Turning Science and Technology Green:Sustainable Development and Engineering Education

Andrew Jamison Aalborg University

Based on:

PROCEED (a Program of Research on Challenges and Opportunities in Engineering Education in Denmark)

Introducing PROCEED

A ”strategic alliance” among researchers at:

four universities: Aalborg, Århus, DTU and Roskilde

and four fields: cultural and intellectual history engineering education researchphilosophy of technology and scienceSTS and engineering studies

PROCEED Work plan

Jan-Aug 2010 – planning and initiation

Sept 2010 – Dec 2012 – thematic research

Jan 2012 – Aug 2013 – outreach activities

Jan 2013 - Dec 2013 – final reporting, conference

Thematic Projects

A. Challenges and responses in historical perspective

B. Curriculum design and learning outcomes

C. Models and simulations in engineering

D. Design capabilities and engineering practices in industry

E. Integrating contextual knowledge into engineering

education

Challenges Facing Science and Engineering

Environmental challenges – how to deal with environmental deterioration, energy and other resource exploitation and climate change

Societal challenges – how to deal with the permeation of our societies by scientific ”facts” and technological ”artifacts” in socially responsible ways

Technological challenges– how to deal with the emergence of new fields of ”technoscience” that combine science and technology in new ways

A market-oriented, or commercial strategy: emphasizing entrepreneurship and innovation

An academic-oriented, or professional strategy: focusing on expertise and independence

A socially-oriented, or integrative strategy: combining scientific and technical education with

cultural understanding

Contending Response Strategies

Contending Challenge Perceptions

The commercial, or business strategy:Challenges seen as external, stemming from

globalization and a need to improve ”competitiveness”

The professional, or academic strategy:Challenges seen as internal, an ”identity crisis” among engineers and a need for new kinds of expertise

The social, or integrative strategy:Challenges seen as both internal and external and a need to integrate cultural awareness into engineering

Product-driven, ”technical fixing”

the engineer as consultant, or entrepreneur

Project-driven, ”modelling and simulation”the engineer as an expert, or applied scientist

Problem-driven, ”hybrid imagining” the engineer as change agent, or citizen

Based on Different Conceptions of Engineering

Transdisciplinarity, or mode 2:

externally-driven ”systems of innovation”

Disciplinarity, or mode 1:

”traditional” science and engineering

Interdisciplinarity, or mode 3:

cross-fertilization, hybridization

…and Contending “Modes” of Knowledge Production

Transdisciplinarity, or ”mode 2”

”Knowledge which emerges from a particular

context of application with its own distinct

theoretical structures, research methods and

modes of practice but which may not be

locatable on the prevailing disciplinary map.”

Michael Gibbons et al, The New Production of Knowledge (1994)

transgressing established forms of quality control ”a drift of epistemic criteria” (Elzinga)

transcending human limitations ”converging technologies” (bio, info, cogno, nano)

neglecting the broader public, or social interest ”academic capitalism”: engineering in the private

interest

(over)emphasis on commercialization propagation of competitiveness rather than cooperation

A Tendency to Hubris

The challenges primarily responded to by niche-seeking among scientists and engineers

A reconfiguration of established scientific and engineering fields: ”subdisciplinarity” or multidisciplinarity

Reassertion of professional values and academic, or scientific norms

A continuing belief in separating the ”texts” of science and

engineering from broader cultural contexts

The Forces of Habit(us), or ”Mode 1”

“A discipline is defined by possession of a collective capital

of specialized methods and concepts, mastery of which is

the tacit or implicit price of entry to the field. It produces a

‘historical transcendental,’ the disciplinary habitus, a

system of schemes of perception and appreciation (where

the incorporated discipline acts as a censorship).”

Pierre Bourdieu, Science of Science and Reflexivity (2004)

The Discipline as Habitus

Problem-driven, rather than disciplinary, or market-driven

A focus on processes of socio-cultural change

Reflective, rather than explanatory or commercial ambition

Participatory, interventionist methods

Personal engagement in what is studied

Change-Oriented Research, or ”Mode 3”

Fostering a Hybrid Imagination

At the discursive, or macro level connecting technical solutions explicitly to social and

environmental problems: turning engineering green

At the institutional, or meso level organizing spaces for collective learning across faculties

and societal domains: encouraging cross-fertilization

At the personal, or micro level combining scientific-technical competence with socio-

cultural understanding: ”mixing the modes”

Contending Approaches to Sustainability Research and Education

sustainability s&t green business green engineering

Main scientific commercial contextualfocus research innovation appropriation

Types of professional, managerial, situated,Knowledge (sub)disciplinary transdisciplinary cross-

disciplinary

Forms of ”by the book”, ”by doing”, ”in context”,learning academic practical participatory

Identity, expert , entrepreneur, concerned citizen,social role policy adviser project manager change agent

Contexts of governments companies communities application (”state”) (”market”) (”civil society”)

Approaches to teaching contextual knowledge in Aalborg

educationalstrategy

Commercial, transdisciplinarity

Professional,sub-disciplinarity

Integrative, interdisciplinarity

rationale Contextual knowledge is for cultivating entrepeneurship

Contextual knowledge is for habituating students in the profession

Contextual knowledge is for fostering a hybrid imagination

story-line of technological change

Economic innovation

Social construction Cultural appropriation

main contents innovation and management studies, market analysis

Philosophy of science and S&T studies, actor and network analysis

History of S&T and cultural studies, technology assessment

Teaching Contextual Knowledge in Aalborg

a part of problem-based learning (PBL)

courses of lectures and supportive advising

component of first-year engineering project work

longtime, habitual difficulties in being accepted

but sometimes it really works!

ByTore Jesper AndersenChristopher DuunChristian HoltSimon Gade ThomsenTheis SimonsenUlrik Landberg StephansenAnders Bundgård Sørensen

A good example:

From the synopsis:

“This report concerns the problems with global warming

and investigates how dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC)

might solve some of these. The report starts from IPCC’s

Fourth Assessment Report and analyzes the current global

warming discussion. Next the possible technological

solutions to the global warming problem is briefly

described, and the DSSC is described in detail…. “

Schematicrepresentation of the operation principle

Experimentalapparatus for testing efficiency

Technology assessment,or SWOT analysis

A Cultural Approach to Engineering Education

Engineering problems formulated in cultural terms

”Situated learning” of technical, or engineering skills

Contextual knowledge an integral part of curriculum

Ongoing interaction between engineering and humanities

A fostering of techno-cultural competencies

The Alley Flat Initiative grew out of a Sustainable Design

Studio in the School of Architecture and Planning, at the

University of Texas, organized by Professor Steven

Moore and guest professor Sergio Palleroni

Another example: The Alley Flat Initiative

•The UT Center for Sustainable Development,

•the Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corporation,

•the Austin Community Design and Development Center.

The initial goal of the project was to build two prototype alley

flats (aka granny flats)- one for each of two families in East

Austin - that would showcase both the innovative design and

environmental sustainability features of the alley flat designs.

A collaboration between

Moving into the second alley flat...

Professor Steven Moore

The long-term objective of the Alley Flat Initiative is to create

an adaptive and self-perpetuating delivery system for

sustainable and affordable housing in Austin. The "delivery

system" would include not only efficient housing designs

constructed with sustainable technologies, but also

innovative methods of financing and home ownership that

benefit all neighborhoods in Austin.

http://www.thealleyflatinitiative.org/

More examples:

Juan Lucena, Jen Schneider, and Jon Leydens (Colorado School of Mines), Engineering and Sustainable Community Development (Morgan & Claypool 2010)

and, even more ambitiously:

Arizona State University, with the first School of Sustainability in the United States, offering a wide range of courses, degree programs and ”green campus” initiatives

http://schoolofsustainability.asu.edu/

http://www.sustain.ubc.ca/

Sustainabilty at the University of British Columbia,housed at the greenest building in North America