Beyond Compliance: Responsibility, Boundaries and the Emergence of a Responsible Societal Culture

Contemporary societies increasingly invoke responsibility as a central value in public policy, organisational governance, technological innovation and social life. At the same time, however, growing social complexity, digitalisation and the diffusion of artificial intelligence appear to weaken the conditions through which responsibility can be exercised and recognised. While responsibility is frequently demanded from individuals and institutions, it is often reduced to compliance, accountability or procedural obligations. This paper argues that such interpretations provide only a partial understanding of a concept that is fundamentally relational, cultural and transformative.

The paper explores a central sociological question: under what conditions does responsibility become possible within contemporary societies? Building on debates in sociology, ethics, governance studies and technological change, it proposes that responsibility cannot be understood independently from the existence of boundaries. Ethical, relational, organisational and social boundaries make it possible for individuals and institutions to recognise the scope of their actions, their obligations towards others and the consequences of their decisions. When boundaries become blurred, responsibility tends to become fragmented, displaced or difficult to locate.

Particular attention is devoted to AI-mediated environments, where decision-making processes are increasingly distributed across human and technological actors. In these contexts, questions concerning agency, accountability and responsibility become increasingly complex and reveal the limitations of approaches based exclusively on regulation or compliance.

To address these challenges, the paper introduces the concept of Responsible Societal Culture (RESC). RESC conceptualises responsibility not primarily as retrospective accountability but as a cultural capacity that must be recognised, cultivated and sustained through institutions, social practices and collective norms. The framework seeks to explain how responsibility can contribute to social transformation while maintaining human agency in technologically mediated societies.

The paper contributes to contemporary sociological debates by proposing a theoretical framework that connects responsibility, boundaries and social transformation, opening new perspectives for analysing governance, leadership, technological change and collective life in the twenty-first century