Die Geschichte des Internet als Lernprozess

"Der Beitrag reflektiert die bisherigen Geschichtsbetrachtungen von Pionieren und Historikern des Internet. Er möchte zeigen, dass die bislang dominierende heroische Sichtweise die eigentlich interessierenden Entwicklungen des Internets von einer unvollständigen Systemlösung zu einem massentauglichen Informations- und Kommunikationsmedium ausblendet. Am Beispiel des Wandels der Leitbilder und Nutzungsszenarien der engeren Internet-Community und der Prägungswirkungen der Akteurskonstellationen auf die Netzwerkarchitektur werden neuere Ansätze der historischen Technikgeneseforschung auf die Internet-Entwicklung angewendet. Dabei zeigt sich, dass das heutige Internet keinesfalls von Beginn an so geplant war und dass sein Erfolg immer wieder durch akteurbedingte Schließungsprozesse gefährdet war. Die stufenweise Ausweitung der Nutzerpopulationen und die Entstehung und Verkettung kritischer Massen waren vielmehr Resultat vielfältiger Lernprozesse sowie sozio-technischer und ergonomischer Innovationen, die vor allem durch kritische User eingebracht wurden." (Autorenreferat

Die Geschichte des Internet als Lernprozess

Der Beitrag reflektiert die bisherigen Geschichtsbetrachtungen von Pionieren und Historikern des Internet. Er möchte zeigen, dass die bislang dominierende heroische Sichtweise die eigentlich interessierenden Entwicklungen des Internets von einer unvollständigen Systemlösung zu einem massentauglichen Informations- und Kommunikationsmedium ausblendet. Am Beispiel des Wandels der Leitbilder und Nutzungsszenarien der engeren Internet-Community und der Prägungswirkungen der Akteurskonstellationen auf die Netzwerkarchitektur werden neuere Ansätze der historischen Technikgeneseforschung auf die Internet-Entwicklung angewandt

Entropy, economics, and policy

"The laws of thermodynamics constrain transformation of materials and energy, and thus have implications for material and energy use in the economy, for environmental impact, and for policy. This paper provides an overview over the applications of concepts from thermodynamics in economics at the level of individual processes and explores potential constraints at larger system levels - the economy as a whole and the ecosystems within which economies are embedded. Specific emphasis is placed on the ways in which insights from thermodynamics are used to inform economic and policy decision making." (author's abstract

From environmental conflict to liberalization: the uncontrolled deregulation of the German waste management system questions the modernisation successes of the early 1990s

Seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre versucht die deutsche Bundesregierung, die Liberalisierung des Abfallmanagements gegen den Widerstand der kommunalen Stadtverwaltungen durchzusetzen. Ein Rückblick auf die deutsche Abfallpolitik innerhalb der letzten zehn Jahre zeigt dramatische Veränderungen in Bezug auf die Abfallentsorgung und die Mülldeponien auf. Während zu Beginn der 1990er Jahre noch die Kritik von Umweltschützern im Vordergrund stand, so gewannen ökonomische Faktoren und Überlegungen zur Möglichkeit einer Privatisierung immer mehr an Bedeutung. Dieser Perspektivwechsel ist nach Einschätzung des Autors vor allem der CDU-Regierung unter Bundeskanzler Helmut Kohl zuzusprechen, welche den Handlungsspielraum der Städte und der administrativen Bezirke erheblich einschränkte. Das sogenannte "duale System" führte in Verbindung mit einer entsprechenden Neuregelung der Verpackungsordnung im Jahr 1991 das Recycling bundesweit ein und sorgte damit für eine deutliche Entlastung der Stadtbezirke hinsichtlich der Abfallmengen. Der Autor stellt in seiner Analyse des deutschen Abfallmanagements fest, dass in einem dezentralisierten politischen System wichtige Deregulierungsziele größtenteils durch indirekte Mechanismen erwirkt werden. (ICI

Interdisciplinarity in integrated environmental research in Germany: lessons from an empirical evaluation

"Endeavours to understand the complex interactions between society and environment have stimulated a lively debate over the prerequisites for interdisciplinarity and integrated environmental research. One highly contested issue is whether, and to what extent, interdisciplinarity can be achieved within the framework of present academic structures, considering their strong disciplinary orientation. Some scholars see a need for a fundamental reorganisation of science and its links back to society, in order to be able to develop trans-disciplinary and problem-oriented knowledge. Other authors reject this position and highlight the need for strictly disciplinary research which then has to be integrated into interdisciplinary re-search by appropriate organisational means. Against this background, this article describes to what extent the research organisation and research practices currently applied in major German university-based environmental re-search programmes can be said to be interdisciplinary and integrative. The programmes were also examined to find out how different outcomes could be explained. The most important finding was that the full challenge of interdisciplinarity only becomes apparent during the actual research process. Being predominantly based on an additive form of integration of results, these research processes were multidisciplinary rather than interdisciplinary, but nevertheless produced an interdisciplinary 'added value' beyond disciplinary perspectives. Variations in outcomes corresponded to differences in the organisation of the respective research processes and their management. Thus, while this study confirms the dependency of interdisciplinarity on suitable organisational structures and endeavours, it also points to the need for developing a supportive academic culture." (author's abstract

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) as a challenge to spatial planning: on vision-building and decision-making: an empirical evaluation of applied planning in Germany

"Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) as a means of enhancing sustainability has been the topic of a model project promoted by the EU during the late 1990s. Meanwhile, all member states are urged by an EU recommendation to develop national ICZM strategies, based on a set of criteria derived from this model project. The most prominent rationale of the criteria is a request to reassess existing spatial planning procedures and routines, in order to make them more participative and to strengthen and diversify the role of civil society actors. However, before ICZM was promoted, many European countries had already developed more or less complex features to include a growing number of actors in various stages of spatial planning processes: In concept building, decision making, and implementation. As a consequence, the EU recommendations have not been unanimously appreciated. One of the main arguments against them claimed that already existing schemes and procedures (i) provide a wide array of participative elements, and that (ii) participation has thus been a core element of spatial planning, even before ICZM appeared on the scene. Against this background, our study evaluated the performance of the German spatial planning system, in terms of integrating and co-ordinating different stakes into planning procedures of large scale infrastructure projects in the German coastal zone. The mechanisms for ensuring participation were assessed as well. The research was part of the development of a German National Strategy for Integrated Coastal Zone Management, a reaction to the EU recommendation. Based on the assumption that the established German spatial planning and approval system fulfils a decisive role in environmental regulation, regional economic development and the co-ordination of sectoral policies, the connection between ICZM and spatial planning will be discussed, with reference to the theoretical discussion about sustainable governance. The study thus helps to understand the prerequisites for participative management, and the relation between formal and informal administrative, as well as political, processes in countries with highly developed administrations and tightly applied regulations for decision-making. To introduce sustainability-oriented governance concepts, such as ICZM, in countries like Germany requires the government to combine instruments of spatial planning with participatory forms of vision building, in order to create new governance arrangements." (author's abstract

Integrative environmental research and education

"This paper is based on the premise that without integration of knowledge across disciplines, without integration of research with education, and without dialogue between science and stakeholders, opportunities to bound the complexity of environmental processes will be missed. Without adequate integration, solutions to environmental challenges will be partial at best, and new problems and unintended impacts will likely arise that prevent natural resource, economic and social systems from flourishing. On that premise, the paper explores what specifically needs to be integrated, and why, how that integration may occur, and what emotive, social and institutional conditions need to be achieved that may foster integration." (author's abstract

Medien der Kooperation

Die digital-vernetzten Medien erfordern neue Analysen, Theorien und Geschichten. Sie verändern unseren Blick auf die Geschichte von Infrastrukturen, Öffentlichkeiten und Medienpraktiken. Was wären Ansätze für eine Medientheorie, die praktischen „skills“ des Mediengebrauchs,seiner soziotechnischen Materialität und den bürokratischen wie epistemischen Qualitäten der Medien gerecht wird? Die vorliegende Ausgabe 1/2015 der Navigationen widmet sich Medien als kooperativ bewerkstelligten Kooperationsbedingungen. Sie erbringen, so die These, konstitutive Vermittlungsleistungen zwischen der Organisation von Arbeit, Praktiken des Infrastrukturierens und der Genese von Öffentlichkeiten in wechselseitiger Interaktion

Managing the interrelations among urban infrastructure, population, and institutions

"Increases in urban populations, aging infrastructures and global environmental change have begun to highlight the need and urgency to address urban resilience through research and stakeholder-based dialog. The number of case studies for individual locations and on individual challenges - such as meeting water or energy demands - are increasing. Many of those studies reveal the complexity of managing interrelations among population, infrastructure, and institutions, though many ultimately choose a narrow, sector-specific approach to the issue. Few approaches have built on insights from complexity theory and related bodies of knowledge which are more consistent with the perspective that urban infrastructure systems are tightly coupled with one another and must respond to often subtle, long-term changes of technological, social and environmental conditions. Drawing on that knowledge, and building on insights from previous case studies, this paper explores the potential roles of complexity theory in guiding investment and policy decisions in the urban context, focusing on strategies to promote resilience and adaptability in the light of population, infrastructure, and institutional dynamics." (author's abstract

Rapid change in agricultural policies: the BSE-crisis in Germany (2000-2001)

"Today, 'governance' is regarded as the most effective tool to work on and to solve civil political conflicts between competing social claims (Grote/Mbikpi2001). This applies for the field of agricultural and rural problems, too (Berkes/Folke/Colding 1998; Lance/Gunderson/Holling 2001). Governance is considered to compensate the weaknesses of traditional forms of political-administrative interventions (state failure due to continuous functional differentiation and individualisation). On the other hand, governance mostly enables incremental changes only. Such a change usually proceeds slowly. But in view of the dramatic potential of non-sustainable practices and routines and there is a strong demand for a more substantial and rather rapid change. Agriculture represents in many respects a perfect example for this expectation. However, the more substantial and rapid the intended changes are being conceived the more they inevitably get in conflict with more or less firmly established power structures. Thus, the question arises: How do such hierarchies of power get moving? Or even better: How can rapid and substantial change in favour of more sustainable practices and orientations can be stimulated? Metaphorically speaking: Are there examples to be found where the focus was not primarily on modifying the distribution of a given cake but where the recipe of the cake is fixed anew? The political conflict regarding the reorientation of agricultural policy in Germany which came up in connection with the BSE scandal in the year 2000 may be seen as an example of this kind of change. In this case, the political power of an bb-industrial cluster which had been very stable over decades was shaken to its foundations within just a few weeks time. This process is being described within the scope of an analysis of beliefs, discourses and story-lines (Hajer 1996) of the relevant actors in politics and associations as well as in the press. The decisive point is seen in a rapid process of de-legitimation of the actor discourses having been dominant until then. On this basis existing discourse alliances can be dismantled and new alliances can be formed. The process of de-legitimation is mainly a result of two interrelated elements: The specific logic of more or less voluntarily chosen discourses (about “good agriculture” and the character of BSE) on the one hand and real incidents (identification of an infected cow with undoubtedly German origin) on the other hand. Finally, it will be discussed what are the limits of such processes of rapid dismantling of power positions and political concepts (Kingdon 2001)." (author's remark