Directionality in the making : The initiation, circulation and uptake of innovation direction debates through policy-oriented foresight practices

How do socio-technical innovations shape the future of our societies and how can we steer innovation towards a specific direction? This thesis examines the policy-oriented practices that have come to the fore to answer these questions. Socio-technical change manifests in diverse directions and forms, with the science and politics of directionality emerging as a pivotal discourse shaping innovation policy. Although directionality facilitates interdisciplinary boundary spanning across economics, geography, political science, and sociology, its conceptual ambiguity persists. This dissertation scrutinizes the directionality discourse and examines, through three qualitative in-depth studies, how it is enacted through policy-oriented foresight practices. 

The research shows that behind the idea of purposefully directing innovation loom manifold situated deliberations in different arenas. These innovation direction debates provide insights into the social co-production and appraisal of innovation in the context of policy. Scrutinizing the formalized practices that bring about these debates, such as foresight, public engagement and their interactions with policy, allows for reconstructing the active integration of spaces, materials, know-how and meanings of directionality—an ever-evolving, arena-spanning process that lends itself as the title "directionality in the making". This process constantly articulates issues such as sustainability transitions, or, more recently, rearmament, as problems of innovation. In synthesizing the findings of the empirical case studies, the thesis elaborates on the role of foresight practices for directionality in the making. Ultimately, this contributes to understanding how legitimacy and reflexivity of innovation policy arrangements are produced.