Professor Stefan Böschen is a sociologist of technology one of the two directors of c:o/re. He holds the “Society and Technology” chair at the Human Technology Center (HumTec), RWTH Aachen University. He is a spokesperson for HumTec and Rector’s Delegate for Leonardo, an awarded project at the same university, which aims to foster interdisciplinarity, responsibility and participation in academic teaching. He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. From 2009 to 2010 he stood-in for the chair of Sociology of Science at Bielefeld University. After working at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) at Karlsruher Institute of Technology, he became Chair of Society and Technology at RWTH Aachen University in 2018. Stefan Böschen is also chairman of the Committee for Risk Research and Risk Perception at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and a member of the research project group on interdisciplinary reflections on science at the German Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina. His research encompasses science and technology studies, technology assessment, collaborative research and innovation action, knowledge and democracy.
Selected publications
Böschen, S. (2024). Indicator Politics: Modelling Societal Problems under Real-World Conditions. In M. Erdbeer et al. (Ed.), Modelling the Energy Transition. Springer.
Backhaus, J., Böschen, S., John, S., Altepost, A., Cloppenburg, F., Fahy, F., Gäckle, J., Gries, T., Heckwolf, C., Matschoss, K., Meyer, J., Münderlein, D., Schmitt, M., Sonntag, A., Timpe, A., & Gramelsberger, G. (2023). Living Lab. In T. Philipp & T. Schmohl (Eds.), Handbook Transdisciplinary Learning (pp. 235–244). transcript Verlag.
Backhaus, J., John, S., & Böschen, S. (2023). Reallabor. In M. Sonnberger, A. Bleicher, & M. Groß (Eds.), Handbuch Umweltsoziologie (pp. 1–13). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Böschen, S. (2023). Ambivalence and side-effects of social innovations. In J. Howaldt & C. Kaletka (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Social Innovation (pp. 1–6). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Böschen, S. (2023). Offensiver Dilettantismus: Entgrenzung von Wissensproduktion und die Frage nach Verlässlichkeit und kollektiver Urteilsbildung. Wissenschaft in der Verlässlichkeitsfalle?: Praktiken der Konstruktion von Relevanz und Neutralität, 71.
Böschen, S. (2023). Regionale Transformation als Emergenz von Innovationsökosystemen? Herausforderungen für Wissenschaft und Demokratie im Strukturwandel. In M. Miosga, J. Marx, E. Michel, & L. Roth (Eds.), Wandel erfolgreich gestalten: Möglichkeiten und Ansätze regionaler Transformationsplattformen (pp. 557–579). oekom verlag.
Böschen, S. (2023). Soziologie der Innovation. In D. Kaldewey (Ed.), Wissenschaftsforschung (pp. 149–170). De Gruyter.
Smolka, M., & Böschen, S. (2023). Responsible innovation ecosystem governance: socio-technical integration research for systems-level capacity building. Journal of Responsible Innovation, 10(1), 2207937.
Backhaus, J., John, S., Böschen, S., de la Varga, A., & Gramelsberger, G. (2022). Reallabore um die RWTH Aachen : Rückblicke, Einblicke, Lichtblicke. pnd – rethinking planning 2022(1), 104–123.
Böschen, S. (2022). Entstehung und Entwicklung der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung: welche Geschichte? In R. Gulowski & M. Zöhrer (Eds.), Forschungen für Frieden (pp. 181–202). Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.
Böschen, S., May, S., & Thurn, R. (2022). Experimentelle Suchräume in der Wissensgesellschaft: resiliente Strukturbildungen – oder organisierte Unverantwortlichkeit? In M. Endreß & B. Rampp (Eds.), Resilienz als Prozess (pp. 217–240). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
Böschen, S. (2022). “Indicator politics”: Non-knowledge in the context of socio-technological solutions. In P. Hocke, S. Kuppler, U. Smeddinck, & T. Hassel (Eds.), Technical Monitoring and Long-Term Governance of Nuclear Waste (pp. 127–140). Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.
Böschen, S. (2022). Haas, Peter M. (1992): Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination. In Y. Ibrahim & S. Rödder (Eds.), Soziologie der Nachhaltigkeit (1st ed., Vol. 2, pp. 97–100). transcript Verlag.
Böschen, S., Letmathe, P., Kaletka, C., Pelka, B., & Kopp, R. (2022). Konturen einer Folgenabschätzung sozialer Innovationen. In M. Kreibich & J. Streicher (Eds.), Zukunft gestalten mit Sozialen Innovationen (pp. 327–344). Campus Verlag GmbH.
Böschen, S. (2022). Reallabore: Demokratiepolitische Herausforderungen sozial-expansiver Wissensproduktion. In A. Bogner, M. Decker, M. Nentwich, & C. Scherz (Eds.), Digitalisierung und die Zukunft der Demokratie (pp. 131–142). Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.
Förster, A., Chang, R., Lohrberg, F., Kuhnimhof, T. G., Schweiker, M., Münderlein, D. H., Schulte, H., Matschei, T., Vollpracht, A., Neugebauer, C. S., Reicher, C., Wintgens, T. J., Kemper, F., Witte, A., & Böschen, S. (2022). Science Day 22 : built and lived environment – towards a sustainable, livable, urban, and regional future : Pop-Up Campus in Aachen on 30 June 2022 : urban health solutions, carbon sink solutions & materials, built-as-resource solutions, climate change adaptation, agile infrastructure solutions : book of abstracts. Science Day 22, BLE Science Day, Online-Ressource (214 Seiten).
Förster, A., Strobel, E., Böschen, S., Letmathe, P., & Paegert, M. (2022). The Platform Approach: Stimulating Transformative Knowledge Creation for the Rhenish Lignite Mining Area. DisP – The Planning Review, 58(3), 22–39.
Karbach, T., Förster, A., Strobel, E. C., Böschen, S., Letmathe, P., Clausen, E., de Doncker, R. W., Lürkens, P., Moser, A., Praktiknjo, A. J., Roemer, F., Ulbig, A., Dahlmann, R., Fischöder, T., Gottuck, S., Klankermeyer, J., Kunz, F., Palkovits, R., Sterlepper, S., … REVIERa – Transformationsplattform der RWTH. (2022). Nachhaltigen Wandel gestalten : Innovationsimpulse der RWTH. RWTH Aachen University.
Böschen, S., Backhaus, J., Varga, A. D. L., John, S., & Gramelsberger, G. (2021). Reallabore: Simulierte Experimente – Simulierte Demokratie? In K. Braun & C. Kropp (Eds.), Politik in der digitalen Gesellschaft (1st ed., Vol. 2, pp. 275–302). transcript Verlag.
Böschen, S. (2021). Spannungsfelder von Kontrolle und Erproben: Konturen einer ›verfeinerten Technokratie‹? In A. Friedrich, P. Gehring, C. Hubig, A. Kaminski, & A. Nordmann (Eds.), Konfigurationen der Zeitlichkeit (pp. 310–311). Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.
Böschen, S. (2021). Synthetische Chemie. In A. Grunwald & R. Hillerbrand (Eds.), Handbuch Technikethik (pp. 413–418). J.B. Metzler.
Böschen, S., Grunwald, A., Krings, B.-J., Rösch, Chr. (eds.) (2021). Technology Assessment. Handbook for research and practice. Baden-Baden: Nomos. (In German)
Koehrsen, J., Dickel, S., Pfister, T., Rödder, S., Böschen, S., Wendt, B. & Henkel, A. (2020). Climate change in sociology: Still silent or resonating?. Current Sociology 68(6), 738-760.
Schwetje, Th., Hauser, Chr., Böschen, S., Leßmöllmann, A. (2020). Communicating science in higher education and research institutions. An organization communication perspective on science communication. In Journal of Communication Management 24(3), S. 189-205.
Böschen, S., Legris, M., Pfersdorf, S., Stahl, B.C. (2020). Identity Politics: Participatory Research and Its Challenges Related to Social and Epistemic Control. In Social Epistemology 34(4), S. 382-394.
Böschen, S., (2019). TA at the crossroads: Politics of TA from the viewpoint of societal problem solving. In Technological Forecasting and Social Change 139, S. 42-47.
Elixhauser, S., Böschen, S., Vogel, K. (2018). Meshworks and the Making of Climate Places in the European Alps. A Framework for Ethnographic Research on the Perceptions of Climate Change. In Nature & Culture 13(2), S. 281-307.
Dimbath, O.; Böschen, S. (2017). Forms of articulating Epistemic Critique: the Necessity and Virtue of Internal Skepticism in Academia. In Science & Technology Studies 30(1), S. 40-50.
Böschen, S., (2013). Modes of constructing evidence: Sustainable development as social experimentation-The cases of chemical regulations and climate change
Böschen S., Kastenhofer K, Rust I, Soentgen J, Wehling P. (2010). Scientific Nonknowledge and Its Political Dynamics: The Cases of Agri-Biotechnology and Mobile Phoning. Science, Technology, & Human Values. 35(6): 783-811.politics. Nature and Culture, 8(1), 74-96.
Böschen, S., Kastenhofer, K., Marschall, L., Rust, I., Soentgen, J., & Wehling, P. (2006). Scientific cultures of non-knowledge in the controversy over genetically modified organisms (GMO): the cases of molecular biology and ecology. GAIA-Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society 15(4), 294-301.
