Technological Fixes Research Articles

“Salty” conversation

Gregory Thiel presents an informative look at the technology and economics of seawater desalination through reverse osmosis. California, evidently, is moving strongly toward such desalination to deal with its water shortages.11. California Water Boards, http://www.waterboards.ca.gov.Two issues spring to mind, however—one environmental, the other societal. What is to be done with the concentrated toxic salty brine produced by seaside desalination plants? I’m reminded of the still-existing problem of nuclear waste disposal. Also, through desalination, millions worldwide will no doubt benefit from access to clean, fresh water. Would that not then exacerbate the problem of population growth, which, as Thiel says, “threaten[s] to throttle our most essential, life-sustaining resource” in the first place? There are significant repercussions, I think, and no quick technological fixes to deal with them.REFERENCESSection:ChooseTop of pageREFERENCES <<1. California Water Boards, http://www.waterboards.ca.gov. Google Scholar© 2015 American Institute of Physics.

Utopias: A Brief History from Ancient Writings to Virtual Communities by Howard P. Segal (review)

Reviewed by: Utopias: A Brief History from Ancient Writings to Virtual Communities by Howard P. Segal David E. Nye (bio) Utopias: A Brief History from Ancient Writings to Virtual Communities. By Howard P. Segal. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Pp. xiii+ 290. $64.77/$33.38. This brief history of utopias moves from Plato to the present in 245 pages of text. It is part of a series of histories of religion, and if written by another scholar might contain little about technology. But in the capable hands of Howard P. Segal, professor of history at the University of Maine, technology rightfully has an important role in the imagination of alternative societies. His concise, well-written book covers utopias ancient and modern, Western and non-Western, and it is not limited to fiction conventionally labeled utopian but includes world’s fairs, social science, digital media, prophecies, millennial movements, and science fiction. Given this ambitious range, Segal can devote only limited space to dystopias. While he has sought to be comprehensive within the limits imposed by the series, he focuses on Anglo-American examples. There is a commendable range of reference, including such rare works as Mary Griffith’s Three Hundred Years Hence (1836), and useful suggestions for further reading. Segal views utopias neither as predictions of the future nor as feasible alternative societies but as reactions to and suggestions for improvement of the societies from which they spring. After defining his topic in two chapters, in chapter 3 he examines the European history of utopia from Plato and Thomas More to Condorcet, Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, and Karl Marx, followed by an equally comprehensive chapter on American utopianism. He also discusses critics of utopian schemes, including Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and William Morris in Britain, and Americans ranging from Henry Adams to the Unibomber. Utopias before about 1900 occupy the first ninety pages, but the heart of the book, and its special interest for readers of this journal, lies in chapters 5 through 7, which deal with the last hundred years. Chapter 5 examines the growing expectations of a technological utopia in the early twentieth century, especially in the United States. Segal considers Howard Loeb, the rise of the social sciences, and the enthusiasm for technological fixes in the decades immediately after World War II, which culminated in a new systems engineering that promised a “cure for chaos” (p. 111). Chapter 6 looks at the retreat from megaprojects such as the American space program and nuclear power plants, and the declining role of scientists and inventors as cultural heroes. Yet somewhat paradoxically, Segal notes, social forecasting and futurology came into vogue at this time, including Buckminster Fuller in his last years and such champions of technological determinism as the Tofflers. He also examines postcolonial critiques of Western utopianism, including “the pre-industrial vision of Mohandas [End Page 972] Gandhi” (p. 173). Chapter 7 argues that since the end of the cold war, utopianism has become more fashionable, finding expression not only in writing but also in new media (including Facebook) and in well-funded technological projects. Segal notes how “scientific and technological pioneers avowedly link their achievements with the recovery of human divinity” as they seek to “transcend earthly boundaries through space flight and to exercise God-like powers of artificial intelligence and genetic engineering” (p. 187). Given these ambitions, it seems that history can “be ignored, so profoundly different will the future be from the past” (p. 188), a proposition Segal carefully refutes. This overview contains sections that cry out for expansion had this not been a survey. For example, Segal makes an interesting but all too brief critique of Leo Marx’s 1964 Machine in the Garden (p. 84) that seems debatable. Such passages should be seen as springboards to class discussion, for this book seems ideally suited to a course on the history of utopias, and it deserves wide adoption for that purpose. As Segal makes abundantly clear, utopia in all its forms is flourishing, from experiments like “second life” in cyberspace (pp. 198–99) to the escapist fantasies of science fiction films (pp. 199–203) to the “edutopian” embrace of “teaching machines” (pp. 203–17). He...

Traditional Islamic Environmentalism

Seyyed Hossein Nasr (b. 1933) is one of the most important living mysticphilosopherstoday. His consistent and clairvoyant critique of the materialism,secularism, and anthropocentricism of modernity for the last fifty yearshas been a wake-up call to many across the religious divide. Thus it is onlyfitting that the teachings on environment of a thinker who saw well beforemost of us the signs of our ominous times, one who wrote against the futilityof technological fixes and the need to reject modern metaphysics, shouldbe the subject of a dedicated monograph. The present book by Tarik M.Quadir is based on his PhD dissertation, which aims to present Nasr’s contentionson the subject over his long and productive career in one coherentnarrative. Being “the first person ever to write extensively about the philosophicaland religious dimension of the crisis” (emphasis in the original),Nasr’s critiques and specific suggestions are scattered in various writingsand interviews. The book at hand seeks to be the go-to volume for “the response[to the ecological crisis] that he envisions for any human civilization”(pp. 4-6).Nasr, educated in the United States since the age of thirteen, attended MITand Harvard. Having taught in Iran, the United Kingdom, the United States,and elsewhere, he finally settled at the George Washington University. Arenowned scholar and author of nearly fifty books and many more articles,his teachings are a blend of Shi‘ism, Sufism, and, most of all, the perennialist,anti-modernist philosophy of René Guénon (1886-1951) and Frithjof Schuon(1907-98). Nasr’s response to the environmental cataclysm is derived fromhis perennialist philosophy and is based on the spiritual reality of nature andits relevance to human purpose as defined by religion, and not merely on thebasis of consideration for physical survival, which permeates nearly the entiretyof environmentalist activism today.Quadir reviews a swath of literature by various authors, including activists,scholars, and scientists, who warn of the end of our world as we knowit and the limits of growth. From scientific projections to confessions of failureby leading environmentalists, several alarming and alarmist books are addedto the list every month. Nasr argues that many mainstream environmentalistsrecognize that not only is business as usual (i.e., capitalist growth) unsustainable,...

Dominique Hes and Chrisna du Plessis: Designing for hope: pathways to regenerative sustainability

Can we increase and improve the quality of the earth’s natural capital, its organic storehouse and products, in an age when financial capital is such a heavy contributor to their depletion and spoilage? Dominique Hes and Chrisna du Plessis argue that we can, but only if we are prepared to change long-established mindsets and associated practices in our use of the earth and its resources. Our economic system, with its short-termism, competitive and possessive individualism and uncritical growth models, is one hurdle to overcome. Another is the doctrine of man’s dominion over nature, with its atavistic roots in the culture of our hunting and pastoralist forebears and its sanctification in the first book of Genesis in the Old Testament. So what is to be the way ahead; how are the changes to be effected and by whom? As architects, engineers, town planners—experts in the built environment—the authors start at home. They target the planning, development and regulatory community of the built environment. It needs to take a leap beyond the prevailing regime of ticking off boxes of ‘‘good practice’’ and marking projects and products on scales of green goodness. Useful as they have been in gaining a foothold these are now palliatives in territory too long marred by a mixture of misunderstandings about the impact of human activity on the natural environment and immediate profit. They no longer suffice as we lurch towards crisis. In their place, what is proposed is a clearing away of mental lumber and its replacement by what they and others term ‘‘regenerative sustainability’’. Just what this concept means and entails for action is explained in 10 rich and challenging chapters. Topics range from identifying failures of so-called sustainable development and flawed technological fixes to reflections on the spiritual, emotional and

Oceans in Crisis—Human Garbage

The level of consciousness that created a problem in the first place is not the level of consciousness whereby the problem can be fixed. Yet, having learned little or nothing from history, our civilization is currently destroying the very environment from which it sprang and on which it relies for continuance. To change anything, we must, through the choices we make, reach beyond where we are, beyond where we feel safe. We must dare to move ahead, even if we do not fully understand where we are going or the price of getting there because we will never have perfect knowledge. And, we must become students of processes and let go our advocacy of positions and embattlements over winning agreement with narrow points of view. True progress toward an ecologically sound landsea environment and a socially just culture will be initially expensive in both money and effort, but in the end will be progressively benefit all generations. The longer we wait, however, the more disastrous becomes the social-environmental consequences of the current land-sea nexus and the more expensive and difficult become the necessary social changes. No biological shortcuts, technological quick fixes, or political hype can mend what is broken. Dramatic, fundamental change is necessary if we are really concerned with bettering the quality of lifeeven that of next year. It is not a question of can we or can’t we change, but one of will we or won’t we change. Change is a choice, a choice of individuals reflected in the collective of society and mirrored in the biophysical land-sea connection of human garbage.

Honouring the value of people in public health: a different kind of p-value.

Honouring the value of people in public health: a different kind of p-value.

Mors ex Machina: Technology, Embodiment and the Organization of Destruction

The article argues that the organization of destruction requires the same level of attention that organization studies have typically accorded to the organization of production. Taking as its starting point recent debates in the field concerning the embodied character of organizational ethics, the present paper sets out to explore what we might call the contemporary ‘automation of warfare’ by focusing on the proposed deployment of autonomous robots capable of exercising lethal force while governed by the ‘ethical constraints’ dictated by the Laws of War. Acknowledging the ‘technical’ challenges inherent in the development of ‘ethical warrior robots’, we propose that the importance of such technological fixes for the management of human conflict primarily lies not in their status as (potentially) functional artefacts but rather in their role as material expressions of the moral and philosophical conflicts haunting Atlantic (post?)modernity.

Transforming Household Consumption: From Backcasting to HomeLabs Experiments

Following the rhetoric of an impending “perfect storm” of increasing demand for energy, water, and food, it is recognized that ensuring sustainability will require significant shifts in both production and consumption patterns. This recognition has stimulated a plethora of future-oriented studies often using scenario, visioning, and transition planning techniques. These approaches have produced a multitude of plans for future development, but many valorize technological fixes and give limited attention to the governance and practice of everyday consumption. In contrast, this article presents empirical findings from a practice-oriented participatory (POP) backcasting process focused on home heating, personal washing, and eating. This process provided spaces for collaborative learning, creative innovation, and interdisciplinary interaction as well as producing a suite of ideas around promising practices for more sustainable household consumption. Further action is required, however, to explore how such ideas might be translated into action. The article concludes by outlining how collaborative experiments among public, private, civil society, and citizen-consumers, or HomeLabs, provide a means to test and evaluate the promising practices developed through POP backcasting.

The visionary energy solution: triple windows [Number Don't Lie

The lust for untested technological fixes is the curse of energy policy. Take your pick: self-driving solar-powered cars, inherently safe nuclear minireactors, or genetically enhanced photosynthesis.

Systemic Approaches and Technological Fixes

The main contribution of the paper is a categorisation of different types of solutions for (complex) problems based on the difference between fixes and systemic approaches. Unlike other approaches, the salient factor is not whether an approach is based on technology, but whether it only includes one component of the problem or takes a holistic approach which considers the context, all components of the problem and the relationships between them. This categorisation has been illustrated by examples of genetically modified rice, the Zimbabwe bush pump, screen readers for print disabled people and socially assistive robots and assistants for older people. Discussion of the examples has been used to give greater understanding of the factors which have led to a focus on technological fixes.

Eco-urbanism and the Eco-city, or, Denying the Right to the City?

This paper critically analyses the construction of eco-cities as technological fixes to concerns over climate change, Peak Oil, and other scenarios in the transition towards “green capitalism”. It argues for a critical engagement with new-build eco-city projects, first by highlighting the inequalities which mean that eco-cities will not benefit those who will be most impacted by climate change: the citizens of the world's least wealthy states. Second, the paper investigates the foundation of eco-city projects on notions of crisis and scarcity. Third, there is a need to critically interrogate the mechanisms through which new eco-cities are built, including the land market, reclamation, dispossession and “green grabbing”. Lastly, a sustained focus is needed on the multiplication of workers’ geographies in and around these “emerald cities”, especially the ordinary urban spaces and lives of the temporary settlements housing the millions of workers who move from one new project to another.

Implausible promises: the information revolution in the NHS

Linking the UK Coalition Government's Health and Social Care Act to historical trend to 'outsource' government IT projects to privately owned tech firms and to processes of technologisation in the National Health Service, this article explores both the reality and the rhetoric of the government's purported 'information revolution' in the NHS. It takes issue with a view of technological fixes as being merely at the service of scientific, medical, or political masters, and argues for the importance of considering the role of IT in the marketisation of healthcare in the United Kingdom. Technology influences both the way information is gathered and the nature of what is measured, but these processes are rarely subject to any critical review; and once data has been produced, its reduction of complex processes to arithmetical categories can be forgotten, and decisions more easily made through market practices.

The United States and Alternative Energies since 1980: Technological Fix or Regime Change?

Awareness of global warming has been widespread for two decades, yet the American political system has been slow to respond. This essay examines, first, political explanations for policy failure, focusing at the federal level and outlining both short-term partisan and structural explanations for the stalemate. The second section surveys previous energy regimes and the transitions between them, and policy failure is explained by the logic of Thomas Hughes’s ‘technological momentum’. The third section moves to an international perspective, using the Kaya Identity and its distinction between energy intensity and carbon intensity to understand in policy terms ‘technological fixes’ vs. low-carbon alternatives. The final section reframes US energy policy failure and asks: (1) Why, between 1980 and 1999, was America’s actual performance in slowing CO2 emissions better than its politics would seem capable of delivering? (2) How and why has the United States since c. 2007 managed to reduce per capita CO2 emissions?

An operationalized post-normal science framework for assisting in the development of complex science policy solutions: the case of nanotechnology governance

Scientists, engineers, and policy analysts commonly suggest governance regimes for technol- ogy to maximize societal benefits and minimize negative societal and environmental impacts of inno- vation processes. Yet innovation is a complex socio- technical process that does not respond predictably to modification. Our human propensity to exclude com- plexity when attempting to manage systems often results in insufficient, one-dimensional solutions. The tendency to exclude complexity (1) reinforces itself by diminishing experience and capacity in the design of simple solutions to complex problems, and (2) leads to solutions that do not address the identified problem. To address the question of how to avoid a complexity- exclusion trap, this article operationalizes a post- normal science framework to assist in the enhance- ment or design of science policy proposals. A literature review of technological fixes, policy pana- ceas, and knowledge-to-action gaps is conducted to survey examples of post-normal science frameworks. Next, an operational framework is used to assess the case of a proposed international nanotechnology advisory board. The framework reveals that the board addresses a slice of the broader, more complex problem of nanotechnology governance. We argue that while the formation of an international advisory board is not problematic in-and-of-itself, it is symp- tomatic of and plays into a complexity-exclusion trap. We offer researchers, policy analysts, and decision- makers three recommendations that incorporate a more appropriate level of complexity into governance proposals.

The Cork City flood of November 2009: Lessons for flood risk management and climate change adaptation at the urban scale

Flood hazards are a pressing challenge in several Irish and European cities and their impacts seem likely to intensify as climate change brings sea level rise, changes in storm patterns and increases in rainfall. Drawing on the example of Cork City and the November 2009 flood in particular, this paper evaluates contemporary policy and decision-making responses to flood hazards to determine whether they are sufficient to address current and future flood risks and vulnerabilities. It is clear that current policy and practice remains heavily influenced by a risk management paradigm that emphasises physical exposure and largely ignores socio-economic vulnerability. Floods and the losses they induce are seen as identical while engineering and technological fixes are viewed as the optimal means of reducing future flood losses. This framing of flood hazards is shaped by several influences including the historic evolution of flood policy and current institutional structures. The November 2009 flood highlights the limits of current policy and practice. Recent changes in national and European policy may also prove to be ineffective in facilitating effective adaptation and further changes in policy and practice are likely to be required.

3 For labour: Ajeet's accident and the ethics of technological fixes in time

This paper uses an ethnography of river pilots who navigate container ships on the Hooghly to argue for a focus on labour as an act of mediation in the timespaces of global workplaces. A new approach to capitalist time is developed that seeks to combine recent emphasis on knowledge practices with an older Marxist emphasis on the mediating role of labour. Bureaucrats driven by the rhythms of repayment of public deficit have taken on an extractive role on the Hooghly, producing a declining infrastructure. Moreover, the contradictions produced by government policies are making it increasingly difficult to navigate the river, climaxing in frequent accidents. River pilots ‘fix’ these through technological interventions shaped by the ethics or ‘senses of workmanship’ that emerge from their acts of labour in specific timespaces. Capital on the Hooghly continues to circulate through these small, piecemeal moves in which time is an ethical, affective, and technical problem rather than through the large‐scale temporal fixes described by Harvey and Castree. Therefore, we need radically to rethink our approaches to time in capitalism, moving beyond existing accounts of it as an abstract measure of value or source of time‐discipline. Capitalist time is heterochronic and provokes attempts to reconcile diverse, recalcitrant rhythms and representations through our ethical and physical labour.

A closer look at small hydropower projects in India: Social acceptability of two storage-based projects in Karnataka

Abstract Associated with being green, clean and small-scale, small hydroelectric power (SHP) projects generally enjoy a positive image. In India SHP promises answers to issues such as meeting a growing electricity demand, facilitating lucrative investment opportunities, and climate change considerations. The features of being green, clean and small-scale have contributed to the assumption of SHP as an essentially uncontested technology. Empirical studies questioning this assumption are scarce. Research on SHP has so far remained rather hypothetical and policy-level-focused. This article investigates the social acceptability of small hydroelectric plants in India by empirically looking at how people engage with these plants. It thereby underlines the importance of studying technologies in their local context. Based on a detailed case study analysis of two SHP projects in Karnataka, India, the article shows how SHP projects are contested on the local level. The engagement of local people played a crucial role in the contestation of the plants and led to significant and unexpected outcomes and effects. The article highlights the importance of having a broader perspective in the development of SHP that goes beyond a mindset of technological fixes. This includes taking account of existing water infrastructure and a broader range of water users. The article shows that the implementation of SHP projects does not take place in a void. Rather, complex existing physical and social realities on the ground matter for the development and performance of SHP.

Nature Restoration: Avoiding Technological Fixes, Dealing with Moral Conflicts

Today, preservation conflicts often no longer deal with the question whether nature needs to be preserved, but with how one needs to go about pr eserving it. In this new type of conflict, preservationists see themselves pitted against loca l inhabitants who contest the preservation goals for a given area. In such instances, preserva tionists tend to defend their position by withdrawing into a technical discourse about biodiv ersity preservation. By presenting the case of heathland restoration in the Low Countries, we w ant to examine how preservationists might reformulate their position so as to highlight the m oral concern at the heart of their practice. In order to do so, we will use a broadly hermeneutical approach to ethics which focusses on stories and narratives as expressions of moral self -understanding in need of interpretation and elaboration. As such, our paper is an example of wh at a Rolstonian ‘ethics of storied residence’ might look like in practice.

Reclaiming Stewardship in Ghana: Religion and Climate Change

The hydra-headed nature of climate change—affecting not just climate but all other domains of human life—requires not just technological fixes but cultural innovation. It is impossible to ignore a devoutly religious majority in Ghana, a nation where diverse religious communities' perspectives on climate change and their views on the way forward are crucial. This article aims to empirically explore how Christian, Islamic, and indigenous African religious leaders view the challenges of climate change and what countermeasures they propose. Interestingly, most our informants have indicated that the reasons for the current environmental crisis are, in equal degree, Ghana's past colonial experience and deviation from religious beliefs and practice, while the main obstacle to sustainable development is poverty. There was unanimity on the reclamation of religious values and principles that promote the idea of stewardship as a way forward toward a sustainable future. This, however, functions more as a faith claim and a religiously inspired normative postulate than a program of concrete action.

Will “smarter” marketing end social discrimination? A critical review

Purpose– There are two claims made by the web marketing/advertising industry. By collecting, managing, and mining data, companies serve consumer's best interests, and by adopting sophisticated analytics, web marketers avoid discriminations that disserve individuals. Although the paper shares an interest in ending social discrimination, the paper is more circumspect about pronounced individualism and technological fixes. Despite its appeal, or perhaps because of it, the paper should not accept the claim at face value. The paper argues that social discrimination may not disappear under smarter marketing; more overt forms may wane only to be replaced by more subtle forms. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– The paper compares the two most important techniques of “smarter” marketing – predictive analytics and Facebook's social graph – with current discriminatory practices of weblining and e-scoring. While noting advances against overt discrimination, the paper describes how smarter marketing allows for covert forms.Findings– Innovative strategies to record and mine users' tastes and social connectivity for marketing purposes open the way for covert social discrimination.Originality/value– The paper provides a critical assessment of two claims made by the web marketing/advertising industry: by monitoring consumer web activity and collecting, managing, and mining data, companies serve consumer's best interests, and by adopting sophisticated analytics, web marketers avoid discriminations that disserve individuals.