Participation in Transition(s):Reconceiving Public Engagements in Energy Transitions as Co-Produced, Emergent and Diverse

This paper brings the transitions literature into conversation with constructivist Science and Technology Studies (STS) perspectives on participation for the first time. In doing so we put forward a conception of public and civil society engagement in sustainability transitions as co-produced, relational, and emergent. Through paying close attention to the ways in which the subjects, objects, and procedural formats of public engagement are constructed through the performance of participatory collectives, our approach offers a framework to open up to and symmetrically compare diverse and interconnected forms of participation that make up wider socio-technical systems. We apply this framework in a comparative analysis of four diverse cases of civil society involvement in UK low carbon energy transitions. This highlights similarities and differences in how these distinct participatory collectives are orchestrated, mediated, and subject to exclusions, as well as their effects in producing particular visions of the issue at stake and implicit models of participation and ‘the public’. In conclusion we reflect on the value of this approach for opening up the politics of societal engagement in transitions, building systemic perspectives of interconnected ‘ecologies of participation’, and better accounting for the emergence, inherent uncertainties, and indeterminacies of all forms of participation in transitions

Mathematical modeling supports the presence of neutrophil depriming in vivo.

Abstract Following migration into the intestinal mucosa in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), neutrophils enter the intestinal lumen and are excreted. This provides a basis for quantification of disease activity by measuring excreted label following injection of In-111-labeled neutrophils. In severe pan-colitis, 50% of the injected In-111 is typically recovered in the feces, indicating that 50% of neutrophil turnover is via fecal excretion. Neutrophils have an intravascular lifespan of ~10 h and a distribution volume of ~10 L, so total body neutrophil turnover is 10.N/10 cells/h, where N is the peripheral blood neutrophil count (cells/L). Neutrophil loss via the colon in a patient with 50% fecal In-111 loss is therefore N/120 cells/min. Pan-colonic mucosal-blood flow in pan-colitis is 200 mL/min, which would deliver N/5 neutrophils to the colon per min. Therefore, 5/120, or 4%, of incoming neutrophils undergo migration into inflamed bowel. If the 96% of nonmigrating cells exit in a primed state, then at steady state >90% of circulating neutrophils would be primed if no depriming took place. As the highest level of priming seen in IBD is ~40%, this indicates that depriming within the circulation must take place. Using the above values in the steady state equation relating priming rate to depriming rate plus primed-cell destruction rate gives a mean depriming time of 35 min. We conclude that a very small proportion of neutrophils entering a site of inflammation migrate and that in vivo depriming must take place to limit the numbers of primed neutrophils in the circulation.This study was supported by the Wellcome Trust and the UK‐US Fulbright Commission; CS holds a Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Clinical Research Fellowship and a Fulbright Scholar award. The work in the Chilvers lab is funded by the Wellcome Trust, MRC, Asthma‐UK, BBSRC, Gates Foundation and NIHR Cambridge BRC.This is the final published version, also available from http://physreports.physiology.org/content/2/3/e00241.long

Public engagement with marine climate change issues: (Re)framings, understandings and responses

Climate change impacts on marine environments have been somewhat neglected in climate change research, particularly with regard to their social dimensions and implications. This paper contributes to addressing this gap through presenting a UK focused mixed-method study of how publics frame, understand and respond to marine climate change-related issues. It draws on data from a large national survey of UK publics (N = 1,001), undertaken in January 2011 as part of a wider European survey, in conjunction with in-depth qualitative insights from a citizens’ panel with participants from the East Anglia region, UK. This reveals that discrete marine climate change impacts, as often framed in technical or institutional terms, were not the most immediate or significant issues for most respondents. Study participants tended to view these climate impacts ‘in context’, in situated ways, and as entangled with other issues relating to marine environments and their everyday lives. Whilst making connections with scientific knowledge on the subject, public understandings of marine climate impacts were mainly shaped by personal experience, the visibility and proximity of impacts, sense of personal risk and moral or equity-based arguments. In terms of responses, study participants prioritised climate change mitigation measures over adaptation, even in high-risk areas. We consider the implications of these insights for research and practices of public engagement on marine climate impacts specifically, and climate change more generally

Kinship in Aegean Prehistory? Ancient DNA in Human Bones from Mainland Greece and Crete

Attempts were made to detect ancient DNA (aDNA) in samples of 89 human skeletons from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Greece and Crete. Ancient DNA was absent in specimens from Nea Nicomedia, Lerna, Kato Zakro: Karaviádena, and Mycenae Grave Circle A. For each of three skeletons sampled from Antron Grave Circle B, polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) gave products for nuclear but not mitochondrial DNA, but the yield of DNA was low and inconsistent, with replicate PCRs failing to give reproducible results. At Kouphovouno evidence for mitochondrial and/or nuclear aDNA was obtained from eight of the 20 skeletons that were examined, while at Mycenae Grave Circle B evidence for mitochondrial aDNA was obtained for four of the 22 skeletons that were studied, and in two cases confirmed the evidence of close kinship that had already been suggested by facial reconstruction: this in turn raises interesting questions of social relationships and the role of high-status women in MBA/LBA society. We conclude that, although aDNA might be present in some Eastern Mediterranean skeletons from later centuries of the Bronze Age, it is not commonly found in material from this period and is likely to be absent from older material.Στη μελέτη αυτή έγιναν προσπάθειες να αναγνωριστεί αρχαίο DNA (aDNA) σε δείγματα ογδόντα εννέα ανθρώπινων σκελετών προερχομένων από θέσεις της Νεολιθικής περιόδου και της Εποχής του Χαλκού στην Ελλάδα και την Κρήτη. Αρχαίο DNA δεν εντοπίστηκε σε δείγματα από τη Νέα Νικομήδεια, τη Λέρνα, την Κάτω Ζάκρο (Καραβιάδενα) και τον Ταφικό Κύκλο Α των Μυκηνών. Για κάθε έναν από τους τρεις σκελετούς, οι οποίοι εξετάστηκαν από τον Ταφικό Κύκλο Β της Αντρώνας, οι αλυσιδωτές αντιδράσεις πολυμεράσης (PCRs) απέφεραν αποτελέσματα για πυρηνικό αλλά όχι μιτοχονδριακό DNA. Η παραγωγή DNA ήταν χαμηλή και αντιφατική, με τα αντίγραφα πολυμεράσης να αποτυγχάνουν να αποφέρουν αναπαραγώγιμα αποτελέσματα. Στο Κουφόβουνο οκτώ από τους είκοσι σκελετούς, που εξετάστηκαν, έδωσαν στοιχεία για μιτοχονδρνακό ή/και πυρηνικό DNA, ενώ στον Ταφικό Κύκλο Β των Μυκηνών ενδείξεις για μιτοχονδριακό DNA έδωσαν τέσσερεις από τους είκοσι δύο σκελετούς, που μελετήθηκαν. Σε δύο περιπτώσεις επιβεβαιώθηκε η ένδειξη στενής συγγένειας, κάτι το οποίο είχε ήδη προταθεί με την αποκατάσταση των προσώπων: το γεγονός αυτό εγείρει ενδιαφέροντα ερωτήματα σχετικά με τις κοινωνικές σχέσεις και το ρόλο γυναικών υψηλής κοινωνικής στάθμης στην κοινωνία της Μέσης και της Ύστερης Εποχής του Χαλκού. Συμπεραίνουμε ότι, αν και μπορεί να αναγνωριστεί DNA σε ορισμένους σκελετούς της Ανατολικής Μεσογείου των τελευταίων αιώνων της Εποχής του Χαλκού, δεν εντοπίζεται συχνά σε υλικό αυτής της εποχής και ενδεχομένως απουσιάζει από παλαιότερο υλνκό.</jats:p

Deliberating stratospheric aerosols for climate geoengineering and the SPICE project

Increasing concerns about the narrowing window for averting dangerous climate change have prompted calls for research into geoengineering, alongside dialogue with the public regarding this as a possible response. We report results of the first public engagement study to explore the ethics and acceptability of stratospheric aerosol technology and a proposed field trial (the Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (SPICE) ‘pipe and balloon’ test bed) of components for an aerosol deployment mechanism. Although almost all of our participants were willing to allow the field trial to proceed, very few were comfortable with using stratospheric aerosols. This Perspective also discusses how these findings were used in a responsible innovation process for the SPICE project initiated by the UK’s research councils

Diagramming social practice theory:An interdisciplinary experiment exploring practices as networks

Achieving a transition to a low-carbon energy system is now widely recognised as a key challenge facing humanity. To date, the vast majority of research addressing this challenge has been conducted within the disciplines of science, engineering and economics utilising quantitative and modelling techniques. However, there is growing awareness that meeting energy challenges requires fundamentally socio-technical solutions and that the social sciences have an important role to play. This is an interdisciplinary challenge but, to date, there remain very few explorations of, or reflections on, interdisciplinary energy research in practice. This paper seeks to change that by reporting on an interdisciplinary experiment to build new models of energy demand on the basis of cutting-edge social science understandings. The process encouraged the social scientists to communicate their ideas more simply, whilst allowing engineers to think critically about the embedded assumptions in their models in relation to society and social change. To do this, the paper uses a particular set of theoretical approaches to energy use behaviour known collectively as social practice theory (SPT) - and explores the potential of more quantitative forms of network analysis to provide a formal framework by means of which to diagram and visualize practices. The aim of this is to gain insight into the relationships between the elements of a practice, so increasing the ultimate understanding of how practices operate. Graphs of practice networks are populated based on new empirical data drawn from a survey of different types (or variants) of laundry practice. The resulting practice networks are analysed to reveal characteristics of elements and variants of practice, such as which elements could be considered core to the practice, or how elements between variants overlap, or can be shared. This promises insights into energy intensity, flexibility and the rootedness of practices (i.e. how entrenched/ established they are) and so opens up new questions and possibilities for intervention. The novelty of this approach is that it allows practice data to be represented graphically using a quantitative format without being overly reductive. Its usefulness is that it is readily applied to large datasets, provides the capacity to interpret social practices in new ways, and serves to open up potential links with energy modeling. More broadly, a significant dimension of novelty has been the interdisciplinary approach, radically different to that normally seen in energy research. This paper is relevant to a broad audience of social scientists and engineers interested in integrating social practices with energy engineering

Is copyright blind to the visual?

This article argues that, with respect to the copyright protection of works of visual art, the general uneasiness that has always pervaded the relationship between copyright law and concepts of creativity produces three anomalous results. One of these is that copyright lacks much in the way of a central concept of 'visual art' and, to the extent that it embraces any concept of the 'visual', it is rooted in the rhetorical discourse of the Renaissance. This means that copyright is poorly equipped to deal with modern developments in the visual arts. Secondly, the pervasive effect of rhetorical discourse appears to have made it particularly difficult for copyright law to strike a meaningful balance between protecting creativity and permitting its use in further creative works. Thirdly, just when rhetorical discourse might have been useful in identifying the significance and materiality of the unique one-off work of visual art, copyright law chooses to ignore its implications

Mapping participation: a systematic analysis of diverse public participation in the UK energy system

This paper develops a novel approach to mapping diverse forms of participation and public engagement, using the example of the UK energy system. It builds on emerging systemic accounts of participation, which go beyond a focus on individual instances of participation, to gain an understanding of broader patterns and connections. Our approach, which forms part of an emerging family of methods that seek to map across multiple forms of public involvement in issues and systems, draws on systematic review methodology and a relational co-productionist conception of participation. The findings of a systematic mapping of public participation related to the UK energy system 2010–2015 are presented, comprising 258 cases in total. The mapping analysis reveals patterns as to the what (energy objects and issues), how (procedural formats) and who (publics) of energy participation in the UK, which go far beyond the conventionally assumed forms and sites of public participation around energy. Implications for how the dynamics of ‘whole system’ energy participation are represented and the role of approaches to mapping participation in governing energy transitions are considered