Normative Crossover: The Ethos of Socio-technological Systems

This chapter investigates normative dimensions of technologies based on an understanding of technologies as socio-technological systems. As such systems display technologies as both technical and social, they call for a corresponding clarification of the relationship between epistemic and ethico-political activities. The notion of the ethos of socio-technological systems is suggested to denote the immanent worth of the system. Analysis of the formation of the ethos brings forward how normative concerns we recognise respectively as epistemic and ethico-political are intertwined. The notion of the ethos of socio-technical systems is presented and discussed with reference to a Norwegian controversy on the ultrasound screening programme for pregnant women.