This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes responsible innovation in terms of both the innovation process and the innovation outcome, and in doing so it focuses on historical cases of innovation in large societally relevant technological systems. It illustrates how responsible innovation can be defined by discussing how it is applied or can be applied in specific cases of societally relevant large technological systems. The book focuses on large societally relevant, technological systems, most contributions take a systems perspective in which social and technological aspects are explored in combination. It explores how responsible the innovation process was during three episodes of wind power development: the American farm windmill between 1850 and 1880 in the USA, the direct current electricity wind turbine between 1890 and 1910 in Denmark, and the alternating current electricity wind turbine between 1940 and 1990 in the USA.@en

Large technological systems such as sluices and seaports in our water system and nuclear power systems, wind turbines and shale gas exploitation technologies in our energy system provide vital societal functions. For such large technological systems in society, the innovation process itself can also impact many stakeholder groups. Responsibility refers to a range of aspects: privacy of individuals, security, respect, a fair division of wealth, sustainability and so on. Some of these aspects conflict with each other: maximum security against terrorism, for example, can only be created at the expense of privacy. Before decision-making starts and responsible innovation processes are initiated, a comprehensive set of basic information is required. The economic way to balance values is to weigh costs versus benefits. For large technological systems in society it is important to represent all stakeholders and explore the costs and benefits that they experience from the system.@en