Stephen Healy

Epistemological pluralism and the ‘politics of choice’

Abstract This paper argues that the destructive effects of the hegemony of scientific rationality on society, culture and politics can be countered by an approach of ‘epistemological pluralism’ that legitimises and deploys other ways of knowing. Originally proposed as a matter of pragmatic theory choice in the context of risk decisions (S.A. Healy, Journal of Risk Research, in press) this paper discusses the ramifications of ‘epistemological pluralism’ for wider ‘knowledge politics’ emphasising how it facilitates choice over the futures available to us. ‘Epistemological pluralism’ rests on the contention that epistemology is a matter of practice in which issues of context, process and procedure and not metaphysical or ontological abstractions take precedent. The focus on practice centres attention on the means by which knowledge is generated, disseminated and applied, and due process is then readily characterised in terms such as those of openness, transparency and participation. The concluding discussion explores the political implications of the legitimation of difference involved in a politics of knowledge conceived along these lines. “I would be tempted to say that we might be shifting slowly from an ideal of calculability to a new ideal of descriptibility. Calculations allowed [us] to shortcut politics by ignoring all of the externalities that were shed outside of the realm of what is to be calculated. Capitalism itself, in this view, is one among many of the powerful ways of distributing what is to be calculated—internalities—and what is not to be calculated—externalities. The limits of capitalism as a mode of calculation—not as a mode of production—is that it renders itself voluntarily very inefficient at calculating what it has left aside: unintended consequences, entanglement, due process, externalities.” (B. Latour, Concepts and Transformation 3 (112) (1998) 97–112).

Efficiency enhancements in crystalline silicon solar cells by alloying with germanium

Abstract Thin-film crystalline silicon (c-Si) offers the promise of high performance photovoltaic cells at low cost. The incorporation of a region alloyed with germanium into a thin-film c-Si cell offers an enhancement in the near infrared response via the reduced bandgap of this region. This proposition is validated via theoretical analyses and computer device modelling which show that significant gains in cell efficiencies can be obtained as a result of realistic surface restraints on cell voltage. Fabrication techniques are examined with particular emphasis on liquid phase epitaxy and future possible implementations are postulated.

A ‘post-foundational’ interpretation of risk: risk as ‘performance’

Contemporary problems tend to be inherently ‘post‐normal’ in their intimate intermeshing of scientific and contextual concerns. Yet we struggle with this mix, constrained by analytical frameworks that admit one or other of these concerns but not both. While this segregation of material and social domains has been central to the western intellectual tradition, alternative understandings transcending these distinctions have recently been developed. This paper applies some of these insights to risk. Using Actor–Network Theory risk is conceived as a dynamic entity manifested by the relationships between material and social domains rather than as something correlating to either one or other of them. This interpretation illuminates the systemic nature of contemporary problems and the solutions they necessitate underlining, in particular, the significance of matters of scale and complexity. Applied to the risk society it advances insights concerning the pervasiveness of scientific logic and its embodiment by leading institutions, while applied to public participation and HAZOP it emphasizes the benefits of unhindered, intersubjective communication. Harnessing these insights an approach of ‘epistemic pluralism’ is proposed for ‘post‐normal’ problems in which conventional insights and methods are pragmatically combined with those of the form elaborated here.

Toward a vocabulary for speaking of the engagement of things into discourse

Abstract Latour argues that complex environmental problems are sustained and proliferate because the intermeshing of humans and non-humans they embody is systematically obscured, a systematics reproduced by defining discourse narrowly in terms of symbol and meaning. This article argues that discourse is more constructively viewed as a practice constitutive of dynamic ‘relational complexes’ involving people, things and their many properties, competences and accomplishments. A relational epistemology clarifies how the practices constituting these ‘complexes’ generate, reproduce and convey knowledge, in contradistinction to the more conventional focus upon the representational statements they produce, while a Foucaultian analysis illuminates how these ‘complexes’ exhibit power. Overall this perspective suggests that the problems identified by Latour may be addressed via informed, dynamic engagement in contexts manifesting a nexus between knowledge, actions and politics in ways responsive to their interdependencies. Such engagement is illustrated using a public participation project with which the author was involved while the relevance of these ideas for environmental institutions and policy contexts more broadly are examined via recent developments at the International Panel on Climate Change.

Public participation as the performance of nature

Bruno Latour (1993) contends that contemporary environmental problems, such as climate change and ozone depletion, are ‘hybrid’ because they involve an intimacy between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ obscured by prevailing thinking. He further argues that this tendency, exemplified by the segregation of the non-human from the human manifest in the divide between the natural and social sciences, facilitates the proliferation of such problems (Latour, 1993). One response to the challenges, complexities and risks posed by these matters has been a turn toward greater public participation in environmental policy and decisionmaking. This chapter is focused by an analysis of how one example of local public participation engaged with this ‘hybridity’. It is argued that the environmental outcome achieved by this process, characterized in this chapter as a performance of nature, required significant engagement across and between the material and social domains, and that analogous approaches may be of relevance for our collective responses to these matters at the larger scale. The access to public knowledge and values granted by public participation is widely regarded as having the potential to enhance the management of risk and complexity (Beck, 1992; Irwin, 1995; Irwin, 2001; Irwin and Wynne, 1996) and reinforce the legitimacy of decisions and decision-makers. However, public participation, while conceived as a practice to bring diverse knowledges to bear upon specified problems, is commonly constrained by the notions of ‘rational decision-making’ that routinely dominate policy procedures and are informed and shaped by scientific conceptions of knowledge (Irwin, 1995). Indeed, participation commonly takes the form of a procedure or mechanism devised so as to grant existing ‘rational decision-making’ arrangements access to public knowledge and values. While this ‘access’ is frequently compromised with, for example, adversarial notions of argumentation in which the ‘best’ (read scientific) argument wins, central to these arrangements, of more fundamental interest, is the view of knowledge—the epistemology—underpinning them. Reflecting the disciplinary divide discussed above this embraces the ontological distinction between an ‘external’ material world and ‘internal’ human world and conceives of knowledge as representations of these worlds. As a result, public

Privileging process over ‘fact’: The Sydney water scare as ‘organised irresponsibility’

The Sydney water scare shares with numerous contemporary policy issues a complex intermeshing of ‘fact’ and ‘value’. An examination of the institutional reforms that resolved this matter shows the ‘appeals to the facts’ that dominated contemporary commentary to be both misleading and counterproductive. The emphasis on process that emerges reflects recent approaches to science in policy which, in acknowledging a key role for values, privilege decision processes over technical analyses, highlight community involvement, and stress discursive procedures and fora over more conventional rational choice models of decision making. Ultimately we need to reconceive the fact/value distinction and how it frames science in politics. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Low-temperature growth of silicon on Si1−xGex by liquid phase epitaxy

Abstract The heteroepitaxial growth of silicon onto a Si 1− x Ge x layer by low-temperature liquid phase epitaxy is described. The Si 1− x Ge x layer is first deposited onto a polished 〈111〉 silicon substrate before overgrowth by silicon. Growth temperatures between 470 and 395°C are achieved by the use of a gold-bismuth alloy as the growth solvent. Meltback of the alloy layer was avoided by use of low growth temperatures, dilute alloys and supersaturation of the growth solvent. This demonstrates the possibility of using LPE to grow Si/Si 1− x Ge x /Si device structures.

Very-low-temperature liquid-phase epitaxial growth of silicon

Abstract Uniform silicon epitaxial layers have been grown reproducibly over large areas on polished (111) silicon substrates at temperatures as low as 380–450°C. The layers were grown using a novel gold-bismuth alloy as solvent which was shown to have a higher silicon solubility than previous low-temperature solvents. This allowed significantly lower doping in the grown layer to be achieved.

From Smart Grid to Smart Energy Use

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the evolution of the electricity industry to show how the current emphasis on some specific smart grid applications and technologies, such as smart meters and dynamic pricing, represents only a modest change in the underlying historical trajectory of the industry. Smart energy use requires attending to far more than matters such as technology and pricing, which currently focus thinking about end-user engagement. Facilitating smart energy use is far from straightforward, however, ultimately requiring that the industry revisit its organizational structures so as to turn away from what has become a systemic supply-side bias. It requires attention to technical, commercial, and regulatory matters and a significant re-engineering of governance arrangements. A notable near term opportunity likely exists in retail markets where the facilitation of energy service companies established, resourced, regulated, and governed with end-user interests in mind has the potential to put this agenda into practice.

Is there a sustainable future for nuclear power

This paper focuses on nuclear powers application to electricity generation, noting that its military and foreign policy implications cannot be ignored and thus must be considered. We first set out a sustainability framework for assessing electricity industry design options and discuss the key issues for nuclear power in this context. We then review nuclear powers troubled past and contested present. Nuclear powers uncertain future is explored through three general scenarios of how nuclear power might fare, broadly classified as decline, business as usual, and renaissance. Finally, we discuss how societies might make decisions about the future of nuclear power as well as the role of the engineering profession in that process