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Doing sustainability -or other science -in cynical times

Presentation · July 2019

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.35836.08328

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Doing sustainability – or other science – in cynical times

Or

other.
Yo canto porque s’escucha (more of this later)

Haris shekeris

doing. 2
 Contents of the next few slides

●
Demonstrations of framing

●
Methodology

other. 3
 Methodology

Stealing, twisting, and copying … and then doing

some more cultural appropriation
(being EU citizen in a post-colonial world)

Also some political manoeuvring such as

attempting to sound convincing, diverging,
dodging and crude attempts at deception

science 4
Proviso: As this is informal, please take seriously only 50% of the talk

other. 5
 Democratisation of a Sustain café talk

An exercise in democracy:

You get to vote about what happens next. I will

present you the following two options and then
we’ll vote

other. 6
 Democratisation of a Sustain café talk (cont’d)

I’ll talk with the slides for around 45 more mins

(no questions).
Then we’ll discuss questions and comments.
Then I’ll talk a bit more on things we choose
together.
Then more deliberation.
And hopefully we’ll all leave buzzing with thoughts

other. 7
 Ok, let’s go,
here are your
options!

other. 8
 Three main themes of the talk
●
On the value of sustainability and on values in science

●
Historical contextualisation of sustainability science in the 20th and
early 21st century

●
A definition of sustainability

●
Suggestions

oder. 9
Or

other. 10
 What i’ll speak about today

●
World
●
Cynical
●
Science
●
Other
●
Sustainability
●
Doing

other. 11
Or

world 12
 Cliquez pour ajouter un titre

A rambling walk-through of the 20th century till the present and

then a semi-coherent rant about how sustainability scientists
can save the world from itself if only they would transform
themselves into a religion or a political party instead.

other. 13
Voting à la Ancient Sparta (ie by voice)

other. 14
Democracy (a framing of)

world 15
 Which side are you on?
Politics Science
Science Politics
Science Politics Scientization of politics
Real? Bad? Really Bad Reality? Panacea? Erm… Nazism and politicisation of
science (Weingart,
1999)

cynical 16
Musical interlude. The only important part of the
talk (in 5 mins 41 seconds)

(let’s see if this works)

other. 17
 Take-home messages of the talk so far
●
Unpredictability as a value (but then think of Donald Trump)

●
Framing really matters – think of wicked problems

●
Voting and democracy, when was the last time you voted? Is
science necessary for democracy? Is it compatible with
democracy? How about in sustainability science? (more on this
later)

other. 18
Ok, take a deep breath (cultural appropriation
again)

Moving on.

other. 19
Values.

world 20
Values and Science

“the physicists
have known
SIN; and this is
a knowledge
which they
cannot lose”.

world 21
 Science and Values
The eternal struggle (?????) of scientists to distinguish themselves from
religion

However

Sustainability science wants to become an overarching framework

guiding the practice of science (ie not merely enter the zoo of the
sciences as another animal, but be the zookeeper), and its reason is
peace and love and sustainability and other fluffy- and religious-sounding
values.

cynical 22
 Values. and Science
Moreover
●
It wants to set the agenda (value of research)
●
It wants significant (and increasing) research funding.
●
It attempts to a) integrate the social and the natural sciences and b) ally
itself with World Government (the UN)
●
And all of this with a moralising air of entitlement. (a bunch of values)

●
Wouldn’t you feel threatened if you were an ambitious cosmologist or
cancer specialist?

sustainability 23
 a)
Uneasy bedfellows: Social science and natural science

Reason of the unease: (my diagnosis): Genuinely different aims

and different worldviews and thus perceptions of their
relationship to society

Worry about sustainability: can it reconcile the two or does it

end up doing both bad natural and bad social science?

sustainability 24
 b)
●
The changing nature of the nation-state: From Empires to
Nations and Nation-building to the EU vs GAMFA

●
From the League of Nations to Che at the UN to the IPCC

●
Sustainability science intimately linked to the United Nations
all in just 100 years

world 25
Transformations

world 26
More transformations

world 27
 Revisiting the zoo
●
Increasing specialisation – is the fragmentation of disciplines a
necessary result of the ‘growth of knowledge’?
●
How about increased competition for funds based on good
propaganda?
●
How about increased demand from society?
●
How about increased access to university education?
●
How about the commodification of knowledge? (the journals
market)

science 28
 Revisiting the zoo (cont’d)
●
How about academic cross-fertilization?
●
How about cultural cross-fertilization aided by things like
aeroplanes, television, the internet?
●
How about a biological / game theory explanation of hawks and
doves, between specialists and generalists?

A disenchantment with the definition of sustainability

science – though what about the moral mission?

sustainability 29
Me trying to save face with my abstract
(ie provide a definition and proposing
something super-radical)

cynical 30
My own attempt at a definition pre 2nd June 2019

(the presentation is online)

sustainability 31
 II. Sustainability science as communitarian
techno-science
Why is sustainability science communitarian techno-science?

●
Brought about by communal performative issued by the Editorial Board of the
PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)
●
Avowedly value-driven, with sustainability being the driving value
●
Local projects, knowledge produced has no aspirations of universality
●
Knowledge co-produced (at least under ideal circumstances) by communities of
researchers and other stakeholders – erosion, to a certain extent, of the lay/expert
distinction
sustainability 32
 II. Sustainability science as communitarian
techno-science
Why is sustainability science communitarian techno-science?

●
Process-oriented (engagement with stakeholders and co-production at the
epistemic level) rather than knowledge-first approach (Miller 2013)
●
Its products include primarily solutions to problems, such as the use of
technologies (old or new) or policy recommendations, as well as theories
●
Builds on the theories and methods of several more “traditional” sciences

science 33
 A suggestion that’s supposed to be radical

If the sustainability people really want to change

the world of humans, then their biggest ally can be
the many humans (if they’re serious about peace
and love and sustainability)

other. 34
 How to do that?
●
Democracy
The rule of numbers. Or rather, the rule of the many (more than
half at least, ideally many more) humans in the democratic
arena of arguments and deliberation.

I will not accept questions on the topic of whether people can

understand. If you feel that you’re right, then you shouldn’t be
afraid of discussion, nor that somebody will simply ‘not get it’. If
you’re shy, then some of your friends will sort help you out.
Making friends is also a good sign that you’re doing something
right. doing 35
An example lovingly stolen from Pielke Jr., to
finish

other. 36
science 37
world 38
sustainability 39
Doing sustainability.

doing 40
ありがとうございまし 41
 Let us be citizens now :)

other. 42
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