Technical Fixes Research Articles

The Need for a Feminist Approach to Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) presents immense potential and significant challenges concerning algorithmic bias. This paper explores how feminist theory provides a criti-cal lens for understanding and addressing algorithmic bi-as’s root causes and impacts. The historical context of systemic discrimination reveals how power imbalances have shaped data collection and analysis, leading to bi-ased datasets that perpetuate inequalities through AI sys-tems. The "black box" problem further obscures these bi-ases, amplifying discriminatory outcomes in various domains. Feminist interventions, particularly intersec-tional feminism, offer a framework for uncovering how algorithmic bias interacts with multiple forms of oppres-sion. Feminist data science challenges traditional meth-odologies and advocates for transparency, accountabil-ity, and diversity in AI development. Critiques of tech-no-solutionism highlight the need for broader societal change alongside technical fixes. By embracing a feminist approach, we can envision and work toward a future where AI technology is used for social justice, inclusivi-ty, and collective liberation.

Exploring the Role of quality management practices (QMS) in mitigating Construction Failures and building collapse

The construction industry in Nigeria faces critical challenges due to frequent building collapses, highlighting the necessity for robust Quality Management Systems (QMS). This study investigates the current state of QMS adoption and its effectiveness in mitigating building failures. Despite the recognised importance of QMS, the industry shows a low adoption rate, with only 34.8% of firms holding ISO certification and 60.9% lacking formal QMS frameworks. A significant barrier identified is insufficient top management support, impacting 71.4% of the companies surveyed. The study employs a mixed-methods approach, including a comprehensive literature review and a survey of 22 industry stakeholders across major Nigerian cities. This methodology allows for a detailed examination of QMS practices, highlighting the critical role of management commitment, communication, and training in enhancing quality outcomes. The research fills a gap by providing a holistic analysis of QMS issues across different regions, which have been previously understudied. The findings underscore the necessity for enhanced regulatory frameworks and standardised practices to ensure consistent quality management. The study contributes to the international discourse on construction quality by emphasising systemic improvements rather than merely technical fixes. It calls for further research into region-specific challenges and broader adoption of formal QMS practices to improve safety and reliability in Nigeria's construction sector.

Central banks’ knowledge controversies

ABSTRACT In the last few years, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Canada have all initiated policy reviews to reassess monetary policy tools and ideas that were no longer working in a changing global economy. In this paper, I argue that the debates that shaped these reviews can best be understood as ‘knowledge controversies’ in which some of the foundational metrics that monetary policies rely on themselves became the subject of debate. This unsettling of existing economic metrics poses not just technical but also political problems for central banks. These debates have eroded their efforts to depoliticise key issues, revealing the fragility of their technical fixes as metrics themselves can become the source of political disagreement both within the central banks themselves and in the wider public. As we enter an era of even more intense inflation-driven debates about central banking expertise and authority, these reviews provide insights into the epistemic dilemmas that central banks confront, suggesting that they will be dealing with knowledge controversies for some time to come.

Wellbeing, infrastructures, and energy insecurity in informal settlements

IntroductionUnderstanding the intricate relationship between energy and wellbeing in informal urban settlements is essential for developing effective interventions that address the diverse needs of residents. This paper explores this nexus through a multi-dimensional lens, examining the complexities and dynamics involved in off-grid renewable energy interventions, focusing on solar microgrids in an informal settlement in Cape Town, South Africa.MethodsThe paper is based on empirical research analysed through a theoretical framework articulating the pathways through which energy insecurity influences various dimensions of wellbeing, encompassing economic, physical, social, and environmental aspects. By applying this framework to our empirical research, the paper reveals the intricate interplay between neighbourhood factors, housing conditions, social processes, and economic insecurities, shedding light on both the challenges and opportunities associated with off-grid energy interventions.ResultsThe understanding of wellbeing presented in the paper is based on what we term the energy-wellbeing-informality nexus. Understanding the nexus necessitates: (a) moving past universalist and technocratic understandings of wellbeing, and towards a relational and networked basis for wellbeing analysis; (b) moving beyond conventional narratives of off-grid electrification as mere technical fixes, emphasizing the importance of recognizing informal settlements as sites of innovation and experimentation; (c) understanding the multi-sectoral nature of energy-related wellbeing impacts, extending beyond energy provision to encompass broader dimensions such as education, health, and social cohesion.DiscussionThe paper not only advances theoretical understanding but also offers practical insights for policymakers and practitioners. It emphasizes the need for context-sensitive policymaking that acknowledges the complexities of informal settlements and fosters innovative approaches to energy service provision. By integrating energy interventions into broader development strategies and adopting a multi-sectoral perspective, stakeholders can work towards more equitable and resilient solutions that enhance the overall wellbeing of residents in informal urban contexts.

Laying foundations for transformation: Insights from local government engagement on climate-resilient rural water services in Nepal

Transformative change in how local governments support rural water services is required to accommodate the increasingly extreme effects of climate change on water service systems. This study explores the potential for contextualised soft systems thinking activities to prepare local government officials with responsibilities pertaining to rural water services in Nepal to shift towards more transformative thinking. First, the study presents the findings of focus group discussions in two rural districts of Nepal that identified common climate-related problems for rural water access including water shortages, contamination, and unequal burden of impacts. Second, we facilitated workshops with local government and non-government stakeholders, drawing on the focus group findings to frame the challenges for rural water linked to climate change that require local government response. We designed the workshops drawing on ‘transformative spaces’ concepts and included soft systems thinking activities to foster systemic perspectives. Participants learned about worldviews, leverage points, rich pictures, root cause analysis, and theory-of-change based action planning. Following the workshops, the study team participated in reflective sensemaking in which they deliberated on their experiences and notes from facilitating the workshops to assess the extent to which the participants demonstrated transformative thinking about rural water systems. The workshop approach showed promise in shifting how local government participants think about rural water services beyond technical fixes towards addressing deep-seated issues. However, further work is required to foster new relationships necessary to support transformation and grapple with ethical dilemmas pertaining to power dynamics at community and government levels. Nevertheless, the approach presented here is a replicable, low-cost way to prepare local government stakeholders in Nepal for transforming their thinking and systems to ways that enable sustainable rural water service delivery under threats of climate change.

Livestock–irrigation interaction and its influence on the sustainability of small‐scale irrigation schemes in Ethiopia

AbstractSmall‐scale irrigation (SSI) plays a large role in rural livelihoods and the economy in Ethiopia. Despite considerable investment, overall SSI performance is disappointingly poor. The sedimentation of canals and intakes leads to low performance and the abandonment of systems. Livestock roaming in the command area and around riverbanks are an important contributor to sedimentation. Commonly proposed solutions, including technocratic fixes, institutional arrangements between irrigators and livestock farmers, and collective action by irrigators, have not yielded satisfactory results. Based on three case studies from Ethiopia, we illustrate why existing solutions are not effective and why collective action is not straightforward. Using in‐depth interviews and focus‐group discussions, we examine the complex intertwined relationships between irrigators, livestock farmers and local government. Without understanding the interrelationship and accounting for the links between irrigation and livestock in the design and governance structures of SSI, the proposed technical and organizational fixes are unlikely to be successful. Addressing conflicting interests and building consensus and trust among irrigators and livestock farmers are prerequisites for solving the performance concerns of many Ethiopian SSIs.

Green Transition's Necropolitics: Inequalities, Climate Extractivism, and Carbon Classes

AbstractThis article theorises the processes of colonisation, wealth accumulation, and inequalities creation that the current paradigm of a resource‐hungry green transition enacts on the most vulnerable populations. We suggest that the extractivist logics and related technical fixes are leading to a “climate necropolitics”. In this, the socio‐economic system is increasingly defined by classes’ carbon exposure and consumption. Through the “green growth” of late capitalism, we theorise the advent of four carbon‐defined classes. Bounded by the access to climate tech capital and consumption of low‐carbon products, these include the ultra‐carbonised, decarbonised, still‐carbonised, and uncarbonised classes—with the first two acting as dominant classes and necropolitical agents sustained by the remaining lower classes. Inspired by Marxist scholars, we suggest that the current status quo is untenable and will result in class warfare during which coalitions between classes could reorient the “make live and let die” of the current green transition paradigm.

When Numbers Run Out

In the early 2000s, authorities in Sweden and Denmark recognised that their personal identification numbers were about to run out but followed different interventions to resolve the same issue. In this paper, I start from these cases to analyse personal identification numbers as methods for knowing and governing populations. I draw on two assertions from the study of methods within STS: Methods are performative, and they produce multiple objects and realities. I demonstrate how such identification numbers enact individuals and populations simultaneously, and I identify a fundamental tension between them: one emphasising the representational potential of the part and another favouring the coherence of the whole. I conclude that issues surrounding personal identification numbers in use across all Nordic countries can be traced back to a fundamental tension in addressing individuals that is impossible to resolve via technical fixes, although those interventions are crucial to keeping the systems operational.

Positionality in the Politics of Education: Mapping the Strategies and Constraints of Education Reformers

The success and failure of education reform policies often depend on the strategies of reformers. This article suggests a framework to understand the positionality of reformers, as they vary in their strategy (i.e., technical vs. relational) and focus for change (i.e., process- vs. outcomes-focused). Using the case of individuals who initiated new data systems in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York City, the study discusses four groups of reformers: Engineers privilege efficient technical fixes that may be resisted by people on the ground. Capacity-builders focus on empowering schools but may lead to variable successes. Framers research and disseminate ideas to reframe policy and political discourses. Table-setters leverage their social networks and financial resources but may challenge democratic decision-making. As schools continue to be sites of political debates and challenges, the concept of positionality can clarify how reformers promote particular changes and can suggest possibilities for positions to constructively complement each other.

Gender and socially inclusive WASH in Nepal: moving beyond “technical fixes”

The enactment of a new Constitution in 2015 in Nepal marked a shift to a representative system of federal governance. Earlier in 2002, the country's Tenth Five Year Plan had committed to a core focus on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) in national policies and governance. How do these two strategic shifts in policy align in the case of WASH projects in rural Nepal? Applying a feminist political lens, we review the implementation of WASH initiatives in two rural districts to show that deep-rooted intersectional complexities of caste, class, and gender prevent inclusive WASH outcomes. Our findings show that the policy framing for gender equitable and socially inclusive outcomes have not impacted the WASH sector, where interventions continue as essentially technical interventions. While there has been significant increase in the number of women representatives in local governance structures since 2017, systemic, informal power relationship by caste, ethnicity and gender entrenched across institutional structures and cultures persist and continue to shape unequal gender-power dynamics. This is yet another example that shows that transformative change requires more than just affirmative policies.

Unlocking the market potential of electric vehicles in the Philippines: A statistical and neural network approach to customer willingness to purchase electric vehicles

The research aims to identify the key drivers and barriers to EV adoption, inform policymakers and guide future research in the Philippines. The study used a descriptive survey method with 150 Metro Manila car dealership customers as respondents. The research findings indicate that single-family homeowners are willing to invest in EVs if charging infrastructure is available at home. EV safety, dependability, power, performance, design and availability are crucial for increasing EV adoption. Awareness and incentives were identified as hindrances to adoption. The research suggests that technical fixes and policy tools are needed to promote EV adoption and knowledge sharing is necessary to raise customer awareness. A neural network model was created to determine the willingness to purchase an EV. The findings have implications for policymakers, EV manufacturers and stakeholders interested in understanding barriers to EV adoption. The research highlights the importance of safety, reliability and environmental benefits in joint household purchase decisions. The study identifies economic, technological, policy, infrastructure and social barriers to EV adoption and suggests the need for targeted initiatives and information dissemination to overcome these barriers. The report acknowledges limitations and offers avenues for future research to explore additional factors and variables influencing EV adoption.

Disruptive technology and regulatory conundrums: The emerging governance of virtual currencies

AbstractRegulatory agencies care about their reputation, which helps sustain their authority. As innovation can introduce uncertainty in governance, delaying action or overlooking danger can negatively affect agencies' standing. Aware of these reputation risks, agencies rely on a set of methods to govern the unknown. These methods, we argue, are: (1) categorization, if the innovation is considered identical to known regulatory categories; (2) analogy, if the innovation is considered similar to known categories, and; (3) new categorization, when new classifications are deemed necessary to address the innovation. Each method shapes governance by triggering the application of existing regulations (categorization and analogy), calls for either technical and regulatory fixes (analogy), or calls for broader regulatory undertakings (new categorization). Agencies' choice of methods, we argue, is shaped by concerns over performative reputation (i.e., showing the ability to fulfill core tasks), which in turn is affected by agencies' ability to demonstrate technical rigor (i.e., technical reputation).

A socio‐psychological approach for understanding and managing bycatch in small‐scale fisheries

Abstract Fisheries bycatch is the greatest threat to migratory, long‐lived marine animals. Addressing bycatch ultimately requires changing fisher behaviour, yet social and behavioural sciences are rarely applied to bycatch mitigation, with an absence of theory‐informed behaviour change interventions. Moreover, mitigating bycatch is particularly challenging in small‐scale mixed‐species fisheries (SSFs), where perceptions of target and non‐target vary widely, and all catches have economic or subsistence value. Such fisheries are ubiquitous throughout the world's oceans, and bycatch mitigation in these contexts necessitates a people‐centred approach. We seek to address this gap, drawing on well‐established theories from behavioural and social sciences. We first typify bycatch as a spectrum rather than a clearly delineated component of catch, where the position of a species on this spectrum depends on fishers' beliefs regarding the outcomes of bycatch‐relevant behaviour. We then outline an approach to ‘diagnose’ fishers' underlying beliefs about bycatch, using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB): a widely applied and empirically tested theory for predicting and changing behaviour. Finally, we illustrate the approach using an empirical case study, exploring fishers' beliefs regarding bycatch‐relevant behaviour for three endangered elasmobranch species in a small‐scale gill net fishery in Indonesia. Our findings show how the TPB can help to understand fishers' underlying beliefs regarding bycatch, and facilitators/inhibitors of bycatch mitigation, to inform behaviour change interventions. We emphasize the need to understand the human dimensions of bycatch, especially in SSFs, where technical fixes alone will be insufficient to change behaviour. Rather, interdisciplinary approaches are needed to align fishers' needs with conservation objectives. Our bycatch spectrum and the TPB could be widely applied for disentangling drivers of bycatch in other SSFs and designing interventions which support more effective and socially just marine conservation. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Hacking and the social contractA Hacker's Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society's Rules, and How to Bend Them Back Bruce Schneier Norton, 2023. 304 pp.

Although technical fixes can help, solutions must focus on broader societal factors at play.

Making adaptive management more user friendly to encourage manager buy‐in

Making adaptive management more user friendly to encourage manager buy‐in

The Danish national effort to minimise methane emissions from biogas plants

In total, 69 biogas plants representing 59 % of Danish biogas production participated in a national effort to reduce methane (CH4) emission. Measurements in terms of total plant CH4 emissions, quantification of emissions from point sources, leak surveys and conceptual design plans to mitigate emissions were performed. Plant-level CH4 emission rates varied between 1.3 and 81.2 kg CH4 h−1, and CH4 losses expressed in percentages of production varied between 0.3 and 40.6 %. Agricultural plants generally had lower CH4 loss rates compared to wastewater treatment plants. Biogas plants with a smaller gas production emitted a larger fraction of their production compared to larger plants, which was partly explained by the absence of gas collection from digestate storage tanks at smaller plants. A very commonly observed source of emission was pressure relief valves, where this source of leakage was observed at 53 % of the plants. A national emission factor (sum of CH4 emissions/sum of CH4 productions) was determined at 2.5 % for the Danish biogas production, whereof it was 2.1 % for agricultural biogas production and 6.7 % for biogas production at wastewater treatment plants. Measurements of total CH4 emissions at six plants performed before and after implementation of mitigating actions showed that emissions were reduced by 46 % by carrying out relatively minor technical fixes and adjustments. An economic evaluation showed that, in some cases, mitigating actions could be economically beneficial for the biogas plant (positive net present value over a 10 year time frame), due to an increase in revenue.

Climate action in urban mobility: personal and political transformations

Although many municipalities have climate action plans with targets and goals, effective climate action still faces significant implementation gaps. Implementation can falter due to barriers for the deployment of low-carbon solutions, as well as the lack of cultural, systemic, and psychological support for such solutions. Cultural drivers and perceptions shape citizens’ behaviors and can perpetuate carbon-intensive lifestyles. This paper focuses on measures in climate action planning in the Metro Vancouver region of Canada regarding transportation, which remains the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions and has a low chance of reaching its emissions-reductions targets. Shifting towards greater sustainability will entail a challenge of transformative change, involving shifts in systems, behaviors, worldviews, and cultures. In implementation, the full complexity of the climate action challenge becomes most evident. A scoping review of climate action documentation and semi-structured interviews are used to examine (1) barriers to effective implementation, (2) socio-cultural perceptions and approaches to public engagement and (3) novel areas for transformational action. The study found a need to reweight the focus of climate action, which is predominantly set on techno-managerial efforts, also to include communication, narratives and broader systems change, which are the key barriers to low-carbon urban mobility. Practice relevanceTransportation remains a significant source of greenhouse gases and air pollutants in urban areas. To effectively shrink emissions, novel approaches are needed that go beyond technical fixes and view climate action as a challenge of transformative change. This study identifies the dominance of (1) practical, techno-managerial solutions, yet notes an inadequate focus brought to (2) the political restructuring of systems and developmental trajectories pertaining to mobility and (3) thepersonal aspects of social perceptions and culture. Recommendations are made about how to better account for the deeper human dimensions that present persistent barriers to climate action in transportation by reweighting the focus to include the personal and political spheres of transformation.

Information security risk assessments following cybersecurity breaches: The mediating role of top management attention to cybersecurity

Information Systems (IS) research on managerial response to cybersecurity breaches has largely focused on externally oriented actions such as customer redressal and crisis response. Within the firm itself, a breach may be a symptom of systematic problems, and a narrow, siloed focus on only fixing immediate issues through technical fixes and controls might preclude other managerial actions to ensure future cybersecurity. Towards this end, Information Security Risk Assessments (ISRA) can help surface other vulnerabilities following a breach. While the role of governance in such exercises is emphasized in standards, it is undertheorized in IS research and lacks empirical evidence. We draw on the attention-based view to theorize that the principles of focus of attention, structural distribution of attention, and situated attention can lead to the top management team (TMT) according greater attention to cybersecurity following relatively high breach costs. Using firm level data, we find that high breach costs result in greater TMT attention to cybersecurity, while also making it more likely that firms will carry out an ISRA. Moreover, TMT attention to cybersecurity partially mediates the relation between breach costs and the decision to carry out an ISRA. We theorize that this is because the TMT is best positioned to oversee resource allocation, consider business implications, and centrally orchestrate an ISRA. Our findings stress the need for the cybersecurity function to work with the TMT in managing breach response.

Reason against the machine? Future directions for mass online deliberation

Designers of online deliberative platforms aim to counter the degrading quality of online debates. Support technologies such as machine learning and natural language processing open avenues for widening the circle of people involved in deliberation, moving from small groups to “crowd” scale. Numerous design features of large-scale online discussion systems allow larger numbers of people to discuss shared problems, enhance critical thinking, and formulate solutions. We review the transdisciplinary literature on the design of digital mass deliberation platforms and examine the commonly featured design aspects (e.g., argumentation support, automated facilitation, and gamification) that attempt to facilitate scaling up. We find that the literature is largely focused on developing technical fixes for scaling up deliberation, but may neglect the more nuanced requirements of high quality deliberation. Furthermore, current design research is carried out with a small, atypical segment of the world's population, and little research deals with how to facilitate and accommodate different genders or cultures in deliberation, counter pre-existing social inequalities, build motivation and self-efficacy in certain groups, or deal with differences in cognitive abilities and cultural or linguistic differences. We make design and process recommendations to correct this course and suggest avenues for future research.

Facts, Values and Perspectives on Sustainable Development in Free Teaching Materials in Sweden

In this study, we adopt a critical perspective on knowledge about sustainable development in Swedish free teaching materials, where certain ways of illustrating sustainable development can make invisible alternative ways to understand and delimit it. We analyse physical, free materials for school teaching, distributed by Utbudet. The materials were produced between 2008 and 2019. Our analysis shows that there is a focus on facts, certifications and technical fixes, as well as scientific and societal consensus. The companies’ perspectives are prominent in the free materials, as are anthropocentric and Western approaches. Taken together, our study shows that the free materials convey that the global situation has improved and that development is on the right track, rather than in crisis, or that the sustainability problems are complex and difficult to manage. Thus, the materials present a fairly one-sided picture of the situation and the future, which does not really agree with the aim in Swedish education of presenting a balanced view of sustainable development.