c:o/re short-term Fellow (05/2025)
Nina Frahm is a postdoc at the Department for Digital Design and Information Studies, Aarhus University. Grounded in Science and Technology Studies (STS), she critically examines policies and governance approaches for innovation across countries, institutions, and technoscientific domains. Her current research is interested in ‘Imaginaries of Existential Risk’ with a particular focus on the role of global governance organizations. Previous projects have included a comparative study of soft law regimes for the governance of neurotechnology and of AI Ethics policies in the EU. She completed her PhD at the Technical University Munich and has been a visiting fellow at Harvard’s STS program and the Institute for STS at the University of Quilmes, Argentina. She regularly collaborates with policy institutions and has served as internal consultant for the OECD’s working party on Bio, Nano and Emerging Technologies. Amongst others, her work is published in STHV, Science and Engineering Ethics, the Journal of Responsible Innovation, and Nature Biotech.
Innovation as Res Publica: The New Governance of Technoscience and its Politics
Imperatives of technoscientific innovation have become a ubiquitous leitmotiv for public policies in the 21st century. Driven by increased public investments in research and development and fueled by hope and hype regarding the benefits of emerging technologies for society, innovation is no longer a mere task of the market but a central concern of democracies in their pursuit of desirable futures. Yet, innovation’s intrinsic uncertainty, its risks and possible harms for people and the planet also present a challenge for public institutions when it comes to legitimizing innovation efforts.
In my research, I follow the turn to innovation as res publica – a public thing – and argue that it is enabled by a shift from ‘hard’ regulatory instruments to tools and frameworks for the ‘soft’ governance of technoscience such as ethics guidelines and principles, public engagement exercises, and co-creation processes. Rather than following technocratic rationales, the new governance of technoscience relies on new forms of reasoning and expertise that grant society, its values and needs a central role in shaping innovation trajectories. As such, it is key for the production of powerful imaginaries of democratic sovereignty vis-à-vis innovation and corollary ideals of socio-technical order. By zooming into the field of AI and emerging neurotechnologies, I examine the situated politics of new governance regimes, and in particular, their critical role in the making of a body politic in the innovation era.
Publications (Selection)
Frahm, Nina and Tess Doezema. 2025. From Growth to Governance: Bringing Coproductionist Critique to Degrowth. Science, Technology and Society 0(0). doi: 10.1177/0971721825132683
Frahm, Nina and Kasper Schiœlin. 2024. The Rise of Tech Ethics: Approaches, Critique, and Future Pathways. Editorial for Topical Collection ‘Innovation under Fire: The Rise of Tech Ethics’. Science and Engineering Ethics 30(45). doi: 10.1007/s11948-024-00510-3
Doezema, Tess and Nina Frahm. 2023. The New Spirit of Technoscience: Reformulating STS Critique and Engagement. Journal of Responsible Innovation 10(1). doi: 10.1080/23299460.2023.2281112
Frahm, Nina and Kasper Schiœlin. 2023. Toward an ‘Ever Closer Union’: The Making of AI-Ethics in the EU. STS Encounters 15(2). doi: 10.7146/stse.v15i2.139808
Frahm, Nina, Tess Doezema, and Sebastian Pfotenhauer. 2021. Fixing Technology with Society: The Co-production of Democratic Deficits and Responsible Innovation at the OECD and the European Commission. Science, Technology and Human Values 47(1), 174-216. doi: 10.1177/0162243921999100
