scholarly journals Engineering Publics: The Different Modes of Civic Technoscience

2018 ◽  
pp. 8-23
Author(s):  
Sascha Dickel ◽  
Christoph Schneider ◽  
Carolin Thiem ◽  
Klara-Aylin Wenten

Amongst the many modes of citizen science in the past years TechnoCitizenScience has emerged. In this paper we argue that it is necessary to distinguish between science and technoscience since they are based upon different practices and goals. Whilst 'science' tries to explain the world, 'technoscience' tries to technologically construct worlds. Whereas citizen science involves publics to contribute to data gathering and interpretation, TechnoCitizenScience involves publics in technological world making. The article analyses three different cases of TechnoCitizenScience in a FabLab, a professional Makerspace and a civic hackathon. Whilst particular similarities such as discourses of inclusion and engineering rationalities guide these activities we show that TechnoCitizenScience takes place in diverse settings to fulfill different agendas. By creating prototypes for engineering publics TechnoCitizenScience expands the regime of technoscience into society.

Author(s):  
Claudio Smiraglia

The Antarctic continent is certainly made an "awful" place by its harsh climate: in the past, explorers and researchers endured terrible hardships and the climate remains a challenge today, in spite of the many improvements in knowledge and technology. The Antarctic may be termed "the continent of the extremes", as it occupies an area unlike any other on earth. It is the farthest and most inaccessible and isolated continent; the most regular because of its rounded shape, with the South Pole at the centre; the coldest continent, with temperatures falling to -90°C; the driest (with an average of 130 mm of precipitation); the windiest, the highest, the most glacialized (it contains 91% of the volume of the earth’s ice). It also displays the most monotonous landscapes and presents the greatest contrast between marine and terrestrial ecosystems. But the Antarctic is also "extreme" because it is the least populated continent, with no indigenous population at all, while its few settlements (consisting in scientific bases) are concentrated on the coast; it is the only place that does not belong to one nation, but to all the world; it is the place where unique information on the past, present and future of humankind is revealed.


Author(s):  
Margaret Rose Gearty ◽  
Judi Marshall

Abstract The practical orientation of action research, together with its embedded and participative principles, means it is particularly suited to complex, interconnected questions and ‘real life’ systemic issues. In the realm of first-person action research, Judi Marshall’s (1999) influential article “Living Life as Inquiry” described how such research can extend to one’s whole life whereby professional and personal questions can be set within politically relevant frames. Over the past two decades, many students and researchers have worked with and drawn much imaginative inspiration from the idea of living life as inquiry (LLI). However little has been written to describe how the practice develops and the many forms it can take. This article draws on our extensive experience as inquirers ourselves and as educators, working with students and change agents motivated to address social and environmental concerns. Twenty years after the original article we have conducted a reflective review that included surveying the literature, and working in depth with a range of stories and current practices. From this comes a textured expansion of the language and practice of living life as inquiry as it is approached from the specificity of people’s lives. Through narrative and visual textures, we present views into the many different ways LLI is developed through day-to-day practices of experimentation, data gathering, artistic exploration, intervention and reflection. We explore what this means for quality in the enactment of inquiry. The article draws particular attention to the embodied nature of inquiry and seeks to capture its fleeting, processual quality.


2011 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Stevenson

Scotland has the oldest masonic lodges and the oldest masonic records in the world, predating their English counterparts by over a century. Yet freemasonry is usually neglected by social and cultural historians, partly, it may be, through ignorance and negative stereotypes of the movement and partly through the excessive secrecy of freemasons in the past. It is the purpose of this paper to survey the movement's development and indicate the many aspects of ‘the Craft’ that could prove rich subjects for research. Scottish lodges began as organisations of stonemasons but, at first slowly, began to admit men from other crafts and men of higher social status. This process accelerated fast after the foundation of a Grand Lodge in London in 1717: freemasonry became fashionable. But though many lodges came to be dominated by men of high status, many others remained – and remain – skilled working class in membership.


The relationship between humans and dogs has garnered considerable attention within archaeological research around the world. Investigations into the lived experiences of domestic dogs have proven to be an intellectually productive avenue for better understanding humanity in the past. This book examines the human-canine connection by moving beyond asking when, why, or how the dog was domesticated. While these questions are fundamental, beyond them lies a rich and textured history of humans maintaining a bond with another species through cooperation and companionship over thousands of years. Diverse techniques and theoretical approaches are used by authors in this volume to investigate the many ways dogs were conceptualized by their human counterparts in terms of both their value and social standing within a variety of human cultures across space and time. In this way, this book contributes a better understanding of the human-canine bond while also participating in broader anthropological discussions about how human interactions with domesticated animals shape their practices and worldviews.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Loch K Johnson

The purpose of national security intelligence is to provide policy officials with an advantage in the making of effective policy, based on the collection and analysis of accurate information from around the world that can help to illuminate a decision. Foreknowledge is invaluable in the service of a nation’s security; and, in the gathering of useful information, technological innovations in the world of intelligence can result in a stronger shield to protect citizens against the many dangers that lurk across the continents in this uncertain and hostile world.  Despite all the marvels of modern espionage tradecraft, the governments that rely on them must still deal with the human side of intelligence activities. Unfortunately, arrogance, shortsightedness, laziness, frenetic schedules, and the corrosive influences of power (among other flaws) often lead policy officials to ignore or warp the advantages they could accrue from advanced intelligence spycraft, if they would only use these sources and methods properly. This article examines some of the problems that imperfect human behavior has created for intelligence in the United States at the highest levels of government over the past two decades.


Periphērica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-263
Author(s):  
Ana Corbalán

This essay analyzes the representation of female activism in La mujer metralleta, a documentary by Chilean Francisco López Balló that reconstructs the biography of Marcela Rodríguez Valdivieso, a guerrilla who has succumbed to the oblivion in Chile. It is necessary to highlight her anti-dictatorial fight in order to recover her name and that of so many other militants. My study aims to eliminate the prevailing silence around the exiles who also contributed to the redemocratization processes in Chile and participated in the resistance against Pinochet. Despite their constant political activism, women have been excluded from official historiography. This essay claims a place in the world to one of the many activists who experienced the process of Chilean exile and whose biography contributes to a better understanding of female activism. This documentary offers a new approach to the past is constructed that questions the relations between the State and the revolutionary position of women, despite the fact that women have historically played a marginal role in war conflicts. My paper points out the relevance of this guerrilla, how this documentary contributes to reconstructing history and how exile affects the transmission of memories.


1971 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-128
Author(s):  
E. R. Swanson

The many references to Omega in your excellent discussions on Navigation and traffic control published in the January issue were particularly gratifying to one who has worked on Omega for the past decade. Especially memorable was Mr. Stringer's statement that ‘[Omega] satisfies the three R's—reliability, redundancy and range’ and Mr. Jones' observation ‘' [Omega] is already the most widely deployed ground-based navigation aid in the world by a very substantial margin’. However, many contributors used words such as ‘somewhat unreliable’ and ‘subject to real problems’ when discussing ambiguity resolution. Perhaps some further remarks on ambiguity resolution are in order.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajesh Kumar Vishwakarma ◽  
Himanshu Joshi ◽  
Ashantha Goonetilleke

<p>In the last few decades, the world has witnessed rapid urbanization. One of the many complex problems which have come up with increased urbanization is that of rapid drainage of stormwater from the inhabited areas. Roorkee, a sub-tropical urban town in India, has shown rapid unplanned growth in the past. The three-year wet weather flow data has been collected for this research. In order to study of pollutants in runoff emanating from different urban source areas, simple sampling devices were fabricated to contain polyethylene and glass bottles and installed in various source areas to collect runoff samples. The collected samples were analyzed for pH, solids, nutrients, organics and metals. From the study the rainwater ions concentration was observed to follow the pattern Ca<sup>2+</sup>> HCO3<sup>-</sup> > Cl<sup>-</sup>> NO3<sup>-</sup> > Na<sup>+</sup> >Mg<sup>2+</sup>>SO4<sup>2-</sup> >K<sup>+</sup>. Stormwater Runoff results indicated a significant enhancement in the concentration of most measured constituents over their rainfall levels. The values of the runoff coefficient varied between 0.05 and 0.62, with the high values displayed by the paved areas. This paper presents the findings of a study of characteristics of rainwater and runoff emanating from different sources areas and the stormwater flows in the drains.</p>


2019 ◽  
pp. 120-129
Author(s):  
D. L. Lopatnikov

Anthropogenic CO2 emissions are currently considered by the UN and other authoritative international organizations engaged in monitoring changes in the Earth’s biogeosphere as one of the main indicators of the global environmental situation. According to the official Doctrine of Sustainable Development, anthropogenic CO2 emissions are one of the main causes of global warming. The article examines the dynamics of CO2 emissions by countries and regions of the world from the 1970s to the 2010s. The correlation between the volume of CO2 emissions and changes in the overall territorial distribution of the world economy has been demonstrated. Over the past fifty years, the geography of anthropogenic CO2 emissions by countries and macro-regions of the world has changed dramatically. The share of the most economically developed countries in the volume of CO2 emissions has decreased. The main epicenter of anthropogenic CO2 emissions has shifted to the countries belonging to the semi-periphery of the world. The movement of the main foci of anthropogenic CO2 emissions on the world map reflects qualitative shifts in the global geoecological panorama over the past fifty years. The dynamics and spatial transformation of anthropogenic CO2 emissions is an illustration of the long-term trend of the change from negative to positive through the cycle of multidirectional shifts of one of the many ecologically significant processes on Earth.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-41
Author(s):  
Maya Angela Smith

Seventy-six-year-old Alvenia Bridges is someone who could be described as forever young. While she contends with typical signs of aging such as osteoporosis and arthritis, her daily meditative walks, diet of primarily salmon and avocados, and invigorating friendships contribute to her youthful demeanor. But a healthy lifestyle can only account for so much. Her captivating storytelling is what truly keeps her young. When she recounts her ability to move throughout the world in the heyday of her youth and when she describes how music allowed her to escape a violent beginning and discover her true purpose for existing, she transports both herself and her listener to another place and time. In doing so, age loses all meaning. Furthermore, her experience as a Black woman navigating the predominantly white and male-run world of Rock and Roll bears witness to the racial and gendered dynamics that exist in the music industry, highlighting how the past informs the present. By narrating an incident that occurred when Bridges was tour-managing the Rolling Stones, this lecture explores how our ethnographic memoir entitled Reclaiming Venus: The Many Lives of Alvenia Bridges conveys the power one wields when telling a story on one’s own terms.


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