An Evaluation Schema for the Ethical Use of Autonomous Robotic Systems in Security Applications

We propose a multi-step evaluation schema designed to help procurement agencies and others to examine the ethical dimensions of autonomous systems to be applied in the security sector, including autonomous weapons systems

Climate Change Scepticism

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Climate Change Scepticism is the first ecocritical study to examine the cultures and rhetoric of climate scepticism in the UK, Germany, the USA and France. Collaboratively written by leading scholars from Europe and North America, the book considers climate skeptical-texts as literature, teasing out differences and challenging stereotypes as a way of overcoming partisan political paralysis on the most important cultural debate of our time

Wicked facets of the German energy transition – examples from the electricity, heating, transport, and industry sectors

We shed light on wicked problems in the German energy transition. Our methods consist of a multiple-case study and multi-criteria analysis, utilising the wicked problems theoretical framework introduced by Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber [1973. “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning.” Policy Sciences 4 (2): 155–169. Accessed August 20, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01405730]. Results from the energy supply, heating/cooling, transport, and industry sectors illustrate where and how the 10-point frame of wicked problems manifests in the German energy transition. The four cases exhibit more wicked tendencies in the governance domain than the technical domain and differ in their degrees of technology maturity, policy regulation, and knowledge states. We do not find that the German energy transition is inherently wicked. However, wickedness unfolds through the social setting into which technical solutions of the energy transition are embedded. We aim to highlight these intricacies and encourage scrutinising these wicked facets early on

On the Dual Uses of Science and Ethics Principles, Practices, and Prospects

Ethics, humanity, techonolog

Climate Change Scepticism

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Climate Change Scepticism is the first ecocritical study to examine the cultures and rhetoric of climate scepticism in the UK, Germany, the USA and France. Collaboratively written by leading scholars from Europe and North America, the book considers climate skeptical-texts as literature, teasing out differences and challenging stereotypes as a way of overcoming partisan political paralysis on the most important cultural debate of our time

Caring Choices: Decision-making about Treatment for Catastrophically Ill Newborns

Decision making for catastrophically ill newborns has recently emerged as a social issue. Advances in biomedical technology and practice, and changes in other economic, social and political factors have led to controversy about norms to guide treatment choice. While much has been written on how such decisions should be made, there has been little social science research on how such decisions are actually made. The purpose of this dissertation is to elucidate the way that clinicians think about treatment decisions for catastrophically ill newborns. The focus is on decision making with respect to the limitation of treatment in those situations in which clinicians feel that an infant is terminally ill and/or severely impaired. The aim is to place the issue in its broad social context, explicate how clinicians categorize information, examine how clinicians utilize these categories in making decisions, investigate the process of decision making in the context of social change, and elucidate some of the ethical and policy questions. A major finding of this research is that treatment of catastrophically ill newborns is heavily influenced fay the way that clinicians conceptualize the issues involved in treatment choice. Rather than a clear cut choice to treat or not to treat, decision making is a complex process in which clinicians, and sometimes parents, make decisions about which treatments are appropriate to give at a particular point in time. Clinicians conceptualize this as a choice about the aggressiveness of treatment. A model is derived to explain clinician decision making. Clinicians are seen to categorize characteristics of patient condition along the dimensions of quality of life, uncertainty, critical condition and social value; treatments are categorized according to aggressiveness, ordinary/extraordinary means, withholding and withdrawing treatment and passive/active euthanasia. Each of these dimensions is culturally determined. There is variation in clinician conceptualization of characteristics of patient condition and treatment, the goals of treatment, and the norms for decision making. The primary mode of research for this study was participant observation in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Treatment choices in routine and problematic cases were observed and clinicians were interviewed to elicit information on factors relevant to the decision making process. In addition, clinicians from other NICUs were interviewed and meetings and conferences were attended. Documents in the clinical, legal, bioethical, social science, and popular literature were analyzed and a survey on treatment choice for catastrophically ill newborns was conducted