Technocratic Perspective Research Articles

The Development of a Dialogical Pedagogical Agency in Initial Teacher Formation Programs: A Critical Inquiry

Initial teacher formation is a permanent focus of attention on the part of research, as the value of education for the progress of society is well known. However, given the naturalization of instrumental criteria as common sense acquired in today’s society, on occasion, initial teacher formation reproduces a technocratic perspective of education, not assisting a transformation into a fairer, ethically healthier, and politically more democratic society. This article is the result of doctoral research that addresses this concern, proposing that initial teacher formation could play a transformative role in society. Considering the Bourdieusian dialectical perspective of agency, as well as elements from critical approach literature, this article particularly focuses on showing some results obtained regarding about the capacity for ethical/political/epistemic pedagogical agency that novice teachers show in their first professional experiences as teachers, discussing how important the development of this capacity is in initial teacher formation programs to prepare teachers to be able to transform education.

Hybrid control systems: from ontological reflection to conceptualization of the phenomenon

As the practices of using digital means in various spheres of life and at the levels of ensuring its regulation, it becomes more and more urgent to consider the nature and consequences of hybridization of social and digital relations, the results of which are now manifested at all levels of social management: social (interaction of the state and society), organizational (managerial, sectoral), local (territorial and interpersonal interaction). In this context, a dual perspective of hybridization emerges: technocratic (unification, modernization, and control from above). In this context, a dual perspective of hybridization arises: technocratic (unification, modernization and control from above) and socio-contextual (taking into account needs and interests from below, development taking into account life strategies). From a technocratic perspective, hybridization can be viewed as an idealized product (object) of the evolution of artificial regulatory systems, as the embodiment of the ideal form, structure of algorithmization of human activity, and follow the unfolding path of technocratization of public life. However, already today we are witnessing failures in the processes of digital transformation of territories and in the operation of hybrid management systems, the purpose and functionality of which are more likely to be configured to build and reproduce technocratic principles of management organization, which gives rise to the imperatives and determination of hybrid objects over hybridizing management entities, reduces sensitivities to spontaneous processes of socio-network grouping. The latter phenomenon is proposed to be considered and studied as a mechanism for launching the formation (localization) of hybrid control systems within the framework of the theoretical construct of the sociology of control called the "sociocultural body of problem solving".

Bioethics-CSR Divide

Bioethics-CSR Divide

“New Atlantis” – a technocratic utopia?

The paper brings the analysis of the peculiar features of Bacon’s utopianism, it’s linkage to and tensions with classical utopias, technocratic ideas, Christian humanism and Hobbesian ethics. The research is trying to revisit conventional views on the so-called Bacon’s technocratic perspective for the future of science, state and society. We argue that ethical framework of Bacon’s theory of science and it’s societal institutions has much in common with the Kenotic ethics of Christian humanism. His utopian novel follows this ethical pattern as well. The “limitation of science by religion” described in “New Atlantis” and in early tracts was on the other side a step in later Hobbesian direction towards the development of secular civic moral. In spite of this Baconian ethics was altruist & collectivist, unlike Hobbesian moral of selfishness & individualism.

A FRAMEWORK FOR THE ANALYSIS OF URBAN INNOVATION IN SMART CITIES: LITERATURE REVIEW FINDINGS

The development of a smart city (SC) has always been accompanied by urban innovation (UI). UI mainly refers to the use of smart technology to promote urban development and also as a product of SC development. Smart technology can be used and developed by SC citizens. However, some research on UI in SC is conducted mainly from top-down technocratic perspectives or citizen participation. Therefore, this study proposes that the level of citizen-centric UI can be measured by using the Unified Smart City Model (USCM). With the use of the systematic literature review method, a search was conducted using keywords on three literature databases. Fifty-six indicators of UI were compiled as preliminary findings, with eight of them categorised as USCM indicators—smart architecture, smart governance, smart planning and management, smart data and knowledge, smart facilities, smart services, smart people and smart environment—to develop a citizen-centric framework. This framework will facilitate the analysis of the UI level of SC to enable city comparison and identify areas of weakness to assist in city managers’ decision-making.

Learning Management Systems as Anti-Convivial Tools

The last two decades have seen an increase in the number of online university classes operating under any of several commercial Learning Management Systems (LMS). Online classes expanded dramatically in the US during 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students, faculty, and administrators frequently assume that LMSs are epistemologically neutral. These LMSs are designed to do exactly what they say on the tin: they are systems for managing learning. At the same time, they function based on implicit understandings of “learning,” “management,” and “systems” that privilege some knowledges, interactions, and discourses while de-emphasizing others. In this paper I argue that the LMS as a tool is not—in the terms of Ivan Illich—convivial. Rather, LMSs as designed enforce a technocratic perspective based on efficiency and replicability, making them actively anti-convivial. At the same time, problems with LMS-hosted classes are defined in technological terms, with additional improved software being seen as the main solution. I argue that employing a critical participatory pedagogy can begin to address these concerns.

Democratic Integration in North America: Focusing on Democratic Institutions

Twenty-five years after the establishment of NAFTA, the limits of this trade agreement are obvious. Rather than integration, NAFTA’s actual outcomes evince a profound North-South inequality. This utopian agreement developed trade but turned into a dystopia in terms of security, migration, and development, particularly for Mexico. While USMCA features some changes, democratic oriented policies are badly needed. Contrary to the right-wing, anti-free trade discourse, I argue that, beyond a technocratic perspective, a radical transformation is needed to build a continental integration based on democratic institutions and cooperation beyond supranational organizations. I propose an integration based on a) security through justice institutions; b) global development that addresses migration; and c) sustainable cooperation in environmental policies.

«Sociología del espacio». La distribución espacial de los paritorios como cultura material de los paradigmas obstétricos inmanentes y su repercusión en términos de humanización asistencial

Desde la perspectiva de la «sociología del espacio» el estudio explora las conexiones que se dan entre los factores ideológicos (paradigmas de representación del parto), los siste­mas de organización clínica (culturas del parto) y las evoluciones arquitectónicas (tipologías espaciales de los paritorios), y sus re­percusiones en clave de humanización asistencial. Para ello se ha realizado una investigación etnográfica de veinticuatro meses de duración en seis paritorios del servicio estatal de salud de una re­gión del sur de España. La técnica de investigación fue la observa­ción participante, acumulando un total de trescientas veinticuatro horas de análisis. Los resultados muestran cómo las disposiciones arquitectónicas están íntimamente ligadas a los paradigmas y cul­turas obstétricas preexistentes, tendiendo desde las perspectivas tecnocráticas, en clave orgánica, a una fragmentación del espacio asistencial que deshumaniza el proceso, y desde las cosmovisio­nes holístico-humanísticas, en clave de continuum, a una reinte­gración espacio-asistencial que contribuye a la humanización.

The 2016 Water Crisis in San Andres Island: An Opportunity for Change?

During the first half of 2016, the “Niño” Phenomenon reached severe conditions in San Andres Island, Colombia. On April 2, people, mostly the Raizals, an ethnic minority group, and people from poor neighborhoods started 11 road protests asking for water. The water crisis affected, differentially, more than 14.000 people. The institutional response focused on distributing free water trucking during dry periods, increasing the water frequency, and incrementing water production. This study analyzed the crisis response and explored, in the short term, whether there was a change in access to water. In August 2016 were conducted 34 semi-structured interviews and 45 in November 2018. Findings suggest that crisis response used a conservative philosophy embedded in a technocratic perspective; as a result, it isstill limited water access in the way it was before the crisis. This study contributes to the understanding of the factors that influence crisis response.

The imperative to move toward a dimension of care in engineering education

AbstractThe push for STEM has raised the visibility of engineering as a discipline that all students should learn. With the release of the Framework for K‐12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), engineering now has an official place in the science curriculum. In both the Framework and the NGSS, engineering is framed as a way to solve the world's greatest problems. Despite this potential, there are troubling aspects in the way that the Framework and NGSS present engineering and how engineering is taken up in the curriculum. In this article, we use critiques of technocracy, utilitarianism, and neoliberalism to analyze the portrayal of engineering in the Framework and NGSS. We claim that the Framework and NGSS promote a technocratic perspective that engineered solutions can all problems, ignoring the socio‐political foundations of many of the world's most pressing problems. Furthermore, both standards documents reflect a utilitarian ethic that promotes all progress as good and ignores issues of justice. Lastly, the Framework and NGSS betray neoliberal foundations that undermine education and engineering as public goods. To address some of these issues, others have argued for a greater emphasis on ethics. In response, we raise cautions because ethical framings present further intractable dilemmas. Instead, we draw on feminist theory to argue for reframing engineering education around an ethos of empathy and care. We call for a dimension of care that situates design problems in the full socio‐political context and centralizes issues of justice. We provide an illustration of how an NGSS example activity for designing solar cookers could incorporate a dimension of care that addresses issues of harm, power and inequality, and ecological (in)stability to provide students with opportunities to weigh and take responsibility for the real costs and benefits of their designs.

Human Scale Energy Services: Untangling a ‘golden thread’

Prioritising human well-being while avoiding further damage to the planet is a key challenge in the era of climate change. This paper examines the role of energy as an intermediary between climate change and socio-economic outcomes, with the ultimate goal of identifying ways of decoupling human well-being from energy use. Building on Max-Neef’s “Human Scale Development” framework and conceptualisation of human needs, we propose a novel community-level participatory approach to identify connections between energy services on the one hand and human need satisfaction on the other. This approach then enables communities to collectively consider and propose alternative ways to provide energy services. We compare the outcomes and reflect on the process of two exploratory workshops, undertaken in an urban and a rural area in Medellín (Colombia). Our results indicate that these communities view energy services as satisfiers of human needs, with significant differences between the communities. Furthermore, our approach enables the communities to broaden the solution space of energy service provisioning possibilities, thus constituting a promising alternative to the top-down technocratic perspectives currently prevalent in research and policy. We argue that this type of bottom-up approach is necessary to address the complex sustainability challenge of living well within environmental limits.

Food and geopolitics: when food security and hard security considerations converge - mini review.

Abstract In academic research on food security, developmental and technocratic perspectives prevail. Raising agricultural productivity sustainably, guaranteeing accessibility of food to vulnerable segments of the population and nutritional impacts are at the centre of attention. Yet, food security also touches upon vital state interests and sometimes converges with hard security consideration, not only in times of war and sanctions. This mini review takes a look at some of the literature that deals with this neglected aspect of food security.

Effective? Locally owned? Beyond the technocratic perspective on the European Union Police Mission for the Palestinian Territories

ABSTRACTThe European Union Police Mission for the Palestinian Territories (EUPOL COPPS) was established in 2006 to contribute to the establishment of effective policing in support of an independent and democratic Palestinian state. EUPOL COPPS is often commended for its contribution to the professionalization of the Palestinian security sector under local ownership. Drawing on 40 interviews, we argue that the mission can be considered effective and locally owned only from a narrow technocratic perspective, which denies the political reality of continued occupation and absence of democracy. A broader analysis, which includes the voices of ordinary Palestinians, reveals that EUPOL COPPS contributed to the professionalization of authoritarian policing under continued Israeli occupation. Our findings show the limits of technocratic approaches to peacebuilding interventions and call for a stronger engagement with the ultimate beneficiaries of peacebuilding missions.

Resolving the landfill siting impasse: modelling technocratic and indigenous perspectives using GIS multicriteria approach

Increase in waste generation calls for an effective waste management as this has become a necessity for environmental sustainability. Several methods are adopted in managing waste, which include waste reduction, reuse, thermal treatment, recycling and landfilling. The landfill method is recognised as the most used of all the waste management methods in developing countries such as Ghana. However, the selection of a suitable landfill site is very difficult and tedious. This is because it involves a consideration of many factors such as environmental, topographic, economic, socio-cultural and civil engineering. This research sought to identify a suitable landfill site by applying GIS multicriteria and weighted overlay approach in the Bongo District of Northern Ghana. The analysis relied on criteria and weights provided by the technocrats and the indigenes in the district as a way of demonstrating how landfill siting impasse can be resolved by incorporating the various stakeholders. The results obtained provided clear areas for landfill sites in the study area from the technocratic and the indigenous perspectives. However, the technocratic perspective failed to include an important cultural criterion, sacred groves, as a factor. The indigenous perspective also compromised on the factor related to nearness to residential areas, and is equally not sufficient on its own. The optimal landfill sites, which meets the expectations of both the technocrats and indigenes, was identified. This perspective has produced technically favourable and socio-culturally acceptable landfill site. However, it is recommended an environmental impact assessment (EIA) be conducted to identify the full environmental and social cost of the site. It is concluded that in landfill site selection much attention be given to cultural factors in the same way as the technical factors.

Delivery of Community-Based Care Through Inter-professional Teams in Brazil's Unified Health System (UHS): Comparing Perceptions Across Community Health Agents (CHAs), Nurses and Physicians.

Given the shortage of medical providers and the need for medical decisions to be responsive to community needs, including lay health providers in health teams has been recommended as essential for the successful management of global health care systems. Brazil's Unified Health System (UHS) is a model for delivering community-based care through Family Health Strategy (FHS) interdisciplinary teams comprised of medical and lay health providers-Community Health Agents (CHAs), nurses, and physicians. This study aims to understand how medical and lay health providers' perceptions and attitudes could impact the delivery of community-based care. The study compares perceptions and attitudes of 168 CHAs, 62 nurses, and 32 physicians across their job context, professional capacities, professional skills, and work environment. Descriptive and bivariate analysis were performed. CHAs reported being the most efficacious amongst the providers. Physicians reported incorporating consumer-input to a lesser degree than nurses and CHAs. CHAs reported using a lesser variety of skills than physicians. A significant proportion of physicians compared to CHAs and nurses reported that they had decision-making autonomy. Providers did not report differences that lack of resources and poor work conditions interfered with their ability to meet consumer needs. This study offers technocratic perspectives of medical and lay health providers who as an inter-professional team provide community-based primary health care. Implications of the study include proposing training priorities and identifying strategies to integrate lay health providers into medical teams for Brazil's Unified Health System and other health systems that aim to deliver community-based care through inter-professional health teams.

The long Great War of the Italian statisticians

For Italian statisticians, Word War I represented a decisive turning point. During the war itself, they lent their talent and skills to their country and became thoroughly involved in the management of the war effort. In the immediate postwar period, they were equally active in the various commissions and conferences concerned with the reconstruction of Italy and of the new world order. At the same time, the Great War became for them an object of study and speculation, at a time when Italy was moving from the twilight of its liberal regime to the advent of Fascism. On the whole, the decade 1915–1925 saw the encounter between a group of academic scientists and a government that could offer them attractive bureaucratic and technocratic perspectives.

¿Qué es lo que puede el agua? Límites y posibilidades de las prácticas políticas para el acceso y defensa del agua como derecho en Argentina

El trabajo se orienta a visibilizar la trama de relaciones políticas entre los espacios públicos ciudadano y estatal, que operan en torno a la garantía del agua como un derecho humano. Partimos de las luchas ciudadanas por el agua en situaciones de contaminación, como espacios de interacción privilegiados, en los que la ciudadanía invoca/revoca las instituciones vigentes bregando por la vigencia de los derechos. A través de dos estudios de caso en las provincias de Córdoba y Río Negro en Argentina, el artículo explora cómo la estructura institucional de los estados provinciales actúa a la vez como factor posibilitante y/o restrictivo tanto de las prácticas de los funcionarios de los distintos poderes públicos en lo que hace a la regulación y el control de la contaminación, así como también de las condiciones de ejercicio de los derechos ciudadanos. Visualizamos diferencias notables en lo que hace a las garantías institucionales, los desarrollos organizacionales, los procedimientos, los recursos y las prácticas conectadas con la gestión del agua entre las dos provincias estudiadas. El artículo concluye con una reflexión sobre los límites y posibilidades que confrontan las esferas públicas estatales y ciudadana en la búsqueda de una política democrática de garantía del derecho al agua que supere lecturas y prescripciones tecnocráticas.

Estimating the price elasticity for demand for electricity by sector in South Africa

This paper analyses electricity consumption patterns in South Africa in an attempt to understand and identify the roots of the current electricity crisis. This is done by investigating various economic sectors’ responses to price changes using panel data for the period 1993–2004. Positive and statistically significant price elasticities over this period were found for the transport (rail) and commercial sectors while there are positive, but small and statistically insignificant responses to price changes in the agriculture and mining sectors. Only the industrial sector responded to changes in electricity prices according to theory, namely illustrating negative demand elasticities. This sector, however, dominates electricity consumption resulting in aggregate demand elasticities that are negative. These results explain, in part, the current electricity crisis. Given the historic low level of electricity prices in conjunction with, on the whole, a real price decline, i.e. price increases lower than the inflation rate; there was no major incentive to reduce electricity consumption and/or to be efficient. This result supports the notion that prices do have an important signalling effect in the economy. Hence, the electricity prices should be considered not only from an economic growth or social vantage point, but also from a supply and technocratic perspective, which includes environmental factors such as CO2-emissions. Prices should not be determined without considering the system-wide implications thereof.

Worldviews in Collision/Worldviews in Metamorphosis: Toward a Multistate Paradigm

This article is an extended commentary inspired by Alan Drengson's paper “Shifting Paradigms: From Technocrat to Planetary Person” (Drengson 2011). In this article Susan Greenwood and I echo Drengson's criticism that Euro-American science is incomplete, having committed what Thomas Roberts calls “The Singlestate Fallacy: the erroneous assumption that all worthwhile abilities reside in our normal, awake mindbody state” (Roberts 2006:105). This singlestate fallacy is vividly portrayed in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, whose critique of Euro-American science is revisited in this article. Alternatively, Greenwood and I suggest that what is needed is a multimodel framework “that allows for in-depth analysis of the different modes of consciousness.” Roberts refers to this alternative attitude toward science as the Multistate Paradigm. An awareness of the transformational character of shamanism is also explored in this article as a means to overcome the oppositions between the technocratic and person planetary perspective, and their related gender associations.

Respect for lay perceptions of risk in the hormesis case

In this essay for this issue, David Ropeik empahasizes that it is important to respect the risk perceptions of laypeople. The present commentary examines Ropeik's suggestion in more detail. First, it clarifies that the notion of 'respect' for lat risk perceptions is ambiguous. For example, one could adopt a fairly technocratic perspective (in which policy decisions are based almost exclusively on the risk perceptions of technical experts) while still claiming to respect laypeople. The second section of the commentary rejects such an appraoch; it provides a four-part argument in favor of giving significant weight to the risk perceptions of the public when making policy decisions. It concludes by arguing that these suggestions could be implemented in the hormesis case by adopting the sorts of analytic-deliberative approaches advocated by the National Research Council report Understanding Risk.