Communication as intermediation for socio-technical innovation

The academic interest in ‘science and technology communication’ hasevolved from different societal domains and fields of application, giving riseto different scholarly traditions. This contribution introduces current issuesand agendas in a field that has its origin at the interface of (agricultural)innovation studies, rural development sociology and the communicationsciences. The paper starts with a brief sketch of the history of the field.When compared to earlier approaches, current thinking about‘communication, innovation and development’ pays greater attention tolimitations in the potential of orchestrating change and innovation inpre-planned directions, and to political and institutional dimensions of bothcommunication and innovation. In relation to this, new lines of questioningare discussed. The article ends with a reflection on the usefulness of thethinking from different historical periods today. It is argued that approachesto science and technology communication need to be matched with thelevel of complexity of the issue at hand