Tracing Long-term Value Change in (Energy) Technologies

Tracing Long-term Value Change in (Energy) Technologies: Opportunities of Probabilistic Topic Models Using Large Data Sets

de Wildt, T.E. (TU Delft Ethics & Philosophy of Technology)
van de Poel, I.R. (TU Delft Ethics & Philosophy of Technology)
Chappin, E.J.L. (TU Delft Energie and Industrie)

2021

We propose a new approach for tracing value change. Value change may lead to a mismatch between current value priorities in society and the values for which technologies were designed in the past, such as energy technologies based on fossil fuels, which were developed when sustainability was not considered a very important value. Better anticipating value change is essential to avoid a lack of social acceptance and moral acceptability of technologies. While value change can be studied historically and qualitatively, we propose a more quantitative approach that uses large text corpora. It uses probabilistic topic models, which allow us to trace (new) values that are (still) latent. We demonstrate the approach for five types of value change in technology. Our approach is useful for testing hypotheses about value change, such as verifying whether value change has occurred and identifying patterns of value change. The approach can be used to trace value change for various technologies and text corpora, including scientific articles, newspaper articles, and policy documents.

energy
probabilistic topic models
technology
value change
value sensitive design

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3c846740-6439-49e5-84e8-6926fed74c67

https://doi.org/10.1177/01622439211054439

0162-2439

Science, Technology & Human Values, 47 (3), 429-458

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2021 T.E. de Wildt, I.R. van de Poel, E.J.L. Chappin