Jennifer Richter

STIRring the grid: engaging energy systems design and planning in the context of urban sociotechnical imaginaries

Since the first electrification systems were established in the United States between 1910 and 1930, energy systems governance at the municipal level has included competing visions for how engineering design and energy policy-making should foster particular social outcomes. Using Phoenix as a representative metropolitan area, and the cases of distributed generation and in-home power management devices as examples, this paper explores how the norms and values embedded in energy systems design and planning shape how residents experience change in the energy grid. Through these case studies, the authors argue that such “sociotechnical imaginaries” – collectively formed visions of social life related to science and technology development – are a crucial, yet overlooked, pathway for social science to engage in fostering socially reflexive mechanisms in energy development. To conclude, the authors outline a research program for applying the established methodology of socio-technical integration research (STIR) in order to develop socially reflexive capacities in municipal energy producing, regulating, and planning institutions. Such a program has the ability to produce a deeper intellectual understanding of how energy development occurs, and in doing so generate new pathways for fostering cultural and material changes in the structure of contemporary energy systems.

Responsible innovation and education: integrating values and technology in the classroom

Educational systems in the US are varied and undergoing constant change, with new values and methods infusing iterations of education development over time. This essay argues that by explicitly ack...

The Unpredictable Materiality of Radioactive Waste

This chapter examines the materiality of nuclear waste as a wicked problem that has had many proposed “solutions,” none of which can comprehensively address an issue that will remain toxic and dangerous to ecosystems for millions of years. This is evident in both nuclear disasters like the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant explosion and meltdown, and the intractable issue of nuclear waste disposal in the US. In both cases, the biophysical properties of nuclear waste confound any singular solution. Instead, nuclear-dependent societies need to think about nuclear waste as an object of perpetual management for humankind rather than a problem that can be “solved” by geologic disposal based on political expediency.

Integrating Science and Society for Environmental Realism

Recent developments spanning numerous fields—including ecology, evolutionary science, psychology, sustainability, technology studies, and economics—further demonstrate the problematic nature of a solutionist paradigm and offer compelling evidence of ways forward that accept the deep interconnections between human and biophysical systems. However, consistent with the book’s driving premise that environmental realism with its inherent complexity must be acknowledged, there is no singular conclusion to this work. Although the developments discussed offer reason for optimism, they also highlight the continual effort that will be required at multiple organizational levels to shape a positive trajectory for humanity.

Why Challenge Solutions

Labeling a problem “environmental” creates a pervasive belief that science and technology can, should, and will generate solutions for issues ranging from pandemic disease to stream functions to nuclear contamination. These, however, are “wicked problems” that defy simple or long-term solutions, but rather must be continually managed. Further, what are defined in the twenty-first century as “environmental problems” are often the consequence of perceived “solutions” implemented in a previous era. The perception of these issues as problems is derived, in part, from Enlightenment ideas segregating Homo sapiens from nature and a belief that humans can contain or control biophysical processes. Solutionist thinking and language perpetuates a self-referential problem-solution-problem cycle that begs the question of what constitutes a “solution” and simultaneously elides the reality that human systems and biophysical systems are inseparable.

The Human Nature of Infectious Disease

Infectious disease raises questions about humans’ abilities to eliminate harm through the control of nature. People work to understand microbial life in order to manage the ways microbes mutate, adapt, and evolve, even while recognizing organisms’ essential nature. Public health practices from the past and present exemplify this ongoing quest to “solve” disease. Eradicating pathogens persists as a public health objective, even as new microbes emerge in the human environment. “Superbugs” and antibiotic resistance exemplify the problem-solution-problem cycle of disease. Moving from solutions-based thinking enables new imaginings of the microbial world in which humans reside.

River Management and Restoration: Addressing Yesterday’s Solutions

Homo sapiens have always managed water to satisfy perceived needs and desires. Human history is also a history of the effort to contain and control rivers, and hence this history is rife with examples of the problem-solution-problem cycle. River improvement programs in the nineteenth century are connected to flood control concerns in the early twentieth century, which are subsequently related to river restoration efforts in the twenty-first century. In each era, problems have been defined and subsequent “solutions” implemented, too often with little regard for the reality of how rivers function over both short and long temporal and spatial scales.

Small modular reactors: the future of nuclear energy?

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are being explored by the NRC and DOE as a means of producing nuclear energy on a smaller scale. Because of their modularity, they are presumed to be both less costly and more efficient to produce. This paper describes the historical context of SMRs, as well as potential issues relating to the social context of SMRs if they are deployed in society on different scales, from the local to the national and international. Understanding SMRs as sociotechnical systems allows for different conception of the role of SMRs as a technology that could potentially reorganize society, which needs to be accounted for prior to deployment. The concept of the sociotechnical imaginary also provides another way of considering how SMRs both shape and are shaped by national imperatives for energy production and markets.