Technology And The Contested Meanings Of Sustainability

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Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability

Author : Aidan Davison
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 298 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2001-04-19
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780791490594

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Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability by Aidan Davison Pdf

This transdisciplinary inquiry presents a new way of thinking about sustainability and technology that takes us beyond the familiar preoccupation with ecoefficiency, and toward the contested moral question of what most nourishes our ability to care for our world. In contrast to the technocratic aim of controlling a perilous future, the author proposes that we develop the practical craft of sustenance. Beginning with debates in environmental policy, he draws upon recent philosophical interest in ecology, technology, and moral experience to argue that the challenge of sustainability is that of undermining those traditions that present technology as somehow external to our inherent moral ambiguity. This discussion responds to the work of Langdon Winner, Albert Borgmann, Charles Taylor, Martin Heidegger, David Abram, and others.

Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability

Author : Aidan Davison
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 300 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2001-04-19
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0791449807

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Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability by Aidan Davison Pdf

This discussion responds to the work of Langdon Winner, Albert Borgmann, Charles Taylor, Martin Heidegger, David Abram, and others."--BOOK JACKET.

Technology

Author : Aidan Davison
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2023-05
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1614720665

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Technology by Aidan Davison Pdf

What is technology? The answer seems obvious. Technology is the chair you sit on, the roof above you, and the airplane above that. A speaker fills the room with sound, wifi connects you with people around the world, a pill dissolves within you. Technology, it would seem, consists of things humans design and manufacture. Yet computers and books are not just objects that we make and use. They arise from, and become part of, our lived experience. Their existence is lodged in human needs and wants. And every technology alters the ways in which human needs and wants take shape. Technology straddles the boundary between facts and values. It binds together objects and subjects. As a result, two vital and inseparable questions will occupy us in this book. How do we make material worlds? And how do these worlds make us? In addition, debates about sustainability and development in the Anthropocene require new habits of inquiry into technology. Modern societies typically treat technology as neutral objects that put science into action. Experts use objective measures of development and sustainability to sort good technologies from bad. In contrast, this book argues that the Anthropocene, the technological remaking of the Earth, calls us to attend to the way technological practices shape what it means to be human. How are we made, or changed, as we alter the planet's climate and ecosystems?Ranging across disciplines, this introduction to technology links together big questions of planetary futures with practical, everyday realities. It points towards a technological practice of sustainability that does not divide facts from values or objects from subjects. And it suggests an understanding and practice of technology that we urgently need as dwellers in the Anthropocene.

Just Technology

Author : Thomas J. Siller,Gearold Johnson
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 81 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2022-05-31
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9783031795008

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Just Technology by Thomas J. Siller,Gearold Johnson Pdf

To address the complexity of today's global challenges requires new ways of thinking. The idea that technology is always the best, maybe only, approach worth taking needs to be reconsidered. Sustainable approaches must also draw from non technological areas. To that end, this book introduces the idea of just technology by rephrasing the idea of just war in order to include concepts of sustainability in future engineering design. The book begins by defining justice and relating these definitions to technology. This is followed by illustrating several notions of sustainability and the awareness that needs to be focused on societal challenges due to the finite resources available in the natural world. Four questions are enumerated to be addressed in order to qualify as a just use of technology: (1) Is the harm being inflicted by the problem on the community, the environment, or humanity, in general lasting, serious, and certain? (2) Have all alternative solutions been investigated first, including non-technology-based solutions? Technology is the last choice, not the first! (3) Do we have confidence in the successful implementation of this technological solution? and (4) Is the potential harm from the technological solution potentially worse than the issue being addressed? Have all unintended consequences been considered that could arise from the technological solution? The book ends with a description for implementing these questions into the traditional engineering design process. Examples are included for reflection and help to understand how the design process proceeds.

Sustainability Beyond Technology

Author : Pasi Heikkurinen,Toni Ruuska
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 318 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780198864929

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Sustainability Beyond Technology by Pasi Heikkurinen,Toni Ruuska Pdf

"Current debates on sustainability are largely building on a problematic assumption that increasing technology use and advancement are a desired phenomenon, creating positive change in human organizations. This kind of techno-optimism prevails particularly in the discourses of ecological modernization and green growth, as well as in the attempts to design sustainable modes of production and consumption within growth-driven capitalism. This transdisciplinary book investigates the philosophical underpinnings of technology, presents a culturally sensitive critique of technology, and outlines feasible alternatives for sustainability beyond technology. By examining the conflicts and contradictions between technology and sustainability in human organizations, the book develops a novel way to conceptualize, confront and change technology in modern society. The book draws on a variety of scholarly disciplines, including humanities (philosophy and environmental history), social sciences (ecological economics, political economy, and ecology) and natural sciences (geology and thermodynamics) to contribute to sustainability theory and policy"--Publisher's description.

The Illusory Boundary

Author : Martin Reuss,Stephen H. Cutcliffe
Publisher : University of Virginia Press
Page : 329 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2010-08-06
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780813929880

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The Illusory Boundary by Martin Reuss,Stephen H. Cutcliffe Pdf

This compelling new book challenges the view that a clear and unwavering boundary exists between nature and technology. Rejecting this dichotomy, the contributors show how the history of each can be united in a constantly shifting panorama where definitions of "nature" and "technology" alter and overlap.

Digital Technology and Sustainability

Author : Mike Hazas,Lisa Nathan
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2017-11-22
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781315465951

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Digital Technology and Sustainability by Mike Hazas,Lisa Nathan Pdf

This book brings together diverse voices from across the field of sustainable human computer interaction (SHCI) to discuss what it means for digital technology to support sustainability and how humans and technology can work together optimally for a more sustainable future. Contemporary digital technologies are hailed by tech companies, governments and academics as leading-edge solutions to the challenges of environmental sustainability; smarter homes, more persuasive technologies, and a robust Internet of Things hold the promise for creating a greener world. Yet, deployments of interactive technologies for such purposes often lead to a paradox: they algorithmically "optimize" heating and lighting of houses without regard to the dynamics of daily life in the home; they can collect and display data that allow us to reflect on energy and emissions, yet the same information can cause us to raise our expectations for comfort and convenience; they might allow us to share best practice for sustainable living through social networking and online communities, yet these same systems further our participation in consumerism and contribute to an ever-greater volume of electronic waste.By acknowledging these paradoxes, this book represents a significant critical inquiry into digital technology’s longer-term impact on ideals of sustainability. Written by an interdisciplinary team of contributors this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of human computer interaction and environmental studies.

Sustainability

Author : Leslie Paul Thiele
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 235 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2013-04-26
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780745665184

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Sustainability by Leslie Paul Thiele Pdf

The pursuit of sustainability has generated lifestyle changes for individuals across the globe, widespread initiatives within civil society and business, historic policies for municipal, regional, and national governments, and crucial protocols and agreements by international organizations. Increasingly, sustainability provides a common language and goal for diverse peoples and nations. Yet the meaning of sustainability remains unsettled, and the term frequently serves as a PR strategy--a green veneer for business as usual--rather than a driver of fundamental change. Leslie Paul Thiele's accessible yet thorough book provides a broad-ranging introduction to the concept and practice of sustainability today. It addresses the history, scope, and contested meanings of sustainability as an ethical ideal, an ascendant ideology, and a common sense approach to living in an ever more crowded world of increasingly scarce resources. Key topics covered include environmental health and ecological resilience, the promise and unintended consequences of technology, political and legal challenges, economic limits and opportunities, and cultural change. Unlike most other approaches to this crucial topic, Thiele argues that sustainability requires innovation and adaptation as much as the conservation of resources. His book will be a valuable resource for students in a broad range of courses, including environmental studies and related areas, as well as general readers keen to grapple with one of the most pressing issues of our times.

Partial Truths and Our Common Future

Author : Donald A. Crosby
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 214 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2018-08-20
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781438471334

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Partial Truths and Our Common Future by Donald A. Crosby Pdf

Argues that a pluralistic understanding of truth can foster productive conversations about common concerns involving religion, science, ethics, politics, economics, and ecology without falling into relativism. In this book, Donald A. Crosby defends the idea that all claims to truth are at best partial. Recognizing this, he argues, is a necessary safeguard against arrogance, close-mindedness, and potentially violent reactions to differences of outlook and practice. Crosby demonstrates how “partial truths” are inevitably at work in conversations and debates about religion, science, morality, economics, ecology, and social and political progress. He then focuses on the concept in the discipline of philosophy, looking at a number of distinctions that are taken to be strictly binary—those between fact and value, continuity and novelty, rationalism and empiricism, mind and body, and good and evil—and demonstrates how in all of these cases, each on its own can offer only an incomplete picture. Partial Truths and Our Common Future invites ongoing dialogue with others for the sake of mutual enlargements of understanding rather than mere civility, and provides incentive for continuing open-minded and shared inquiries into the important issues of life. “This is a transdisciplinary philosophical work that moves with grace across traditions, time periods, and thinkers. It is a master class in the existential and public relevance of philosophy and a rare example of a book that is both timely and timeless.” — Michael S. Hogue, author of The Promise of Religious Naturalism

Material Geographies of Household Sustainability

Author : Andrew Gorman-Murray
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2016-05-13
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781317099468

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Material Geographies of Household Sustainability by Andrew Gorman-Murray Pdf

Charting new research directions, this book constructs a series of imperatives for linking culturally informed research around household sustainability with policy and planning. The household, or 'home', is a critical scale for understanding activities that connect individual behaviours and societal attitudes. The focus on the household in this collection provides a window into the sheer diversity of homemaking and maintenance activities that entail resource use. These practices have affective or emotive dimensions as well as habitual aspects. Diversity, innovation and change at the household scale is often missed in policy approaches which assume that simplistic economic motivations drive demand and this can in turn be 'managed' through regulation or market pricing. The research challenge extends beyond describing existing unsustainable economies driving resource intensive behaviour to consider realistic options for transformations in cultural practices, material relationships and, ultimately, the political economies they sit within. Without change in these systems, government initiatives to promote ecological modernisation run the risk of simply green-washing the very economies of consumption that currently drive unsustainable practices. Social and cultural change at the household level is critical to promoting sustainability at a range of wider scales.

Open Source Systems: Long-Term Sustainability

Author : Imed Hammouda,Björn Lundell,Tommi Mikkonen,Walt Scacchi
Publisher : Springer
Page : 422 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2012-09-22
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9783642334429

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Open Source Systems: Long-Term Sustainability by Imed Hammouda,Björn Lundell,Tommi Mikkonen,Walt Scacchi Pdf

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International IFIP WG 2.13 Conference on Open Source Systems, OSS 2012, held in Hammamet, Tunisia, in September 2012. The 15 revised full papers presented together with 17 lightning talks, 2 tool demonstration papers, 6 short industry papers, 5 posters and 2 workshop papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 63 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on collaboration and forks in OSS projects, community issues, open education and peer-production models, integration and architecture, business ecosystems, adoption and evolution of OSS, OSS quality, OSS in different domains, product development, and industrial experiences.

Agency

Author : Florian Kossak,Doina Petrescu,Tatjana Schneider,Renata Tyszczuk,Stephen Walker
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2009-12-04
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9781135281915

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Agency by Florian Kossak,Doina Petrescu,Tatjana Schneider,Renata Tyszczuk,Stephen Walker Pdf

Presenting current thinking from practitioners and scholars from around the world, this book asks for a more active relationship between the humanities, the architectural profession, and society. Considering issues of agency, in particular the role of architectural research as an agency of transformation, the chapters here explore how humanities research can better contribute towards understanding current architectural needs, possibilities and capacities for action.

Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems

Author : Naim Afgan
Publisher : World Scientific
Page : 602 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9789812771285

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Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems by Naim Afgan Pdf

Sustainability is a new, important discourse aimed at promoting a new strategy in the development of energy, water and environmental (EWE) systems OCo the key components that affect the quality of life on our planet. It is becoming increasingly clear that the quest for sustainable development requires integrating economic, social, cultural, political and ecological factors. The behavior and properties of an EWE system arise not merely from the properties of its component elements, but also to a large degree also from the nature and intensity of their dynamic interlinkages. This volume helps clarify the complexity of these problems by providing a deeper understanding of the implications of the different aspects of sustainability. This work contains a collection of selected, peer-reviewed and state-of-the-art reflecting papers that were presented at the Third Dubrovnik Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems that was held in June 5OCo10, 2005 in Dubrovnik, Croatia."

The Handbook of Design for Sustainability

Author : Stuart Walker
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 577 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2013-11-07
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9781472539014

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The Handbook of Design for Sustainability by Stuart Walker Pdf

Sustainability has emerged as a central issue for contemporary societies and for the world community as a whole. Furthermore, many of the social and environmental concerns that are embodied in the term 'sustainability' are directly or indirectly related to design. Designers help to define our human made environment - how it is produced, how it is used, and how long it endures. Despite some forty years of development and increased awareness of the critical relationships that exist between design decisions and modes of production, energy use, environmental impacts, the nature of work and human exploitation, design for sustainability is still not widely understood or followed. The Handbook of Design for Sustainability presents a comprehensive, state-of-the-art overview of this crucial subject - its development, its methods, its practices and its potential futures. Bringing together leading international scholars and new researchers to provide a substantive insight into the latest thinking and research within the field, The Handbook covers a breadth of historical and theoretical understandings and includes a series of original essays that explore methods and approaches for designers and design educators. The Handbook presents the first systematic overview of the subject that, in addition to methods and examples, includes historical perspectives, philosophical approaches, business analyses, educational insights and emerging thinking. It is an invaluable resource for design researchers and students as well as design practitioners and private and public sector organizations wishing to develop more sustainable directions.

Reconstructing Sustainability Science

Author : Thaddeus R. Miller
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 131 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2014-12-05
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781135960100

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Reconstructing Sustainability Science by Thaddeus R. Miller Pdf

The growing urgency, complexity and "wickedness" of sustainability problems—from climate change and biodiversity loss to ecosystem degradation and persistent poverty and inequality—present fundamental challenges to scientific knowledge production and its use. While there is little doubt that science has a crucial role to play in our ability to pursue sustainability goals, critical questions remain as to how to most effectively organize research and connect it to actions that advance social and natural wellbeing. Drawing on interviews with leading sustainability scientists, this book examines how researchers in the emerging, interdisciplinary field of sustainability science are attempting to define sustainability, establish research agendas, and link the knowledge they produce to societal action. Pairing these insights with case studies of innovative sustainability research centres, the book reformulates the sustainability science research agenda and its relationship to decision-making and social action. It repositions the field as a "science of design" that aims to enrich public reasoning and deliberation while also working to generate social and technological innovations for a more sustainable future. This timely book gives students, researchers and practitioners a valuable and unique analysis of the emergence of sustainability science, and both the opportunities and barriers faced by scientific efforts to contribute to social action.