Abstract

As a sociologist of science and technology the author discusses the epistemological, ontological and political implications of the waves of incertitude induced by the shifting technological frontier in the global society. Events, processes and contexts are today markedly imprinted by systematic incertitude much more than by risk. The paper delineates the possible adaptation of institutions and social practices to this new factor of modernization and globalization processes. The governance of science and technology as incertitude factors is seen as a chief concern of contemporary democracies.