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ConditionChoices and conditionsemerging

Governance lock-in

The mirror-image condition in which a metric, threshold, category, or compliance architecture was institutionalized before the technology was understood, and is now defended by the constituencies built around it.

Inspect in field model

Source-linked claims

source-assertionConfidence: highContestability: low

Early in a technology's development change is easy but its consequences are poorly understood; once the consequences are clear, change has become costly and slow.

Our reading: Source-level citation pending passage review against the 1980 text. The dilemma is widely restated; this record cites the original.

Inspect evidence · source links · passage review pending

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

The Social Control of Technology (opens in a new tab)

Source-level attribution only. A precise supporting passage has not yet been recorded. Existing locator: Chapter 1, 'The dilemma of control'.

source-assertionConfidence: highContestability: medium

Anticipatory governance is a broad societal capacity to act on emerging technologies while their management is still possible, through foresight, engagement, and integration.

Our reading: Source-level citation pending passage review. Guston's definition builds on earlier work with Sarewitz and on nanotechnology governance programs.

Inspect evidence · source links · passage review pending

Passage summaries are paraphrases, not quotations. Open the source to read the full passage.

Understanding 'anticipatory governance' (opens in a new tab)

Source-level attribution only. A precise supporting passage has not yet been recorded. Existing locator: Abstract and introduction.

Appears in worked analyses

Provenance

  1. The Social Control of Technology

    Frances Pinter, London · book · publication date not recorded · 1980 edition, 200 pages

    The link is an Internet Archive library record with restricted lending, not an open copy. Locators refer to chapter 1. Passage-level review is pending.

    collingridge-social-control · Last checked 2026-09-06 · claims and passages

  2. Understanding 'anticipatory governance'

    Social Studies of Science (SAGE) · scholarship · publication date not recorded · Social Studies of Science 44(2), 2014, pp. 218–242

    The DOI resolves to the publisher's record; the article is behind a subscription. Passage-level review is pending.

    guston-anticipatory-governance · Last checked 2026-09-06 · claims and passages

  3. Developing a framework for responsible innovation

    Research Policy (Elsevier) · scholarship · publication date not recorded · Research Policy 42(9), 2013, pp. 1568–1580

    The DOI resolves to the publisher's record. Passage-level review is pending.

    stilgoe-responsible-innovation · Last checked 2026-09-06 · claims and passages