The role tradition played in preindustrial societies has been supplanted by the decisions of countless specialists organized by means of an intellectual and professional division of labor shaping a knowledge infrastructure that sustains these decisions. Three limitations of this knowledge system are discussed: (a) on the macrolevel, it imposes an end-of-pipe approach for dealing with the undesired consequences of decision making, rarely getting to the root of any problem; (b) on the microlevel, individual practitioners of a specialty are trapped in (...) a triple abstraction, leading to a poor ratio of desired to undesired effects of their decision making; and (c) on the intermediate level, it bars the road to genuine solutions to many difficulties faced by contemporary civilization. In this first of four articles, the beginning of a response is developed for the profession of engineering, which will be paradigmatic for other professions, the social sciences, and the university as a whole. (shrink)

This third part continues the exploration of how we can overcome the limitations of the present knowledge system. In preparation, two aspects of current engineering theory and practice are examined because they are paradigmatic: the concept that engineering is essentially problem-solving, which goes against our understanding of human skill acquisition, and the existence of parallel modes of knowing technology derived from professional education and practice and from living in a society permeated by technology. The former suspends practitioners in the previously (...) examined triple abstraction as a primary microlevel characteristic of the current knowledge system and is thus separated from experience and culture. The second mode of knowing derives from daily life experience, symbolically represented by the organization of the brain-mind, which also functions as a mental map for skillfully coping with the world according to a culture. The practitioner primarily derives analytical exemplars from the former knowing and design exemplars from the latter. It is shown how this affects the building of cities and the design of production systems. Umbrella concepts and round tables are introduced as further steps toward transforming university departments, and (as we will see in Part 4) the operation of the university. (shrink)

This fourth part outlines a strategy for overcoming the limitations of the knowledge system for engineering by combining intellectual maps, preventive approaches, umbrella concepts, and round tables as described in the earlier parts. A discussion of the issues faced by modern medicine illustrates the paradigmatic nature of the diagnosis and prescription made for engineering. The social sciences face mirror-image problems. One response has been the rise of new disciplines such as communications, environmental studies, urban affairs, criminology, and policy studies. To (...) avoid the limitations of discipline-based knowing and doing, a similar strategy for their transformation will have to be implemented. Considerable synergies would result if parallel efforts to transform the present knowledge system were carried out throughout the university. Some suggestions are made as to how this can be supported by organizational and institutional changes. Finally, it is suggested that such a transformation of the university could make a critical and decisive contribution to overcoming the current economic, social, and environmental crises. (shrink)

This second part continues the search for ways of overcoming the three limitations of the current intellectual and professional division of labor and its knowledge infrastructure, which were shown to be at the root of the present economic, social and environmental crises. A complementary knowledge strategy is proposed to counterbalance the trade of breadth for depth, based on the creation of intellectual maps. One such map is described for engineering, showing how through the process of industrialization people change technology and (...) how through its influence on human life and society, technology changes people. Because industrialization cannot destroy the matter and energy it requires, it also transforms its relations with the biosphere. Once the connections between technology and everything else are mapped, specialists can inquire into the consequences of their design and decision making that fall beyond their domains of expertise, to introduce a preventive orientation into their work to achieve a better ratio of desired to undesired effects. This is shown for materials and production, energy, work, and cities. In subsequent parts, it will become apparent that this example is paradigmatic for other professions, the social sciences, and the university. (shrink)

The German end-of-life vehicle take-back system is described and analyzed in terms of its impact on the environment and the car companies involved. It is concluded that although this system is often cited as an example of a successful take-back scheme, it is not one that maximizes the value recovered from end-of-life vehicles. As a result, corporations do not achieve the potential benefits that can be realized from an alternate value chain based on recovering value from end-of-life products. Neither is (...) society benefiting from the potential reduction in pollution and from making its way of life more sustainable. Without bringing these potential benefits to all stakeholders, the system is not likely to have a future. (shrink)

High levels of specialization have created knowledge with little or no “peripheral vision,” and the resulting “blind spots” are causing many “collisions” with human life, society, and the biosphere. Each discipline and specialty must be equipped with a “map” showing its connections to everything else, but especially the negative consequences that tend to be associated with its practices. Preventively oriented practices can improve the ratio of desired to undesired effects of design and decision making to create ways of life that (...) are more sustainable across the board, as opposed to treating symptoms (such as global warming). This new approach has already fired the imagination of many students in engineering. (shrink)

In the decades to come, the authors expect growing pressures to reform current production systems to make them more compatible with the biosphere. A proactive approach to this pressure involves consideration of an alternate value chain based on a comprehensive engineering and marketing approach to recover value from end-of-life products. To estimate the potential advantages of the new value chain, the authors calculate the minimum throughput advantages and environmental advantages that can be realized from a comprehensive strategy of recovering value (...) from end-of-life products. The efforts of corporations and other organizations to make modern ways of life more environmentally sustainable are evaluated against this benchmark in terms of activities in the area of selling services, product take back, life cycle assessment, Responsible Care, voluntary emission reduction initiatives, and engineering and management education. It is concluded that in general, these efforts make only a minor contribution toward achieving. (shrink)

The strengths and weaknesses of current energy planning can be attributed to the limited economic, social, and environmental contexts taken into account as a result of the current intellectual and professional division of labor. A preventive approach is developed by which the ratio of desired to undesired effects can be substantially improved. It takes into account supply-and demand-side options, renewable and nonrenewable sources, and net energy availability. Alternative energy must be considered within such a strategy, which carefully examines its effects (...) on society and the biosphere. Intellectual barriers are identified, and ways of overcoming them are suggested. (shrink)

Product take-back (also called extended producer responsibility) has become a trend for dealing with the garbage resulting from categories of problematic products. Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is one such category with computer equipment being of particular significance. This article provides a description of the European Union’s program to require the take-back of WEEE as well as the status of similar programs in Canada and the United States. It is concluded that although these programs meet the goal of reducing (...) the quantity of hazardous materials going to landfills, they do not go to the root of the problem by means of preventive approaches that create more circular materials flows. Plastics used in WEEE pose a serious problem, as they are generally not recycled. (shrink)

Jacques Ellul’s claim that technique became an autonomous phenomenon during the middle of the 20th century, and subsequently a system, means that the influence people have on technique is much less decisive than the influence technique has on people. As a sociohistorical description of the relationship between technique and society, it can be empirically investigated. This article begins by clarifying the concept of an autonomous technique and reviews evidence to support this claim.

The German packaging ordinance is an example of legislated extended producer responsibility (also known as product take-back). Consumers can leave packaging with retailers, and packagers are required to pay for their recycling and disposal. It can be considered to be successful in reducing waste, spurring the redesign of packaging to be more environmentally sustainable, and increasing refilling and recycling. The exception is waste packaging made of plastics, which faces the problems of export due to lack of markets for recycled products (...) within Germany, the lack of capacity for recycling, the allowance for energy recovery within the ordinance, and the manufacturers’ focus on back-to-feedstock rather than back-to-plastics as a solution. This article looks at the ordinance and its effects to consider why this take-back program worked better than others. (shrink)

The literature on the impact of urban form design on travel behavior reveals mixed results. Instead of interpreting this finding as an insufficient basis for warranting action, this article suggests that a precautionary approach be introduced. This approach should be based on two interdependent modes of knowing and doing to establish and evolve design exemplars in conjunction with discipline-based analytical exemplars. Even if trends, including the digitization of human life and society, peak oil and climate change turn out to have (...) smaller negative effects than is currently anticipated, we will be ahead with more livable and sustainable urban forms. (shrink)

Contemporary civilization has created a fundamental contradiction between the intellectual approach to knowing and the technical approach to doing on the one hand, and the results of their application on the other. These approaches to knowing and doing begin with a process of abstraction that trades breadth for depth, while their application reveals a multitude of problems associated with ignoring the fact that everything is related to everything else in our world. Scientific disciplines and technical specialties create “pure” domains of (...) investigation “uncontaminated” by interactions with all other domains, thereby distorting the internal fabric of relations and its connections with everything else. Hence, the most powerful means humanity has ever created are indissociably linked with the production of chaos in human life, society, and the biosphere. A new domain of study is needed to the interactions between society, technology, science, and the biosphere (STSB). The scope, direction, and methodological challenges are briefly examined, and the possible mission of STSB within the contemporary university. (shrink)

What is the likelihood of controlling technology by means of the law? In traditional societies, the law was deeply embedded in, and dependent on, culture (the totality of human creations for making sense of and living in the world). Industrialization required a complete restructuring of both technology and society, thus engulfing all traditions in a flood of new situations for which there were no precedents. This necessitated a growing reliance on reason at the expense of culture, thereby creating a rational (...) and technical order that evolved with less and less reference to sense (i.e. experience and culture). It is within this context that recent legal transformations must be understood as participating in an order of non-sense. This bodes ill for protecting and helping to ensure a livable, sustainable human future. (shrink)

From a social and historical perspective, the conflict between science and religion regarding the opening chapters of Genesis in the Jewish and Christian Bibles may have more to do with uncritically reading these texts through our “cultural glasses” than with what these texts actually say. Within the context of his work, Jacques Ellul read these texts as having nothing to do with creation or evolution, but instead with the relations between God, his people, and the land. It includes a polemic (...) against morality and religion as fundamental threats to these relations. This is an excerpt of a larger study of the first three chapters of Genesis, as well as other portions of the Jewish and Christian Bibles. (shrink)

It is argued that contemporary civilization may be distinguished by the fact that its technology-based connectedness is fast displacing its culture-based connectedness. This article examines the ramifications of this phenomenon from the perspective of sustainability in general and its implications for our “energy systems” in particular. The diagnosis is followed by policy suggestions that would make energy use not only more sustainable but also bring it in line with human values and aspirations.

The evolution of contemporary cities into solar cities will be affected by the decisions of countless specialists according to an established intellectual and professional division of labor. These specialists belong to groups responsible for advancing and applying a body of knowledge, and jointly, these bodies of knowledge make up a knowledge infrastructure. Some characteristics of these knowledge infrastructures are examined insofar as they inhibit the evolution toward solar cities. The article concludes with suggestions as to how these knowledge infrastructures could (...) be changed. (shrink)

This article is based on the general introduction and the opening sections of chapters 1 and 2 from the author's book,Living in the Labyrinth of Technology. It revisits the process of industrialization as having a dual component: people changing technology and technology changing people. The latter is almost universally overlooked and provides a different perspective.

The strengths and weaknesses of the discipline-based organization of our professions can help us understand both the enormous successes of our civilization and its equally spectacular failures. Placing engineering and other professions under greater public scrutiny is recommended as a first step toward addressing our deep structural economic, social, and environmental crises. Doing so can facilitate university reforms to adjust the discipline-based approaches to scientific knowing and technical doing, to permit future graduates to make decisions with better ratios of desired (...) to undesired effects. In the meantime, our war on ourselves rages on. (shrink)

The five-stage skill-acquisition model developed by Stuart Dreyfus is revisited as an integral part of culture acquisition. This examination sheds light on the role intuitive knowledge plays during the 4th and 5th stages. When modern technology becomes universal and detaches itself from culture, this intuitive knowledge changes. This accounts for the loss of technologies that were socially appropriate and environmentally sustainable.

Parts 1 and 2 explore the hypothesis that the application of mainstream economics has led to economies becoming uneconomic, which is as close as a social science can get to experimentally disproving its theories. One of the primary reasons for this failure is traced to the characteristics of the knowledge infrastructures of contemporary societies, which began to act as the most influential factor of production during the second half of the 20th century. A new economic strategy is developed based on (...) the restructuring of these knowledge infrastructures by means of preventive approaches. These can help to turn growth into development, and wealth extraction into wealth creation. Without this restructuring, the current economic, social, and environmental crises will inevitably deepen and possibly threaten our civilization. (shrink)