, Journal of Cleaner Production 16, 1190 - 1202.

Truffer, B., Voss, J.-P., Konrad, K (2008). Mapping Expectations for System Transformations. Lessons from Sustainability Foresight in German Utility Sectors. Technical Forecasting and Social Change 75, 1360-1372.

Borup, M., Brown, N., Konrad, K., Van Lente, H. (2006). The Sociology of Expectations in Science and Technology. Technology Analysis and Strategic Management 18(3/4), 285-298. [link]

Konrad, K. (2006). The Social Dynamics of Expectations: the Interaction of Collective and Actor-Specific Expectations on Electronic Commerce and Interactive Television. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management 18(3/4), 429-444. [link]

Voß, J.-P., Truffer, B., Konrad, K. (2006). Sustainability Foresight. Reflexive governance in the transformation of utility systems. In: Voß, J.-P., Kemp, R., Bauknecht, D. (eds). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 162-188. [link]

Konrad, K. (2005). A Circle of Uncertainties: Dilemmas of User Involvement in Highly Dynamic Innovation Processes. In: User Involvement in Innovation Processes: Strategies and Limitations from a Socio-Technical Perspective. Rohracher, H. München/Wien, Profil-Verlag: 317-346. [link]

Books

Konrad, K. (2004). Prägende Erwartungen: Szenarien als Schrittmacher der Technikentwicklung. Berlin, edition sigma. (Formative Expectations: Scenarios as a Pacemaker for Technology Development).

Conference papers and reports

Kornelia Konrad (2010): Governance of and by Expectations, EASST 2010 conference, September 2-4, Trento, Italy. [link]

Konrad, K., Truffer, B., Störmer, E., Zomer, A., Konttinen, J. (2009). Symbiosis or Emancipation? Interaction patterns mediating the impact of spin-offs on their parental research organisations. Triple Helix Conference VII, Glasgow, June 17-19, 2009

Budde, B., Konrad, K. (2009). Interrelated visions and expectations on fuel cells as a source of dynamics for sustainable transition processes. 1st European Conference on Sustainability Transitions, June 4-6, Amsterdam, NL.

Konrad, K., Truffer, B. (2006). The Coupling of Spin-offs and Research Institutions in the Triangle of Policy, Science and Industry - An International Comparison. Berlin, Discussion Paper P 2006-103, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB). [link]

Konrad, K. (2006). Shifting but forceful expectations: structuring through the prospect of materialisation. Paper presented at the Twente VII workshop “Material Narratives – of Technology in Society”, Enschede, October 19-21, 2006. [link]

Konrad, K., Markard, J., Truffer, B. (2006). Analysing the interaction of an innovation field and its context for exploring different innovation pathways: the case of Smart Building. SPRU 40th Anniversary. Conference: The Future of Science, Technology & Innovation Policy: Linking Research and Practice, September 11-13, 2006, Brighton. [link]

Konrad, K., Voß, J.-P., Truffer, B. and Bauknecht, D. (2004). Transformationsprozesse in netzgebundenen Versorgungssystemen. Ein integratives Analysekonzept auf Basis der Theorie technologischer Transitionen. (Transformation processes in network-bound systems. An integrative analytical concept based on the theory of technological transitions), Bericht im Rahmen des BMBF-Projektes „Integrierte Mikrosysteme der Versorgung". Kastanienbaum/Berlin/Freiburg. (www.mikrosysteme.org)

Konrad, K. (2001). Electronic Commerce: Erwartungsdynamiken, Leitbilder, Szenarien - Zwei Fallstudien zu Entwicklung und Einsatz von Anwendungen im Business-to-Business-Bereich (Electronic Commerce: Expectation Dynamics, Leitbilder, Scenarios – Two Case Studies on the Development and Implementation of Business-to-Business Applications), Arbeitsbericht der Akademie für Technikfolgenabschätzung, Nr. 193.

Konrad, K., Barthel, J., Fuchs, G. (1999). Trust and Electronic Commerce – More Than a Technical Problem, Proceedings of the 18th IEEE Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems, October 19-22, Lausanne, Switzerland [link]