Ulrik Jørgensen

Clean technology — Innovation and environmental regulation

The development and diffusion of clean technologies has an important role to play in preventing pollution. Government must address the issue of how firms can be given the necessary incentive to develop environmentally sound production techniques and products. This paper focus on how subsidies can — under certain restrictive conditions — stimulate innovation. Subsidization is usually assumed to involve unit subsidies for pollution reduction. Unit subsidies have little to do with the subsidy schemes in actual use. Our focus is on subsidy schemes specifically designed to promote the development of clean technologies through the use of grants/financial aid. Based on data from the development projects initiated through The Danish Clean Technology Programme we analyze how environmental innovations take place when the polluters, their suppliers and consultants are actively engaged in the development processes. The main merit of subsidy schemes like the Danish one is its direct focus on the innovation processes and the active incorporation of the network of firms surrounding the polluters. Our findings lead us to conclude that when it comes to subsidization, the role of government should be redefined. Government can act as a “matchmaker” by providing firms with informative incentives and necessary contacts for finding more efficient technological solutions to specific environmental problems.

Historical Accounts Of Engineering Education

When engaging in the reform of engineering education, it is important to understand its historical context. For over 150 years, educational institutions have played a major role in shaping the skills and professional identities of engineers. During this period, the appropriate approach to engineering education has been the subject of constant discussions and controversy. Major changes have occurred both in the way engineering education is organized and in its relation to science education. Radical changes have also occurred in the technologies and technical specialties within engineering. Despite this history, and particularly in view of the controversies surrounding the role of engineering education since the late 1960s, engineering schools have been surprisingly stable in their basic philosophy regarding the structure and core content of the engineering curriculum. Only modest reforms have been implemented in the curriculum and pedagogy of engineering education in several decades. Most of these reforms have been focused on increasing the number of technical engineering topics, and solving the resulting problems of disciplinary congestion. By the 1990s, organized efforts in both the United States and Europe raised basic questions about the relevance of engineering education as it had developed since World War II. The problems included a lack of practical skills in modern engineering training, the lack of relevance for industry of the science being taught, and the kind of analytical qualifications being awarded in engineering education compared with visions of engineers as creative designers and innovators of future technologies. With its emphasis on science and knowledge structured around technical disciplines, engineering education developed into an education of technically skilled cooperative workers. However, many feel that the knowledge and broad innovative capacity needed to produce creative design engineers able to cope with contemporary technological change seem to be lacking in engineering education. Several educational initiatives have addressed these issues, and attempted to outline plans to reform engineering education. Some focus on engineering curriculum or pedagogy; some develop completely new engineering programs based on new technologies. Other initiatives combine business, management,

Environmental management in Danish transnational textile product chains

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse environmental responsibility of companies from industrialized countries when they source materials and products in countries with less environmental protection.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a study of corporate environmental management in the Danish textile and clothing sector, with 13 cases based on interviews and material from reports and websites. The criteria for choosing the cases were variety of size and market segment, and a mixture of companies that take environmental initiatives and companies for which it was not known whether they take environmental initiatives.Findings – Several different environmental practices were identified: some companies were early which got sustained initiatives, and some early and not sustained initiatives; some companies were late with sustained initiatives, and some late and not sustained initiatives; and finally, some have a practice without environmental initiatives. Dominating types of initiatives are c...

Green technology foresight of high technology: a social shaping of technology approach to the analysis of hopes and hypes

High tech visions play an important part in public technology policy and are often promoted through technology foresights. The article presents and analyses results from a green technology foresight of nano-, bio- and information- and communication technologies initiated by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency with the purpose of acquiring knowledge about the environmental potentials and risks related to the three areas of technology. The foresight was organised with a social shaping of technology (SST) approach to the field in order to cater for the complex relationship between societal demands, technology options, innovation dynamics and environmental impacts. The approach involved studying actor-networks, laboratory programmes and technology trajectories as well as deconstructing different stakeholders’ high tech visions. The identified environmental potentials and risks related to the three areas of technology and recommendations for future governance of research, innovation and application areas are discussed.

Hunting and fishing settlements in Upernavik district of Northern Greenland – challenged by climate, centralization, and globalization

Inuit from the Upernavik district of Northern Greenland have, for generations, used winter sea ice as the basis for essential hunting of seals, white whales, and narwhales. For the continued subsistence survival of 400 families since the late 1980s, hunting has been combined with increasing fishing of Greenland halibut during the summer from dinghies and in the winter from the sea ice. However, subsistence living conditions are now under intense pressure from a set of rapid, interacting changes in the natural environment and socioeconomic institutions resulting from climate changes, modernization, and globalization. Specifically, Greenlands Government intends to allocate a greater portion of the halibut quota to larger vessels outside the Upernavik district and simultaneously reduce the quota for dinghy and dog-sledge fishing due to limited or even misleading data regarding local subsistence and the cash economy.

No Smooth, Managed Pathway to Sustainable Energy Systems – Politics, Materiality and Visions for Wind Turbine and Biogas Technology

Wind energy and biogas are considered to be economically viable renewable energy solutions to the increasingly acknowledged climate challenge. Political controversy over long-term and short-term goals, changing economic criteria and performance assessments, as well as technical constraints related to design, systems embedding and material agency of the technologies have contributed to the ‘roller coaster’ character of assessments and development. This contribution explores how conflicting relationships between renewable energy technologies based on wind and biomass, as well as institutional and regulatory changes, have shaped the Danish energy system. Important lessons can be learned from case studies on the assessment of technology and its anticipated properties, the role of alliances and predictions for change, as well as the need for the continued modification of energy innovation strategies and regulatory policies in a climate of continued controversy over means and ends.

Constructions of the Core of Engineering: Technology and Design as Modes of Social Intervention

For a long period of time math and science subjects have undisputedly been seen as the core of engineering education that unifies the field despite the still growing diversity of engineering domains. These disciplines are assigned the role of providing an instrumental, common basis for the development and operation of technologies serving society and human needs. Though the relative part that these disciplines cover has been reduced in the wake of new technical disciplines and the resulting curricula congestion they are still serving as an ideological backbone in discussions of engineering and have made the introduction of other perspectives very difficult as demonstrated in the history of engineering education. The question raised in this chapter is whether new areas of teaching and new disciplines should be considered as alternative candidates to the core curriculum or whether the mere idea of a core should be revised and given up as part of the ‘expansive disintegration’ observed within the field of engineering. Socio-material design of not only products and services, but also of technological systems takes seriously the important role that technology has in defining social ordering mechanisms in society. This makes socio-material design a potential candidate to become the new core of engineering, coming together with other approaches that emphasize the social part of technology. If accepted on equal footing with the use of models and science, design could serve to moderate the technocratic and instrumental focus that prevails in engineering education due to the dominance of math and science in the core curriculum of engineering education from the very first lectures.

THE CHALLENGES OF TEACHING SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM DESIGN

We present the program Sustainable Design Engineering, where Science and Technology Studies theories are a core element among design and engineering approaches. Our main claim is that existing product centred and short-term oriented solution tools and knowledges are inadequate for system design in a sustainable transition perspective. To achieve this goal, design theory and practices need to be further improved to be able to tackle controversies and engage in proposing how to navigate conflicting matters of concern and partial systemic clashes with a long-term scope.

The Politics of Engineering Professionalism and Education

In this concluding chapter, the authors discuss the implications of the findings presented in the chapters of the book. The contributions will be framed within the most important current debates on engineering professional work and the reform of engineering education. The studies presented in the book have approached engineering in work and education by looking at the practices of engineers: professional engineers, engineering students, and engineering educators.

Environment and Sustainability Challenges to Engineering Education in Denmark

In this chapter, we discuss the practices of planning for sustainability in engineering education by examining the ways environment and energy and later sustainability issues have been incorporated in the educational programs at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and at Aalborg University (AAU) since the 1970s. These are the two most important research universities providing engineering education in Denmark, measured by numbers of programs and students.