Conceptual Framework of Modern Scientific and Technological Development: Review of Foreign Approaches

Abstract

At the threshold of the new millennium, there was a change in the dominant conceptual framework used to analyze scientific and technological development (STD). The article outlines the directions for the transformation of methodological approaches under the conditions of modern scientific and technological revolution. First, an overview of conceptual constructions of scientific and technological revolution is given with an emphasis on its main stages and the corresponding change in the trajectories of technological development by analyzing the change in technological paradigms, including in the context of long-term cyclical changes based on Kondratieff’s and Akamatsu’s theory as well as various industrial revolutions. The trends of the modern scientific and technological revolution are viewed in accordance with the stages of modeling long-term waves and the fourth industrial revolution. Special attention is paid to the research method of science and technology (STS). The STS method is a new conceptual approach to the study of scientific and technological revolution and includes laboratory research, actor-network theory, and the methods of ethnomethodology, scientific metrics, and constructing knowledge spaces. Approaches to the study of the role of ethics are presented as an important part of the concept of scientific and technological revolution, including the analysis of values in the formation of technologies, methods for studying ethics-related issues in STS, growing inequality in modern conditions, and technological moral actions.