scholarly journals Hydraulic Order and the Politics of the Governed: The Baba Dam in Coastal Ecuador

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Hidalgo-Bastidas ◽  
Rutgerd Boelens
Keyword(s):  
Technology Development ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Social Construction Of Technology ◽  
Resistance Movements ◽  
Technological Artifacts ◽  
Hydraulic Design ◽  
The Social ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

Mega-dams are commonly designed, constructed, and implemented under governors’ rule and technocrats’ knowledge. Such hydraulic infrastructures are characteristically presented as if based on monolithic technical consensus and unidirectional engineering. However, those who are affected by these water interventions, and eventually governed by the changes brought by them, often dispute the forms of knowledge, norms, morals, and operation and use rules embedded in mega-hydraulic engineers’ designs. Protests may also deeply influence the design and development of the technological artifacts. By using approaches related to the Social Construction of Technology and Partha Chatterjee’s politics of the governed, this article shows (i) how protests against the Baba dam in coastal Ecuador greatly influenced the dam’s designs, protecting communities’ lands from being flooded; and (ii) how, at the same time, techno-political decision-makers deployed hydraulic design as a dividing rule, turning potentially affected communities against each other. We conclude that megadam designs are shaped by the power interplay among governors and governed, with the latter being internally differentiated. By critically analyzing the role of technology development—materializing changing ‘political context and relationships’—we show how contested and adapted dam design may favor some stakeholders while simultaneously affecting others and weakening united dam-resistance movements.

Social Construction of Technology

Entanglements ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Tosoni ◽  
Trevor Pinch
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Social Construction Of Technology ◽  
Technological Artifacts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Relevant Social Groups ◽  
Scientific Facts ◽  
Nonhuman Agency ◽  
Interpretative Flexibility

The chapter focuses on the Social Construction of Technology approach (SCOT) by Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker, introducing the reader to its initial formulation (1984), and to the subsequent extensions – and sometimes reformulations – elaborated in more than 30 year of empirical research. It first clarifies how the Empirical Programme of Relativism, elaborated by the Bath School to address the social construction of scientific facts, was adapted to technological artifacts. In particular the concepts of relevant social groups, interpretative flexibility, closure or stabilization are in-depth discussed. Regarding relevant social groups, the chapter dedicates a peculiar attention to users, sellers and testers, all understudied in the original formulation of SCOT. The chapter then clarifies SCOT’s take on materiality, and discusses its main differences with the idea of nonhuman agency proposed by Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Finally, it goes back to the Golem Trilogy to discuss with the author the specific take on politics implied by SCOT.

The role of the Wali al-Faqih in the process of external political decision-making: An analytical study of the relevant articles of the revised Iranian constitution of 1989

2020 ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Wissam Saleh Abdul-Hussein Jassim Al-Rub
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political System ◽  
Analytical Study ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Strategic Decisions ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Supreme Leader ◽  
Political Decision Making

The Iranian Constitution of 1979 and the amendment of 1989 considered the Supreme Leader of the Iranian Islamic Revolution the most powerful institution in influence and presence in the political system. The guide, directly or indirectly, through the agencies operating under his administration, and here we say that the political vision of the wali al-Faqih governs its authority over all the perceptions of decision-makers in their formulation and implementation of strategic decisions that achieve the goals of the Iranian regime at home and abroad.

Israeli penetration in South America (1973-1947)

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Political ◽  
South American ◽  
American Continent ◽  
The South ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
South American Continent

This research is an attempt to uncover the reality and method of Israeli penetration in the South American continent, and aims to draw attention to the weaknesses and mistakes in the role of Arab communities that they had to play in South America, and the position of Arab governments towards that continent. The research was divided into two main axes, as the first dealt with the means of Israeli penetration in South America until 1947, providing a brief overview of the roots of the penetration in the South American continent and the methods it adopted in achieving this. While the second axis focused on the stance of the South American countries on the Arab-Israeli conflict (1947-1973). However, the Israeli infiltration was affecting the political decision-makers in that continent towards the decision to partition Palestine up to the October 1973 war. Key words: the penetration, Palestine, Israel, immigration, Arabs, America

“Great Men,” Law, and the Social Construction of Technology

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (03) ◽  
pp. 1093-1112
Author(s):  
Kara W. Swanson
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Construction Of Technology ◽  
Origin Stories ◽  
The Social ◽  
American Law ◽  
Cultural Power ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Truth Finding

Is Alexander Graham Bell's fame owed to law and lawyers? Two recent histories argue that some popular tales of invention originated with lawyers and judges as part of patent litigation battles (Stathis Arapostathis and Graeme Gooday, Patently Contestable: Electrical Technologies and Inventor Identities on Trial in Britain[2013]; Christopher Beauchamp, Invented by Law: Alexander Graham Bell and the Patent That Changed America[2015]). Bringing law into the historical project of understanding the social construction of technology, the authors unsettle “great man” narratives of invention. A tale of a recent patent war is a case study in the persistence of such narratives, highlighting the uses of legal storytelling (Ronald K. Fierstein, A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War[2015]). Together, these works invite consideration of the cultural power possessed by invention origin stories, the role of narratives in law and history, and the judicial performance of truth finding in Anglo-American law.

The social representations of the alcoholism and drug addiction in Portuguese workplace / Representaçöes sociais do alcoolismo e toxicodependência no meio laboral português

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Orlindo Gouveia Pereira ◽  
Jorge Ribeiro Pires
Keyword(s):  
Common Core ◽  
Semantic Network ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
Alcohol And Drugs ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One

The present study aims to evaluate how social representations, areinstrumental to evaluate the proneness to act of enterprises, employer’s and worker’s organizations, decision-makers against the abuse and dependence of alcohol and drugs in the workplace, in Portugal, in 2003.Both, the present and the previous studies (for the European Commission and the International Labour Offi ce, in 1993) adopted a strategic research design in witch representatives of the three above mentioned types of organizations were interviewed and answered similar questionnaires, and about social representations used a specifi c software developed by Pierre Vergès.Social representations of alcoholism and drug adicton, in Portugal,in 2003, are to enterprises, employer’s and worker’s organizationsclose to each other. Common core words are disease, dependenceand degradation. Categorization showed the central semantic role of(person’s) degradation. The categorization connection of enterprisesand worker’s organization are closer than the one of the employer’sorganizations. The semantic network is, in all cases more complex for alcohol than it is for drugs.It turns out that, in general, a decade of strategic studies, in Portugal, discloses an inhibition to act by the most responsible intervenient in the workplace in contrast to their own evaluation of the seriousness of the problem. Why this trend continues unchanged is out of the reach of the present empirical studies.

scholarly journals Shared decision-making allows subordinates to lead when dominants monopolize resources

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (48) ◽  
pp. eaba5881
Author(s):  
Danai Papageorgiou ◽  
Damien R. Farine
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Shared Decision Making ◽  
Dominance Hierarchy ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Shared Decision ◽  
Intragroup Conflict ◽  
The Social ◽  
Animal Societies

The concepts of leadership and dominance are often conflated, with individuals high in the social hierarchy assumed to be decision-makers. Dominants can exclusively benefit from monopolizing food resources and, therefore, induce an intragroup conflict when leading their group to these resources. We demonstrate that shared decision-making reduces such conflicts by studying movement initiations of wild vulturine guineafowl, a species that forms large, stable social groups with a steep dominance hierarchy. When dominant individuals displace subordinates from monopolizable food patches, the excluded subordinates subsequently initiate collective movement. The dominants then abandon the patch to follow the direction of subordinates, contrasting with nonmonopolizable resources where no individuals are excluded, and dominant individuals contribute extensively to group decisions. Our results demonstrate the role of shared decision-making in maintaining the balance of influence within animal societies.

scholarly journals Klimaaktivisme som udenrigspolitik: Helt centralt, men hvorfor egentlig?

Politik ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Wivel
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
State Identity ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
International Climate ◽  
The Cold War

Global environmental and climate concerns have been central to Danish foreign policy activism since the end of the Cold War. is article chronicles the development of Danish international climate activism and ex- plores how and why it became central to Danish foreign policy. e article discusses the role of globalization, institutionalization and Europeanization, and how these developments interact with Danish state identity thereby constructing an action space for political decision-makers in climate policy. 

scholarly journals ‘The exception to the rule’: exploring the exception and the exceptional in planning policy

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (0) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Neil Harris
Keyword(s):  
Specific Form ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Planning Systems ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Planning Policy ◽  
Planning Decision ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Rules And Exceptions

This article explores exceptions to planning ‘rules’ as a specific form of discretion exercised by planners and decision makers. Theoretical and conceptual ideas on rules and exceptions to rules, drawing principally on administrative and political decision making, are used to examine the role of exceptions and exceptional circumstances in planning. This analysis addresses the interdependency between exceptions and ‘rules’, the circumstances in which planning decision makers are invited to consider exceptions to rules or exceptional circumstances, and the distinct forms of planning regulation created using exceptions. The conclusions call for systematic analysis of the role that exceptions play in different contexts and planning systems.

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