3,414 research outputs found
Mapping Critical Practice In A Transdisciplinary Urban Studio
Architecture and Planning exist to make positive changes to our environment. Future practitioners in these
disciplines will be responsible for how our cities develop and are managed - they will be required to exercise their professional judgement in complex and unpredictable contexts. There is increasing interest in transdisciplinary urbanism, but implementation in academic contexts has to date been relatively limited. This thesis aims to build on these examples, through a detailed account of one academic design studio which operates across architecture and urban planning; in doing so it aims to make the case for transdisciplinary, problem and place-based studio teaching.
The study considers how a transdisciplinary studio environment supported students to develop a critical
approach to practice through collaborative discourse. It looked at studio methods/practices; what it means to practice ‘critically’ in the context of design; and the role ‘going public’ by sharing ideas in public fora might play in developing critical positions.
The study was undertaken in collaboration with nine students, a single cohort undertaking the final year of a hybrid master’s qualification in Architecture with Urban Planning. It adopts socio-material and spatial approaches to follow how the studio environment and the students’ emerging interdisciplinary identities shaped both their individual and their shared work. It mapped how their approach to their practice evolved through observations, interviews, and informal conversations, and through their drawings, models and journals. In carrying out these observations, and their analysis, I have returned to drawing methods common in architecture. This allowed me to explore and record aspects of studio practice which might otherwise be missed and revealed the importance of visual and spatial thinking to my own practice. Observations revealed how material spaces, tools and artefacts acted to structure social relations in the studio, and how these relations shaped individual approaches to critical practice
Panacea or producer? Analysing the relationship between international Law and disaster risk
This thesis seeks to critically analyse the relationship between international law and disaster risk.
Despite the increasing global threat that disasters present, international law’s engagement with
their prevention remains at a relatively nascent stage compared to the development of other
areas of the law. However, the progress that has been made since the United Nation’s
International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction in the 1990s suggests that international law
is widely viewed as a valuable tool in addressing the issue and reducing the risk of disasters. In
contrast to this, however, relatively little attention has been paid to the ways that international
law itself may also play a role in the creation of disaster risk.
It is here that the project makes an important and original contribution, by interrogating this
presupposition and analysing the ways that international law itself may be culpable in the
creation and exacerbation of risk. Through a novel, compound theoretical lens combining
Marxist and Third World approaches to international law and insights from disaster theory, the
thesis highlights the longstanding complicity of international law in the production of disaster
risk. The thesis draws on understandings of disasters as processes that reach back through time,
and thus begins its analysis with an examination of the early history of international law and the
role of its colonial doctrines in the historic construction of vulnerability and hazards. It then
turns to modern international law, particularly within the realm of international economic law, to
examine the continuing legacies of these early developments and the ongoing role of
international law in disaster risk creation.
Overall, the thesis offers an original contribution to conversations on the connection between
international law and disaster risk. Rather than focusing only on the positive role that
international law can have in the reduction of disaster risk found in the majority of the literature,
it seeks to highlight more pathological aspects of the relationship between the two and the
implications of this. It ultimately concludes that unless the burgeoning field of international
disaster law engages more with such critical accounts of international law and their
understandings of the harm the law produces, then it will remain blind to a major source of
disaster risk creation and be unsuccessful in achieving its normative aims
Feminisms in Movement: Theories and Practices from the Americas
Feminist movements from the Americas provide some of the most innovative, visible, and all-encompassing forms of organizing and resistance. With their diverse backgrounds, these movements address sexism, sexualized violence, misogyny, racism, homo- and transphobia, coloniality, extractivism, climate crisis, and neoliberal capitalist exploitation as well as the interrelations of these systems. Fighting interlocking axes of oppression, feminists from the Americas represent, practice, and theorize a truly "intersectional" politics. Feminisms in Movement: Theories and Practices from the Americas brings together a wide variety of perspectives and formats, spanning from the realms of arts and activism to academia. Black and decolonial feminist voices and queer/cuir perspectives, ecofeminist approaches and indigenous women's mobilizations inspire future feminist practices and inform social and cohabitation projects. With contributions from Rita Laura Segato, Mara Viveros Vigoya, Yuderkys Espinosa-Miñoso, and interviews with Anielle Franco (Brazilian activist and minister) and with the Chilean feminist collective LASTESIS
Researching animal research: What the humanities and social sciences can contribute to laboratory animal science and welfare
Every year around 80 million scientific procedures are carried out on animals globally. These experiments have the potential to generate new understandings of biology and clinical treatments. They also give rise to ongoing societal debate.This book demonstrates how the humanities and social sciences can contribute to understanding what is created through animal procedures - including constitutional forms of research governance, different institutional cultures of care, the professional careers of scientists and veterinarians, collaborations with patients and publics, and research animals, specially bred for experiments or surplus to requirements.Developing the idea of the animal research nexus, this book explores how connections and disconnections are made between these different elements, how these have reshaped each other historically, and how they configure the current practice and policy of UK animal research
A Political Theory of Engineered Systems and A Study of Engineering and Justice Workshops
Since there are good reasons to think that some engineered systems are socially undesirable—for example, internal combustion engines that cause climate change, algorithms that are racist, and nuclear weapons that can destroy all life—there is a well-established literature that attempts to identify best practices for designing and regulating engineered systems in order to prevent harm and promote justice. Most of this literature, especially the design theory and engineering justice literature meant to help guide engineers, focuses on environmental, physical, social, and mental harms such as ecosystem and bodily poisoning, racial and gender discrimination, and urban alienation. However, the literature that focuses on how engineered systems can produce political harms—harms to how we shape the way we live in community together—is not well established. The first part of this thesis contributes to identifying how particular types of engineered systems can harm a democratic politics. Building on democratic theory, philosophy of collective harms, and design theory, it argues that engineered systems that extend in space and time beyond a certain threshold subvert the knowledge and empowerment necessary for a democratic politics. For example, the systems of global shipping and the internet that fundamentally shape our lives are so large that people cannot attain the knowledge necessary to regulate them well nor the empowerment necessary to shape them.
The second part of this thesis is an empirical study of a workshop designed to encourage engineering undergraduates to understand how engineered systems can subvert a democratic politics, with the ultimate goal of supporting students in incorporating that understanding into their work. 32 Dartmouth undergraduate engineering students participated in the study. Half were assigned to participate in a workshop group, half to a control group. The workshop group participants took a pretest; then participated in a 3-hour, semi-structured workshop with 4 participants per session (as well as a discussion leader and note-taker) over lunch or dinner; and then took a posttest. The control group participants took the same pre- and post- tests, but had no suggested activity in the intervening 3 hours. We find that the students who participated in workshops had a statistically significant test-score improvement as compared to the control group (Brunner-Munzel test, p \u3c .001). Using thematic analysis methods, we show the data is consistent with the hypothesis that workshops produced a score improvement because of certain structure (small size, long duration, discussion-based, over homemade food) and content (theoretically rich, challenging). Thematic analysis also reveals workshop failures and areas for improvement (too much content for the duration, not well enough organized).
The thesis concludes with a discussion of limitations and suggestions for future theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical research
Listening to Community: Towards Best Research Practices in Pond Inlet, Nunavut
What are the specific conditions and circumstances that can either prevent or facilitate an ethical, meaningful, productive, and respectful collaboration between Settler researchers and Indigenous People engaged in community or regional monitoring programs? How can I bring Settler research and Indigenous knowledge systems together to facilitate more equitable and proactive environmental monitoring programs? My research examines the connections between community-based environmental monitoring, research ethics, and the role of social science in climate change adaptation programs. In this dissertation, I examine the context, community concerns and recommendations for research that emerged during my fieldwork, interviews, and workshops conducted in Pond Inlet and Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, and Calgary, Alberta. It is widely recognized that over the last few decades, the planet has been undergoing rapid climate change, particularly in the Arctic. Climate change has led to a discussion about the role of Settler research and Indigenous knowledge in understanding and addressing environmental changes and community and regional priorities. In the North of Canada and other Arctic regions, the role of Settler researchers facilitating ecological monitoring, environmental changes, and local and regional policy changes has been largely overlooked. As more Indigenous organizations and communities continue to advocate and demonstrate the validity of their knowledge systems, levels of government and research institutions seek to facilitate and embrace the co-integration Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and Settler research. At an individual level, the co-integration of IK with Settler research will build skills and promote community resilience brought on by climate change. At a societal level, the benefits and potential of integrating IK with Settler research are a resource that needs to be investigated. It can add new and essential aspects to climate change adaptation strategies. However, it can also be problematic and reproduce already existing colonial dynamics. In this dissertation, I provide an overview and discussion of the potential role for Settler researchers in climate change research related to adaptation measures for Indigenous communities across the North of Canada and case study results. The outcomes of my research indicate that: 1) there needs to be a significant increase in the number of climate change adaptation projects that incorporate Inuit Knowledge (IK); 2) social science could play a role in the success and sustainability of climate change program development and deployment, and 3) the measurable and tangible ways communities may evaluate the success of adaptation programs. My research also outlines the concerns related to Settler researcher behaviors and practices that a group of Inuit from Pond Inlet and Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, experienced while working on university-based research projects and reports a series of recommendations they provided. My study also presents the concerns and recommendations of Inuit community members about the need to decolonize university ethics boards and research. The objectives of the workshop were to 1) get a sense of Settler research behavior community members saw as unethical, 2) synthesize the recommendations made by various Indigenous organizations related to ethical engagement and a decolonized research approach, and 3) develop a framework for an ethics workshop aimed at decolonizing university research ethics processes, which Indigenous peoples lead, and research in general. The findings indicate the great need for: (1) the inclusion of Indigenous epistemologies into university ethics training and certification processes equal to Settler science; 2) improved understandings of how academic disciplines should consult and work with Indigenous communities; 3) protocols and procedures for Settler research to be integrated with Indigenous Knowledge to be established. Each university, Settler researcher, and Indigenous community has specific circumstances, limitations, obstacles, research priorities, and capacities that need to be understood. The conclusions of my study are: 1) there is a need for Settler researchers to be aware of and recognize different epistemological orientations; 2) universities and researchers must make a concerted effort to spend more time supporting Indigenous-led research, and co-designing and implementing research projects collegially with Indigenous communities; 3) the relevance of Settler research projects needs to be clearly articulated with community members, and the research results need to be presented to the community in a variety of ways, such as through social media, town halls, plain language reports, etc.; 4) Settler researchers can make efforts to document community-level concerns in order for the community to be able to collaboration with Settler researchers on specific concerns
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