responsstudies

Responsibility studies, sometimes written as responsibility studies or responsstudies in German-language literature, is an interdisciplinary field that investigates how responsibility is understood, attributed, distributed, and enacted across individuals, organizations, technologies, and institutions. The field draws on philosophy, ethics, sociology, political theory, law, organizational studies, and science and technology studies to examine normative concepts of responsibility as well as empirical patterns of accountability and liability.

Core questions address what counts as responsible action in different contexts, how responsibility is allocated in complex systems with multiple actors, how liability is determined, and how governance mechanisms can promote or hinder responsible conduct. A related strand focuses on responsible innovation and responsible research and innovation (RRI), asking how scientific and technological developments can be steered toward social good.

Methodologically, responsibility studies uses conceptual analysis, normative theorizing, qualitative and quantitative empirical research, case studies, interviews, discourse analysis, and policy evaluation. It often seeks to bridge theoretical debates with practical implications for policy, corporate governance, engineering ethics, and risk management.

Relationship to other fields: it intersects with ethics, law, organizational sociology, governance studies, CSR, and STS, and it informs discussions about AI ethics, environmental responsibility, and accountability in public institutions.

Critiques note that the term can be ambiguous and contested, with disagreements about how to distribute responsibility in networks of agents, and about how to measure and compare responsible outcomes across contexts.

See also: Corporate Social Responsibility, Responsible Innovation, ethics, accountability, science and technology studies.