Scientific method discourses in the construction of 'EMF' science: interests,resources and rhetoric in submissions to a public inquiry

Since the late 1970s, there has been considerable debate surrounding the question of whether or not exposures to non-ionizing radiation and electric and magnetic fields (EMF), produced by powerlines and electrical and telecommunications technologies, are harmful to health. Whilst there has been some recent evidence of regulatory fatigue, and attempts to enforce closure, the EMF debate nevertheless still continues. This paper will explore the r?le played by competing images of scientific method in the argumentative strategies used by two of the main protagonists in an Australian public inquiry (held in 1990-91) which investigated the EMF issue: 'Inquiry into Community Needs and High Voltage (132kv and above) Transmission Line Development', the so-called Gibbs Inquiry. Apart from documenting some of the epistemologically intricate features of the EMF controversy, the following discussion will also consider the way scientific method discourses can contribute to enhancing the durability of knowledge claims in legal and regulatory settings.     

风险技术公众态度形成中的社会心理因素——以转基因水稻为例

为探究隐含在风险技术公众态度背后的社会心理因素,以转基因水稻为例,利用抽样调查数据,论证了利己主义、利他主义和生态主义三种价值观对转基因水稻的感知和态度的影响有显著差异,并运用结构方程模型证明了感知这一中介变量的合理性和必要性。结果表明,利己主义者感知收益水平较高,因此对转基因水稻的接受程度也较高;利他主义者和生态主义感知风险水平较高,对转基因水稻的态度也较为谨慎。基于此结论,决策者可以更好了解不同价值观的公众在对待转基因安全性问题上的差异性和偏好,以助力公共决策的科学化和民主化。     

Environmental policy vs. public pressure: Innovation and diffusion of alternative bleaching technologies in the pulp industry

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, concern over dioxin in both paper products and wastewater led to the development of techniques that reduced the use of chlorine in the pulp industry. Both regulatory and consumer pressure motivated this change. Unlike previous studies, we use patent data to examine the evolution of two competing bleaching technologies in five major paper-producing countries, both of which reduce the use of chlorine in the pulping process. The use of patent data allows us to focus on the invention stage. However, adoption data are also presented, and by the end of the 1990s, nearly all pulp production in these countries used one of these technologies. While previous studies emphasize the importance of regulation for inducing innovation, here we find substantial innovation occurring before regulations were in place. Instead, pressure from consumers and the public at large to reduce the chlorine content of paper drove invention, prior to the introduction of environmental policies in any of the countries concerned.     

The new production of legitimacy: STI policy discourses beyond the contract metaphor

Science, technology and innovation (STI) policy is borne by a set of historically contingent concepts, models, and metaphors. From around 1950 to 1980, its language was dominated by the contract metaphor and the linear model of innovation, both of which have catered for beliefs in stability, orderliness, and distinct social roles for scientists and policymakers. While prominent new models of the 1990s (mode 2, post-normal science, triple helix) had challenged the old contract metaphor, they remained experts’ brainchildren. After 2000, in contrast, we observe the emergence and pluralization of several new and powerful concepts. Building on conceptual history and cognitive linguistics, we analyze three of these new concepts: “frontier research,” “grand challenges,” and “responsible research and innovation” (RRI). Whereas the “frontier” and “grand challenges” convey many layered historical meanings, a distinct metaphorical appeal, and have become popularized beyond expert’s communities, the RRI discourse, though the most ambitious one, has not yet shaken off its roots in the bureaucratic structures of the European Commission. Finally, we discuss which conceptual and metaphorical properties enable the career of STI policy discourses in the 21st century.     

Brain simulation and personhood: a concern with the Human Brain Project

The Human Brain Project (HBP) is a massive interdisciplinary project involving hundreds of researchers across more than eighty institutions that seeks to leverage cutting edge information and communication technologies to create a multi-level brain simulation platform (BSP). My worry is that some brain models running on the BSP will be persons. If this is right then not only will the in silico experiments the HBP envisions being carried on the BSP be unethical the mere termination of certain brain models running on the BSP will be unethical. To assess the possible personhood of certain brain simulations I consider John Searle’s critique of strong AI. In arguing that Searle’s critique fails I conclude that the HBP must tread carefully and devise strict rules on how research using the BSP ought to proceed.     

‘Energy regions’: The transformative power of regional discourses on socio-technical futures

‘Guiding visions’ play an important role in the transition management approach as a central means of mobilizing social actors and the co-ordination of dispersed agency.‘Energy regions’ in Austria are an interesting example for the strategic promotion of such guiding visions in the context of regional development. We describe the case of Murau, an alpine district in which a strong actor network has been built around a vision of systematically exploiting renewable energy sources and at the same time saving the region from economic decay. The vision gained much authority and has been institutionalised at various levels of regional governance. It furthermore was supported by and played an important role for regime level attempts to influence socio-technical change.Development and social propagation of such visions are inherently political and contested processes involving much strategizing and anticipation of conflict. We describe particular discursive strategies applied in niches - such as the combination and translation of sentiments into localised visions and demonstrations of feasibility. These strategies can be understood as systematic attempts to support discursive shifts at regime level by means of local activities, and aim to modify rather durable power structures.We suggest ways to analyse such discursive practices in order to orient strategic action in the course of such processes: analysing ‘guiding visions’ and their interference with other emerging trends; extending analyses across spatial scales (e.g. translations) and across thematic fields (e.g. convergence of agendas); and focusing on processes of stabilisation, institutionalisation and mutually reinforcing developments.     

A forum on synthetic biology:meet the great challenges with new technology

Synthetic biology aims to redesign and reconstruct living systemsfor understanding life orfor useful real-world applications.In the past two decades,scientists ...     

Bottom-up estimation of industrial and public R&D investment by technology in support of policy-making: The case of selected low-carbon energy technologies

This paper discusses a bottom-up approach to estimate the level of R&D investment by technology in areas where data are scarce. It develops a four-step methodology for the estimation of corporate R&D investments at technology level. This approach can overcome gaps in existing data by combining publicly available information in a novel way, even though it introduces some uncertainty. This is illustrated for a set of low-carbon energy technologies that were identified as key for meeting Europe's long-term energy and climate objectives by the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan. The paper finds that the aggregated R&D investments dedicated to these technologies amounted to €3.3 billion in the EU in 2007, including public funding from European Union Member States and at EU-level, and industrial research activities from companies with headquarters registered in the EU. The results allow conclusions on the European energy research policy to be drawn, such as the dominance of industrial funds, and have provided significant input to the European policy making in this field. The paper ends with suggestions on how to further enhance the accuracy of the approach and how to widen its application to other sectors.     

Contemporary discourses in Information Systems Research: Methodological inclusiveness in a sample of Information Systems Journals

We propose a framework to reflect on the development of four information systems (IS) paradigms, arguing that this field has followed a similar path to that of Management Sciences (MS). The framework comprises four IS paradigms/discourses: (1) positivist/normative; (2) soft/interpretive; (3) critical/pluralistic; and (4) constructivist/2nd order cybernetics. The paper characterizes these approaches to IS by using four key terms: System; Organisation; Management and Information, exploring the way these concepts are perceived through the lens of the four paradigms. The paper reports on the nature of current IS trends, from an initial survey of six top IS journals identifying articles adhering to the interpretive, critical and constructivist paradigms published between 1999 and 2009. Results indicate that IS is moving towards research practice in which interpretive, critical and constructivist discourses are utilised. Implications of the proposed framework and publication trends, together with some points for further research, are offered.     

In the public interest: assessing expert and stakeholder influence in public deliberation about biobanks

Providing technical and experiential information without overwhelming participants' perspectives presents a major challenge to public involvement in policy decisions. This article reports the design and analysis of a case study on incorporating expert and stakeholder knowledge without including them as deliberators, while supporting deliberative participants' ability to introduce and critically assess different perspectives. Analysis of audio-recorded deliberations illustrates how expert and stakeholder knowledge was cited, criticized and incorporated into deliberations. In conclusion, separating experts and stakeholders from deliberations may be an important prima facie principle when the goal is to enhance citizen representation on technical issues and related policy.     

Rediscovering radiology: new technologies and remedial action at the worksite

This study contributes to social studies of imaging and visualization practices within scientific and medical settings. The focus is on practices in radiology, which are bound up with visual records known as radiographs. The study addresses work following the introduction of a new imaging technology, tomosynthesis. Since it was a novel technology, there was limited knowledge of how to correctly analyse tomosynthesis images. To address this problem, a collective review session was arranged. The purpose of the present study was to uncover the practical work that took place during that session and to show how, and on what basis, new methods, interpretations and understandings were being generated. The analysis displays how the diagnostic work on patients' bodies was grounded in two sets of technologically produced renderings. This shows how expertise is not simply a matter of providing correct explanations, but also involves discovery work in which visual renderings are made transparent. Furthermore, the results point to how the disciplinary knowledge is intertwined with timely actions, which in turn, partly rely on established practices of manipulating and comparing images. The embodied and situated reasoning that enabled radiologists to discern objects in the images thus display expertise as inherently practical and domain-specific.     

Intrafirm diffusion of new technologies: an empirical application

Research on the diffusion of new technologies has centred on the study of the interfirm rate of diffusion, paying much less attention to intrafirm aspects. This paper attempts to overcome this gap in the literature by analysing the factors that influence the speed with which a new technology, the ATM, is fully adopted. The data over which the hypotheses are tested belongs to the Spanish savings banks market. The results show that the rate of intrafirm diffusion is explained by innovation, firm and market characteristics. In testing our hypotheses we make use of both traditional methods and survival analysis techniques.     

Scientists and citizens: getting to quantum technologies

I will discuss the history and prospects for new machines and instruments as anticipated in the newly announced EU Flagship for Quantum Technology. The program of Richard Feynman, as announced almost 60 years ago, to go to the “bottom” in the miniaturization of information-processing technology, has come to fruition, and a set of well-defined technologies, in the areas of quantum computing, quantum simulation, quantum sensing and metrology, and quantum communication, have emerged. I give a perspective on the sometimes abstruse significance of these coming technologies. The scientists will continue beyond these technologies to new unfoldings of quantum knowledge, whose technological significance we can barely fathom today.     

Beyond broadcasting: the digital future of public service broadcasting

This article looks at the impact of digitization on television. Early treatments of digital television (DTV) have become outdated by technical and market developments. This paper reviews these developments and reconsiders the public policy and regulatory issues surrounding DTV, particularly with respect to public service broadcasting in Europe. Convergence trends are examined and we find that it happens, but differently than expected. This raises serious doubts concerning whether current models and conceptualizations of public service broadcasting can address future challenges of pluralism and diversity if they remain constrained by traditional understandings of broadcasting.     

Murky conceptual waters: The public and the private

In discussions on the ethics of surveillanceand consequently surveillance policy, thepublic/private distinction is often implicitlyor explicitly invoked as a way to structure thediscussion and the arguments. In thesediscussions, the distinction public and private is often treated as a uni-dimensional,rigidly dichotomous and absolute, fixed anduniversal concept, whose meaning could bedetermined by the objective content of thebehavior. Nevertheless, if we take a closerlook at the distinction in diverse empiricalcontexts we find them to be more subtle,diffused and ambiguous than suggested. Thus,the paper argues for the treatment of thesedistinctions as multi-dimensional, continuousand relative, fluid and situational orcontextual, whose meaning lies in how they areinterpreted and framed. However, the aim ofthis paper is not to finally sort things out. The objective is rather to demonstrate thecomplexities of the distinction in variouscontexts and to suggest that those using thedistinction, when considering the ethics andpolitics of surveillance technologies, wouldbenefit from more clearly specifying whichdimensions they have in mind and how theyrelate.     

How places matter: telecare technologies and the changing spatial dimensions of healthcare

Dominant discourses on telecare technologies often celebrate the erasure of distance and place. This paper provides a critical intervention into these discourses by investigating how spaces still matter, despite the move from physical to virtual encounters between healthcare professionals and patients. I argue that science and technology studies (STS) research on telecare, as well as other technologies, can be enriched by including a focus on place to understand the dynamic interactions between people and things. Adopting insights of human geographers, I show how places in which technologies are used affect how technologies enable or constrain human actions and identities. Whereas some spaces may facilitate the incorporation of technologies, others may resist technologies. A focus on how places matter is important for understanding how telecare technologies reorder and redefine healthcare. Although other healthcare technologies are also important actors in transforming healthcare, telecare technologies do this in a very specific way: they redefine the spatial dimensions of healthcare. To capture and further explore this changing spatial configuration of healthcare, I introduce the notion of technogeography of care. This concept provides a useful heuristic to study how places matter in healthcare. Although telecare technologies introduce virtual encounters between healthcare providers and patients, the use of telecare devices still largely depends on locally grounded, situated care acts. Based on interviews with users of several cardiac telecare applications, including healthcare professionals and patients in Germany and The Netherlands, the paper shows how patients' homes and public spaces are important for shaping the implementation and use of telecare technologies, and vice versa. Last, but not least, telecare devices are implicated as well. The paper emphasizes the place-dependency of the use and meaning of technical devices by showing how the same technological device can do and mean different things in different places.     

成年人学习英语语法的主要困难

英语和汉语是完全不同的两种语言,再加上英语单词有词形变化,这给成年人学习英语带来很大困难。本文谈一谈在初学英语语法时,成年人最主要的问题是什么。     

Information technologies and the tragedy of the Good Will

Information plays a major role in any moral action. ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) have revolutionized the life of information, from its production and management to its consumption, thus deeply affecting our moral lives. Amid the many issues they have raised, a very serious one, discussed in this paper, is labelled the tragedy of the Good Will. This is represented by the increasing pressure that ICT and their deluge of information are putting on any agent who would like to act morally, when informed about actual or potential evils, but who also lacks the resources to do much about them. In the paper, it is argued that the tragedy may be at least mitigated, if not solved, by seeking to re-establish some equilibrium, through ICT themselves, between what agents know about the world and what they can do to improve it.