Fwd: [itk-alle] Please circulate call for papers!
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LUCÍA LISTE MUÑOZ
Dec 12, 2012, 9:22:39 AM12/12/12
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Por si a alguien le interesa.
Un saludo,
Lucía Liste
Call for papers: Engineers and Sustainability: Achieving technological transitions
Place: Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
Date: June, 6th and 7th, 2013
Background of the workshop
Engineers engage with important and wide-ranging environmental issues related to, for example, physical planning, construction of buildings, transport, and water management. Their main expertise resides in technology and architecture, and they play a crucial role in the ongoing shaping and reshaping of the physical qualities of nature and culture, of landscapes and the built environment. How may social science advance knowledge about the role of engineers and their production and use of environmental knowledge? In this workshop we want to focus on engineers’ practices with regard to sustainability, as well as their knowledge management. It is vital that environmentally relevant knowledge is available and put to use, in order to make engineering more sustainable and thus achieving transition to more sustainable technologies.
Social science studies of environmental issues have largely focused on the environmental movement, public attitudes and values, management of local resources and – above all – on the strategies and institutions of environmental policy-making. The role of expertise has been analyzed, but mainly in a critical way to suggest that experts do not act on environmental knowledge as they should or that they neglect important input from lay people experiencing environmental problem. However, less is known about the way experts find and appropriate environmental knowledge, nor how they try to put it into play with respect to advising private and public decision-makers. Thus, it is important to discuss also the context of engineers’ practices.
Workshop topics
We invite papers that address one or more of the following topics:
* Learning and knowledge acquisition. What are the most important sources of knowledge to strengthen the environmental aspects of their practices? How are they able to use these resources? Also, we will inquire into interest and motives to engage with environmentally relevant knowledge and knowledge practices.
* Activities of mediation. In relation to learning and knowledge acquisition, what are the activities related to possible mediations of knowledge from research and environmental policy-making? Engineers’ organizations have often been expected to act as intermediaries or boundary organizations between R&D institutions and decision-makers in government and industry (Guston 2001). In theory, boundary organizations should develop rules, procedures, and norms about accountability that shape perceptions of salience, credibility, and legitimacy of the information and guidance that they provide. To what extent do consulting engineering companies engage in such activities of rulemaking, etc., and how?
* Calculating and representing sustainability. Consulting engineers have to use instruments to measure environmental qualities, and they need to assess these qualities. This involves choices of indicators as well as standards to represent and evaluate. How are these choices made, and what kind of practices with respect to calculation and representation do we find? To what extent do companies innovate to improve environmental aspects of their services, what kinds of innovation happen, and how do they perceive their possibilities to develop new practices?
* Knowledge management for sustainability. In principle, knowledge management tools like intranet systems for knowledge sharing, etc. may be helpful to ensure that concerns for sustainability are pursued by the consultants. To what extent are such tools present in the companies? How well are environmental concerns integrated into the tools? Are they used by the employees, and how?
* Commercialization of environmentally oriented consulting engineering services. Arguably, the consulting engineering companies are involved in the construction of a market for services with a focus on sustainability, but do they see these efforts as successful? How do they perceive their achievements with respect to the mediation (and implementation) of their environmentally relevant knowledge to different groups of users, and what do they consider to be the key facilitators and impediments of success? What are their customers/clients demanding, and how does that shape the services offered? What kind of pragmatic adaptations are made? What is the influence of important auditing and evaluating institutions like public environmental agencies?
* Interdisciplinarity and new combinations of knowledge. Consulting engineering companies mainly employee engineers. To what extent do they see a need for extending their competence by hiring other professions, like biologists, geographers or sociologists, to meet the challenges related to sustainability? What are their strategies for combining the different kinds of knowledge, and how is this influenced by professional and pragmatic concerns?
Confirmed invited speakers are:
- Professor Gary Downey (Virginia Tech),
- Professor Andrew Jamison (Aalborg University),
- Professor Ulrik Jørgensen (Aalborg University (to be confirmed), and
- Associate Professor Ibo van de Poel (Delft University of Technology).
Those who are interested in attending, please send title and abstracts (2-300 word) to carina.re...@ntnu.no<mailto:carina.re...@ntnu.no>. Deadline for abstracts is 15th of February 2013. For further information contact Vivian A. Lagesen (Vivian....@ntnu.no<mailto:Vivian....@ntnu.no>). Link to the conferences is:
http://www.ntnu.no/censes/engineers-and-sustainability
Call for papers: Engineers and Sustainability: Achieving technological transitions
Place: Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
Date: June, 6th and 7th, 2013
Background of the workshop
Engineers engage with important and wide-ranging environmental issues related to, for example, physical planning, construction of buildings, transport, and water management. Their main expertise resides in technology and architecture, and they play a crucial role in the ongoing shaping and reshaping of the physical qualities of nature and culture, of landscapes and the built environment. How may social science advance knowledge about the role of engineers and their production and use of environmental knowledge? In this workshop we want to focus on engineers’ practices with regard to sustainability, as well as their knowledge management. It is vital that environmentally relevant knowledge is available and put to use, in order to make engineering more sustainable and thus achieving transition to more sustainable technologies.
Social science studies of environmental issues have largely focused on the environmental movement, public attitudes and values, management of local resources and – above all – on the strategies and institutions of environmental policy-making. The role of expertise has been analyzed, but mainly in a critical way to suggest that experts do not act on environmental knowledge as they should or that they neglect important input from lay people experiencing environmental problem. However, less is known about the way experts find and appropriate environmental knowledge, nor how they try to put it into play with respect to advising private and public decision-makers. Thus, it is important to discuss also the context of engineers’ practices.
Workshop topics
We invite papers that address one or more of the following topics:
* Learning and knowledge acquisition. What are the most important sources of knowledge to strengthen the environmental aspects of their practices? How are they able to use these resources? Also, we will inquire into interest and motives to engage with environmentally relevant knowledge and knowledge practices.
* Activities of mediation. In relation to learning and knowledge acquisition, what are the activities related to possible mediations of knowledge from research and environmental policy-making? Engineers’ organizations have often been expected to act as intermediaries or boundary organizations between R&D institutions and decision-makers in government and industry (Guston 2001). In theory, boundary organizations should develop rules, procedures, and norms about accountability that shape perceptions of salience, credibility, and legitimacy of the information and guidance that they provide. To what extent do consulting engineering companies engage in such activities of rulemaking, etc., and how?
* Calculating and representing sustainability. Consulting engineers have to use instruments to measure environmental qualities, and they need to assess these qualities. This involves choices of indicators as well as standards to represent and evaluate. How are these choices made, and what kind of practices with respect to calculation and representation do we find? To what extent do companies innovate to improve environmental aspects of their services, what kinds of innovation happen, and how do they perceive their possibilities to develop new practices?
* Knowledge management for sustainability. In principle, knowledge management tools like intranet systems for knowledge sharing, etc. may be helpful to ensure that concerns for sustainability are pursued by the consultants. To what extent are such tools present in the companies? How well are environmental concerns integrated into the tools? Are they used by the employees, and how?
* Commercialization of environmentally oriented consulting engineering services. Arguably, the consulting engineering companies are involved in the construction of a market for services with a focus on sustainability, but do they see these efforts as successful? How do they perceive their achievements with respect to the mediation (and implementation) of their environmentally relevant knowledge to different groups of users, and what do they consider to be the key facilitators and impediments of success? What are their customers/clients demanding, and how does that shape the services offered? What kind of pragmatic adaptations are made? What is the influence of important auditing and evaluating institutions like public environmental agencies?
* Interdisciplinarity and new combinations of knowledge. Consulting engineering companies mainly employee engineers. To what extent do they see a need for extending their competence by hiring other professions, like biologists, geographers or sociologists, to meet the challenges related to sustainability? What are their strategies for combining the different kinds of knowledge, and how is this influenced by professional and pragmatic concerns?
Confirmed invited speakers are:
- Professor Gary Downey (Virginia Tech),
- Professor Andrew Jamison (Aalborg University),
- Professor Ulrik Jørgensen (Aalborg University (to be confirmed), and
- Associate Professor Ibo van de Poel (Delft University of Technology).
Those who are interested in attending, please send title and abstracts (2-300 word) to carina.re...@ntnu.no<mailto:carina.re...@ntnu.no>. Deadline for abstracts is 15th of February 2013. For further information contact Vivian A. Lagesen (Vivian....@ntnu.no<mailto:Vivian....@ntnu.no>). Link to the conferences is:
http://www.ntnu.no/censes/engineers-and-sustainability
Lucía
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