[en] Four items are discussed showing that the problems involved through participation of the public in large-scale projects with environmental impact cannot be solved satisfactorily without suitable modification of the existing legal framework. The problematic items are: the status of the electric utilities as a quasi public enterprise; informal preliminary negotiations; the penetration of scientific argumentation into administrative decisions; the procedural concept. The paper discusses the fundamental issue of the problem-adequate design of the procedure and develops suggestions for a cooperative participation design. (orig./HSCH)

[en] The paper discusses the dimensions and environmental impacts of large-scale projects, and public participation as an element of institutionalized problem management. The legal protection functions, the administrative and socio-political functions are subsumed under a concept of function which defines a function as a synthesis of a variety of possibilities, so that different 'achievements' are expected from public participation, depending on the reference system chosen for comparison. The paper explains the purpose of the examination of public participation and its functions, the design of analytical procedure which covers the three main stages of 'input, legal procedure, output', and instruments and aspects such as interdisciplinarity, representativity, comparison, relation between empirical research and the principles of the law. (HSCH)

[en] In the real procedure, three communication models differing in tendency are colliding, each model being represented pars pro toto by the various groups taking part in the procedure. The licensing authority acts on the basis of a one-way communication scheme anchored in the traditional legal institution of a public hearing. The group of applicants predominantly uses the model of communication from a defined position, based on the assumption of being competent in matters of science and technology. The group of objectors frequently conjures the model of discursive communication, hoping to soften rigid attitudes of the authority or the applicants, in order to make the planning procedure more reversibel. The conflicting communicative structures reveal another source of conflict, which lies in the controversial interpretation of legal rules and provisions. (orig./HSCH)

[en] Large-scale research and policy consulting have an intermediary position between sociological sub-systems. While large-scale research coordinates science, policy, and production, policy consulting coordinates science, policy and political spheres. In this very position, large-scale research and policy consulting lack of institutional guarantees and rational back-ground guarantee which are characteristic for their sociological environment. This large-scale research can neither deal with the production of innovative goods under consideration of rentability, nor can it hope for full recognition by the basis-oriented scientific community. Policy consulting knows neither the competence assignment of the political system to make decisions nor can it judge succesfully by the critical standards of the established social science, at least as far as the present situation is concerned. This intermediary position of large-scale research and policy consulting has, in three points, a consequence supporting the thesis which states that this is a new form of institutionalization of science: These are: 1) external control, 2) the organization form, 3) the theoretical conception of large-scale research and policy consulting. (orig.)

[en] Industrial-scale systems more and more come to be the determining form of scientific-technological progress, and contribute, together with the system of standards and values, to social integration in technological civilization. Sociology has discovered industrial-scale systems rather late as an independent research subject. In view of nuclear energy systems; newly arising, worldwide information systems, or even the increasing cross-linking of transport systems, men became aware of the fact that technology in addition to industry, politics, economy or science had developed into an independent social sphere which, to a growing extent, was structured by large-scale systems. Nowadays it is not determinism, the inescapable superstructure or the one-dimensionality of technology that play a role, but questions of controlling, complexity, unpredictability and contingency, and of the uncontrollable consequences of industrial- scale technologies stir up emotions. Since industrial-scale systems have become a determining factor of social development, the questions of their social and environmental compatibility, and how to integrate them into a democratic order, become more and more urgent. The papers compiled in the Annual Report give some hints to this effect. The papers on theoretical concepts are individually retrievable from the database. (orig./HSCH)

[en] Public participation is placed in the context of the government's technology policy whose legitimation can be questioned in view of the dispute in our society about technological development and its role in decision for shaping the future of the industrial society. This lack of legitimation has induced a search for instruments that might help to close the acceptance gap. Participation of the public is one of these instruments and is discussed in connection with technology assessment, early warning system, and environmental impact assessment. (HSCH)

[en] The formation of new social movements which have rendered the criticism of technological development a societal and political issue, was the motive for empirically testing the societal dimensions of the conflict over technology and its linkage with processes of social change. A representative survey of 2000 people living in the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin showed characteristic opinion trends among groups of the population concerning the central topics energy policy, nuclear energy, and coal, and these are related to social-structural factors. Critique of industrialism proves to be - apart from a more ''populistic'' environmentalist attitude - a relevant factor for evaluating issues of technology policy. Three main critical trends emerge which structure the public debate about energy policy: a critique which is technology specific, a generalising criticism derived from critique of industrialism, and an increasingly radical critisicm guided by post-materialistic value orientations. (orig.)

[en] Taking the three examples of nuclear energy, microelectronics and genetic engineering, an analytic perspective is proposed which goes beyond conventional technology assessment. A comparative approach to the analysis of these three consecutive developments is suggested focusing on their physical and social substitutional functions, relevant actor games and control mechanisms, and cultural assimilation. Finally, the issue of 'autonomy' or 'Eigendynamik' of modern science and technology is discussed. (orig.)

[en] In this report problems of forecasting in the service sector are discussed. Main emphasis is placed on a critical analysis of attempts at measuring the 'productivity' of services and their 'contribution to the gross national product'. Quantitative forecasting methods are then compared with a social-science approach at assesssing structural trends, esp. in the public sector. Starting from an analysis of constraints and their impact on different goals and objectives in the public service sector restrictions on modernisation strategies are described and alternative policies for rationalisation discussed. (orig.)

[en] At the present state of our information, we can affirm that fusion research, as far as the necessary financial expenditures and their political justification are concerned, is a matter of politically controversial debate. In the political arenas, projects like controlled nuclear fusion are discussed primarily with regard to the controllability of complex technical systems and the sustainability of our future supply of electric power. The attempt to discuss this problem will have to consider: (i) on the one hand, already established concepts of sustainability; (ii) and on the other, the - according to the present state of our knowledge - foreseeable characteristics of a system of power generation and supply based on fusion reactors. Not only do the goals of global technology projects have to be embedded in patterns of universally accepted legitimisation (sustainability), but the organisation of research and development is also changing into networks acting globally. In this sense, globalisation means not only the worldwide linking of financial markets and the permanent availability of information and communication networks, but above all the creation of global organisations of research and innovation processes. The globalisation of research and development of technology has several dimensions: (i) the recognition and treatment of global problems; (ii) the transformation and evolution of new forms of organisation and cooperation in a global community of researchers; (iii) the constitution of Global Change Research. Fusion is playing a 'pathfinder role' for these processes and is at the same time itself an expression of the globalisation of the production of technology