Design thinking and the precautionary principle : development of a theoretical model complementing preventive judgment for design for sustainability enriched through a study of architectural competitions adopting LEED

Cette thèse contribue à une théorie générale de la conception du projet. S’inscrivant dans une demande marquée par les enjeux du développement durable, l’objectif principal de cette recherche est la contribution d’un modèle théorique de la conception permettant de mieux situer l’utilisation des outils et des normes d’évaluation de la durabilité d’un projet. Les principes fondamentaux de ces instruments normatifs sont analysés selon quatre dimensions : ontologique, méthodologique, épistémologique et téléologique. Les indicateurs de certains effets contre-productifs reliés, en particulier, à la mise en compte de ces normes confirment la nécessité d’une théorie du jugement qualitatif. Notre hypothèse principale prend appui sur le cadre conceptuel offert par la notion de « principe de précaution » dont les premières formulations remontent du début des années 1970, et qui avaient précisément pour objectif de remédier aux défaillances des outils et méthodes d’évaluation scientifique traditionnelles. La thèse est divisée en cinq parties. Commençant par une revue historique des modèles classiques des théories de la conception (design thinking) elle se concentre sur l’évolution des modalités de prise en compte de la durabilité. Dans cette perspective, on constate que les théories de la « conception verte » (green design) datant du début des années 1960 ou encore, les théories de la « conception écologique » (ecological design) datant des années 1970 et 1980, ont finalement convergé avec les récentes théories de la «conception durable» (sustainable design) à partir du début des années 1990. Les différentes approches du « principe de précaution » sont ensuite examinées sous l’angle de la question de la durabilité du projet. Les standards d’évaluation des risques sont comparés aux approches utilisant le principe de précaution, révélant certaines limites lors de la conception d’un projet. Un premier modèle théorique de la conception intégrant les principales dimensions du principe de précaution est ainsi esquissé. Ce modèle propose une vision globale permettant de juger un projet intégrant des principes de développement durable et se présente comme une alternative aux approches traditionnelles d’évaluation des risques, à la fois déterministes et instrumentales. L’hypothèse du principe de précaution est dès lors proposée et examinée dans le contexte spécifique du projet architectural. Cette exploration débute par une présentation de la notion classique de «prudence» telle qu’elle fut historiquement utilisée pour guider le jugement architectural. Qu’en est-il par conséquent des défis présentés par le jugement des projets d’architecture dans la montée en puissance des méthodes d’évaluation standardisées (ex. Leadership Energy and Environmental Design; LEED) ? La thèse propose une réinterprétation de la théorie de la conception telle que proposée par Donald A. Schön comme une façon de prendre en compte les outils d’évaluation tels que LEED. Cet exercice révèle cependant un obstacle épistémologique qui devra être pris en compte dans une reformulation du modèle. En accord avec l’épistémologie constructiviste, un nouveau modèle théorique est alors confronté à l’étude et l’illustration de trois concours d'architecture canadienne contemporains ayant adopté la méthode d'évaluation de la durabilité normalisée par LEED. Une série préliminaire de «tensions» est identifiée dans le processus de la conception et du jugement des projets. Ces tensions sont ensuite catégorisées dans leurs homologues conceptuels, construits à l’intersection du principe de précaution et des théories de la conception. Ces tensions se divisent en quatre catégories : (1) conceptualisation - analogique/logique; (2) incertitude - épistémologique/méthodologique; (3) comparabilité - interprétation/analytique, et (4) proposition - universalité/ pertinence contextuelle. Ces tensions conceptuelles sont considérées comme autant de vecteurs entrant en corrélation avec le modèle théorique qu’elles contribuent à enrichir sans pour autant constituer des validations au sens positiviste du terme. Ces confrontations au réel permettent de mieux définir l’obstacle épistémologique identifié précédemment. Cette thèse met donc en évidence les impacts généralement sous-estimés, des normalisations environnementales sur le processus de conception et de jugement des projets. Elle prend pour exemple, de façon non restrictive, l’examen de concours d'architecture canadiens pour bâtiments publics. La conclusion souligne la nécessité d'une nouvelle forme de « prudence réflexive » ainsi qu’une utilisation plus critique des outils actuels d’évaluation de la durabilité. Elle appelle une instrumentalisation fondée sur l'intégration globale, plutôt que sur l'opposition des approches environnementales.

Water reuse for irrigated agriculture in Jordan: challenges of soil sustainability and the role of management strategies

Reclaimed water provides an important contribution to the water balance in water-scarce Jordan, but the quality of this water presents both benefits and challenges. Careful management of reclaimed water is required to maximize the nutrient benefits while minimizing the salinity risks. This work uses a multi-disciplinary research approach to show that soil response to irrigation with reclaimed water is a function of the management strategies adopted on the farm by the water user. The adoption of management methods to maintain soil productivity can be seen to be a result of farmers’ awareness to potentially plant-toxic ions in the irrigation water (70% of Jordan Valley farmers identified salinization as a hazard from irrigation with reclaimed water). However, the work also suggests that farmers’ management capacity is affected by the institutional management of water. About a third (35%) of farmers in the Jordan Valley claimed that their ability to manage salinization was limited by water shortages. Organizational interviews revealed that institutional awareness of soil management challenges was quite high (34% of interviewees described salinization as a risk from water reuse), but strategies to address this challenge at the institutional level require greater development.

Testing the sustainability and sensitivity to climatic change of terrace agricultural systems in the Peruvian Andes: a pilot study

The results of an integrated geoarchaeological and palaeoecological pilot study of a prehistoric agricultural terrace and nearby mire basin are presented. They reveal two stages of terrace construction for the cultivation of Zea mays during the Middle Horizon (615–695 AD) and late, Late Intermediate Period (1200–1400 AD). These stages were strongly associated with evidence for vegetation succession, destabilisation and erosion of the surrounding landscape, and changes in mire surface wetness. The reasons for agricultural terrace abandonment and/or reconstruction are uncertain, with only circumstantial evidence for climatically induced agricultural change.

The present and the future of digital TV in Australia

Australia adopted digital TV (DTV) on January 1, 2001 but due to slow adoption by end users, the deadline to discontinue the analog signal has so far been postponed twice. This paper examines the history and current status of DTV adoption in Australia with reference to theories of adoption and diffusion and the Justification Model of Technology and why end users
appear reluctant to adopt-in spite of affordable converters. End user opinions are examined on ‘why they do not adopt’ and ‘what may encourage them to adopt’, using public submissions to the 2005 parliamentary ‘Inquiry into the uptake of digital TV in Australia’. The paper advocates relevant media literacy programs to address the low public awareness of DTV and its benefits because its rejection may result in less affluent end users losing the chance to receive a range of convergent services in the future via the ubiquitous and affordable television.

'Creative destruction': knowledge economy policy and the future of arts and humanities in the academy

Policy conceptualizations of the global knowledge economy have led to the channelling of much Higher Education and Research and Development funding into the priority areas of science and technology. Among other things, this diversion of funding calls into question the future of traditional humanities and creative arts faculties. How these faculties, and the disciplines within them, might reconfigure themselves for the knowledge economy is, therefore, a question of great importance, although one that as yet has not been adequately answered. This paper explores some of the reasons for this by looking at how innovation in the knowledge economy is typically theorized. It takes one policy trajectory informing Australia's key innovation statement as an example. It argues that, insofar as the formation of this knowledge economy policy has been informed by a techno-economic paradigm, it works to preclude many humanities and creative arts disciplines. This paper, therefore, looks at how an alternative theorization of the knowledge economy might offer a more robust framework from within which to develop humanities and creative arts Higher Education and Research policy in the knowledge economy, both in Australia and internationally.
1 This article draws on the Australian Research Council project, Knowledge/economy/society: a sociological study of an education policy discourse in Australia in globalising circumstances, being conducted by Jane Kenway, Elizabeth Bullen and Simon Robb. This 3-year project looks at how understandings of the knowledge economy and knowledge society inform current education policy and, in turn, how this policy translates into educational practice. The methodology includes policy analysis, interviews with policy makers in government, and supranational organizations. It also includes cameo studies of innovative educational practice, two of which we draw on here.

Presidential address : culture and the future of education research

Recent changes in higher education have confronted education research with a conundrum: how our traditionally multidisciplinary field can refine itself as a unified discipline. In this address I sketch out what this conundrum may mean for education research, both substantively and methodologically, in the future. I propose that one starting point is for education researchers to consider what unites rather than divides us. One common, unifying conceptual concern is with the operation of culture/s in educational settings. I use the narratives of two teachers from different places and times to illustrate how culture analysis can be a fruitful tool for understanding the experience and practice of Education. In my conclusion, I extend the theme of culture to education research itself. I suggest that the challenge of disciplinary identity confronting education research requires a culture change in the modus operandi of our practice, and that this will involve an articulated focus on methodological pluralism, interdisciplinarity, and the use of new modes of communication as key unifying elements of the discipline of education research.

Citizens and the future of multilateralism in a polycentric world at 2030: the perspectives of emerging countries for the trading system: the impasse of WTO, the trends of mega agreements, the logic of value chains and the advent of consumers concerns on international trade

A new paradigm is modeling the World: evolutionary innovations in all fronts, new information technologies, huge mobility of capital, use of risky financial tools, globalization of production, new emerging powers and the impact of consumer concerns on governmental policies. These phenomena are shaping the World and forcing the advent of a new World Order in the Multilateral Monetary, Financial, and Trading System. The effects of this new paradigm are also transforming global governance. The political and economic orders established after the World War and centered on the multilateral model of UN, IMF, World Bank, and the GATT, leaded by the developed countries, are facing significant challenges. The rise of China and emerging countries shifted the old model to a polycentric World, where the governance of these organizations are threatened by emerging countries demanding a bigger participation in the role and decision boards of these international bodies. As a consequence, multilateralism is being confronted by polycentrism. Negotiations for a more representative voting process and the pressure for new rules to cope with the new demands are paralyzing important decisions. This scenario is affecting seriously not only the Monetary and Financial Systems but also the Multilateral Trading System. International trade is facing some significant challenges: a serious deadlock to conclude the last round of the multilateral negotiation at the WTO, the fragmentation of trade rules by the multiplication of preferential and mega agreements, the arrival of a new model of global production and trade leaded by global value chains that is threatening the old trade order, and the imposition of new sets of regulations by private bodies commanded by transnationals to support global value chains and non-governmental organizations to reflect the concerns of consumers in the North based on their precautionary attitude about sustainability of products made in the World. The lack of any multilateral order in this new regulation is creating a big cacophony of rules and developing a new regulatory war of the Global North against the Global South. The objective of this paper is to explore how these challenges are affecting the Tradinge System and how it can evolve to manage these new trends.

The Land Grant University Movement and the Future of IANR UAAD

Good afternoon. It is a real pleasure for me to be here with you today, and I thank you for inviting me. I also, as I begin my remarks today, want to thank each of you for the work you do, everyday, to help make this a better university. Please know that work is both valued and appreciated. I'd like to talk with you about a couple of topics today, and after that I'm going to open the floor for questions and comments. I look forward to hearing what you have to say, too. The first topic I'm going to talk about in the next few minutes is our land grant mission. People who know me at all can tell you I am passionate about land grants because I believe being part of a land grant university and helping to advance the land grant mission is one of the great privileges and responsibilities of our times.

The biotic crisis and the future of evolution

The biotic crisis overtaking our planet is likely to precipitate a major extinction of species. That much is well known. Not so well known but probably more significant in the long term is that the crisis will surely disrupt and deplete certain basic processes of evolution, with consequences likely to persist for millions of years. Distinctive features of future evolution could include a homogenization of biotas, a proliferation of opportunistic species, a pest-and-weed ecology, an outburst of speciation among taxa that prosper in human-dominated ecosystems, a decline of biodisparity, an end to the speciation of large vertebrates, the depletion of “evolutionary powerhouses” in the tropics, and unpredictable emergent novelties. Despite this likelihood, we have only a rudimentary understanding of how we are altering the evolutionary future. As a result of our ignorance, conservation policies fail to reflect long-term evolutionary aspects of biodiversity loss.

Declines of biomes and biotas and the future of evolution

Although panel discussants disagreed whether the biodiversity crisis constitutes a mass extinction event, all agreed that current extinction rates are 50–500 times background and are increasing and that the consequences for the future evolution of life are serious. In response to the on-going rapid decline of biomes and homogenization of biotas, the panelists predicted changes in species geographic ranges, genetic risks of extinction, genetic assimilation, natural selection, mutation rates, the shortening of food chains, the increase in nutrient-enriched niches permitting the ascendancy of microbes, and the differential survival of ecological generalists. Rates of evolutionary processes will change in different groups, and speciation in the larger vertebrates is essentially over. Action taken over the next few decades will determine how impoverished the biosphere will be in 1,000 years when many species will suffer reduced evolvability and require interventionist genetic and ecological management. Whether the biota will continue to provide the dependable ecological services humans take for granted is less clear. The discussants offered recommendations, including two of paramount importance (concerning human populations and education), seven identifying specific scientific activities to better equip us for stewardship of the processes of evolution, and one suggesting that such stewardship is now our responsibility. The ultimate test of evolutionary biology as a science is not whether it solves the riddles of the past but rather whether it enables us to manage the future of the biosphere. Our inability to make clearer predictions about the future of evolution has serious consequences for both biodiversity and humanity.

The Wassenaar arrangement and the future of multilateral export controls : hearing before the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundred Sixth Congress, second session, April 12, 2000.

Shipping list no.: 2001-0016-P.