Responsible innovation: bringing together technology assessment, applied ethics, and STS research

Paper presented as "key note" at the Doctorate Conference on Technology Assessment in June 2011, at FCT-UNL, Monte de Caparica.

A Teia de Penélope : encontros e desencontros entre a arte e o artesanato na Época Contemporânea

Partindo da consciência de que o artesanato se encontra num momento de considerável vigor, apesar da aparente supremacia tecnológica, bem como de que a percepção em relação ao artesanato foi sofrendo variações ao longo do tempo, a presente dissertação pretende averiguar o estatuto e o significado do artesanato, no âmbito da prática artística contemporânea. Com o intuito de analisar alguns dos possíveis desdobramentos desta reflexão, o presente estudo divide-se em três capítulos. Após um preâmbulo, que consiste numa breve história dos ofícios com início na Antiguidade Clássica, desembocando na ruptura entre a beleza e a utilidade que surgiu no século XVIII, o primeiro capítulo constitui uma análise das disputas e diálogos entre a arte popular, as belas-artes a indústria, assumindo um balizamento cronológico que se estende desde a Revolução Industrial e do movimento Arts and Crafts de Oitocentos até à era digital que emergiu na década de 1980. O segundo capítulo dedica-se a interrogar o entrelaçamento da actividade artesanal na dicotomia entre a cultura de elite e a cultura de massas, a partir da sua formulação no século XIX e terminando na actualidade. Neste percurso, sobressai a identificação da cultura popular com o feminino e, consequentemente, com a decoração, no contexto do Modernismo, a qual foi alvo de revisão e de crítica no seio do Pós- Modernismo, assim como do feminismo dos anos 1970 e 1980. Procura-se ainda indagar de que maneira o “artesanativismo” feminista inspirou a actual revigoração da aliança entre o artesanato e o activismo. Finalmente, no terceiro e último capítulo, o nosso estudo centra-se na obra de quatro artistas-artesãos contemporâneos, em que os temas anteriormente desenvolvidos são tratados de forma sistemática. Serão problematizadas criações tão díspares e geograficamente distantes quanto as da portuguesa Cristina Rodrigues e do ganiano El Anatsui, da norte-americana Anne Wilson e da austríaca Kathrin Stumreich.

Migrant Remittances and Information Flows: Evidence from a Field Experiment*

Do information flows matter for remittance behavior? We design and implement a randomized control trial to quantitatively assess the role of communication between migrants and their contacts abroad on the extent and value of remittance flows. In the experiment, a random sample of 1,500 migrants residing in Ireland was offered the possibility of contacting their networks outside the host country for free over a varying number of months. We find a sizable, positive impact of our intervention on the value of migrant remittances sent. Our results exclude that the remittance effect we identify is a simple substitution effect. Instead, our analysis points to this effect being a likely result of improved information via factors such as better migrant control over remittance use, enhanced trust in remittance channels due to experience sharing, or increased remittance recipients’ social pressure on migrants.

Consolidation and chromatic reintegration of historical renders with lime-based pozzolanic products

Historical renders are exposed to several degradation processes that can lead to a wide range of anomalies,such as scaling, detachments, and pulverization. Among the common anomalies, the loss of cohesion and of adhesion are usually identified as the most difficult to repair; these anomalies still need to be deeply studied to design compatible, durable, and sustainable conservation treatments. The restitution of render cohesion can be achieved using consolidating products. Nevertheless, repair treatments could induce aesthetic alterations, and, therefore, are usually followed by chromatic reintegration. This work aims to study the effectiveness of mineral products as consolidants for lime-based mortars and simultaneously as chromatic treatments for pigmented renders. The studied consolidating products are prepared by mixing air lime,metakaolin, water, and mineral pigments. The idea of these consolidating and coloring products rises from a traditional lime-based technique, the limewash, widely diffused in southern Europe and in the Mediterranean area. Consolidating products were applied and tested on lime-based mortar specimens with a low binder–aggregate ratio and therefore with reduced cohesion. A physico-mechanical, microstructural, and mineralogical characterization was performed on untreated and treated specimens, in order to evaluate the efficacy and durability of the treatments. Accelerated aging tests were also performed to assess consolidant durability, when subjected to aggressive conditions. Results showed that the consolidants tested are compatible, effective, and possess good durability.