In%20Search%20of%20Green%20Knowledge:%20A%20Cognitive%20Approach%20to%20Sustainable%20Development

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In Search of Green KnowledgeA Cognitive
Approach to Sustainable Development

• Andrew Jamison

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Heres where it started
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...and heres where I moved
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and this is what I think I have done ever since

• Change oriented research, also known as
• advocacy, or partisan research
• technology assessment and/or cultural assessment
• action, or action-oriented research
• participatory, or dialogic research
• and, when it really has worked collective
  learning

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Change-Oriented Research

• Problem-driven, rather then disciplinary driven
• Intervention in ongoing process
• Reflective, rather than explanatory ambition
• Narrative form of presentation, telling stories
• Participatory, dialogue methods (e.g. focus
  groups)
• Engagement, or involvement in what is studied

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A Renewal of Phronesis

• Aristotles third form of knowledge
• beyond theoretical (episteme) and practical
  (techne)
• a kind of ethical reason, or self-knowledge
• competence in making judgments, in knowing what
  to do
• knowledge always situated or localized

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Roots in Pragmatism

• American theory of knowledge
• founded by Peirce, James, Dewey
• a part of the progressive movement
• truth based in practice (justification)
• science as problem solving (discovery)

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and Action Research

• outgrowth of old social movements
• related to urban reform and labor struggles
• neighborhood, or factory focus
• science as a form of social advocacy
• making visible and giving voice

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and Technology Assessment

• outgrowth of student revolts and nuclear energy
  debates
• focus on social and environmental consequences of
  technology
• citizen-expert communication, or communicative
  rationality (Habermas)
• consensus conference model

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and Participatory Rural Appraisal

• a form of development research
• focus on competence building
• emphasis on popular participation
• conscientization (Friere)
• putting people first (Chambers)

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A Cognitive Approach

• Focus on knowledge in the making
• Process, or practice orientation
• Comparative, or contextual ambition
• Dialectical method, identification of tensions

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The Concept of Cognitive Praxis

• connecting ideas and action, theory and practice
• articulation of knowledge interests
• movements as temporary collective learning sites
• hybrid forms of agency movement intellectuals

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Dimensions of cognitive praxis

• The cosmological dimension
• world-view assumptions, shared visions or values
• The technological dimension
• practical activities, forms of action and
  technical work
• The organizational dimension
• situational context, spaces of interaction and
  communication

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The Cognitive Praxisof Environmental Movements

• Cosmological dimension
• systemic holism, limits to growth
• Technical dimension
• appropriateness, small is beautiful
• Organizational dimension
• collective learning sites, citizen science

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• Phases of Environmentalism
• 1. awakening primarily local protests against
  pollution
• pre-1968
• 2. age of ecology national organizational
  development
• 1969-1974
• 3. politicization social movements in relation
  to energy policy
• 1975-1979
• 4. differentiation professionalization and party
  politics
• 1980-1986
• 5. internationalization global orientation
  network and alliance-building
• 1987-1993
• 6. Integration Agenda 21, sustainable
  development

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Environmental Cognitive Praxis
Type of Environmentalism Community Local campaigns Social ecology Professional Mainstream organizations Political ecology Militant Radical groups Deep ecology Personal New age artists Green consumers Knowledge forms Factual Lay Legal Expert Rhetorical Ideological Spiritual Citizen Knowledge interest Empowerment Public participation Enlightenment Policy deliberation Political protest Resistance Authenticity Identity
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Changing Regimes of Knowledge and Power

• Industrial
  Military Commercial
• Little Science Big Science
  Technoscience
• Before WWII 1940s-1970s 1980s-
• Type of
• Knowledge disciplinary multidisciplinary tra
  nsdisciplinary
• Organiza- individuals or RD departments
  ad hoc projects and
• tional form research groups and
  institutes networks
• Dominant
• values academic
  bureaucratic entrepreneurial

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The Broader ContextLiving in An Age of
Technoscience

• blurring discursive boundaries
• between science (episteme) and technology
  (techne)
• breaking down institutional borders
• between public and private, economic and academic
  
• mixing skills and knowledge
• across disciplines and societal domains

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From Science to Technoscience

• change in range and scope a plurality of
  sciences
• market orientation, global reach
• university-industry collaboration
• the strategic state foresight or picking the
  winners

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Trandisciplinarity, 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. Sage 1994, p168

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Cognitive Differences
Mode 1 Mode 2 cumulative discontinuo
us unified pluralist universal specific
cooperative competitive objective construct
ive paradigmatic situated
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From Science to Research

• from doing experiments to doing business
• product-oriented, or commercial research
• from providing expertise to governing
• project-oriented, or governance research
• from enlightening to empowering
• problem-oriented, or advocacy research

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Contending Discourses

• commercial research hubris goes to market
• - globalization, competitiveness, innovation
• governance research controlling hubris
• - welfare, employment, equality, construction
• advocacy research the hybrid imagination
• global justice, scientific citizenship,
  sustainability

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Contending Institutions

• commercial research
• - innovation networks, patent systems, markets
• governance research
• - state agencies, regulations, policies, laws
• advocacy research
• - civic organizations, public education,
  assessment

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Contending Identities

• commercial research
• - academic entrepeneurs, market researchers
• governance research
• - expert consultants, policy researchers
• advocacy research
• - activist academics, action researchers

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Environmental Science, ala Mode 1

• Disciplinary identity
• specialized subfields of biology and
  engineering
• Academic theories
• mostly about non-human nature
• Administrative applications
• primarily related to state and municipal
  authorities

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Environmental Science, ala Mode 2

• hybrid competencies
• mixing of skills, theories, and politics
• concepts of connectivity
• systems, organizations, networks, participation
  
• processes of mediation
• between experts and citizens, North and South

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Cultural Forms of Green Knowledge
Residual Dominant Emerging Key
sites local/national global
hybrid networks Forms of action
popular commercial exemplary
resistance facilitation mobilization Form
of knowledge factual/lay managerial
situated Sources traditions,
professional experience, of knowledge
disciplines expertise examples
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The Hybrid Imagination

• At the discursive level
• making connnections, integrating ideas
• At the institutional level
• creating contexts of mediation, hybrid forums
• At the practical/personal level
• fostering hybrid competencies and identities

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Inter- or transdisciplinarity?

• Interdisciplinarity Transdisciplinarity
• integration of disciplines
  transcendence of disciplines
• (internal) problem-driven (external)
  project-driven
• bottom-up, self-organized top-down,
  formalized
• a dialogical rationality an
  instrumental rationality

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Types of Interdisciplinarity

• Collaboration
• synthetic integration
• a sharing of experience and identity
• Cooperation
• multidisciplinary teamwork
• a process of collective learning

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Types of Transdisciplinarity

• Nondisciplinarity, or niche-seeking
• a conceptual competence
• theory, or technique-based identity
• Subdisciplinarity, or specialization
• a methodological competence
• topic, or area-based identity

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For example STS

• Science, Technology and Society
• interdisciplinary education and research
• bridging the two cultures gap
• Science and Technology Studies
• transdisciplinary and heterogeneous field
• related to growth of EU research programs

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Science, Technology and Society

• Collaboration
• finalization, science dynamics, SCOT
• technology assessment, science shops
• Cooperation
• European Association for the Study of Science and
  Technology (EASST)
• educational exchanges and PhD networks

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Science and Technology Studies

• Nondisciplinarity, or niche-seeking
• sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK)
• actor-network theory, technology foresight
• Subdisciplinarity, or sectorial specialization
• science and technology policy
• innovation studies, knowledge management

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For example Environmental Studies

• Environmental Science(s)
• interdisciplinary centers and departments
• internally-driven and often academic-oriented
• Environmental Management
• add-on masters and doctoral programs
• externally-driven and often market-oriented

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Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences

• Collaboration
• human ecology, social ecology
• sustainability science, ecological economics
• Cooperation
• IBP, IPCC and other international programs
• environmental science departments

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Transdisciplinary Environmental Management

• Nondisciplinarity
• Urban sustainable development
• Eco-efficiency, life cycle analysis
• Subdisciplinarity
• Environmental chemistry, history
• Energy planning, sociology of risk

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The Bauhaus... vs The Matrix
"art and technology a new unity
The technification of culture