Transforming innovation for decarbonisation? Insights from combining complex systems and social practice perspectives

Technological innovations seem to be among the great promises for achieving the urgent modernisation of economies towards carbon-neutrality. Ranging from fusion energy, bio-based fuels, carbon capture and storage to PV panels and so-called smart energy systems, plenty of technologies promise to reduce use or greenhouse gas emissions of carbon based energy sources. This techno-centric view disregards to a great extent that technological change affects and is affected by societal practices and norms. The present paper argues that contemporary methodological approaches informed by complex systems and social practices theories provide urgently needed insights into innovation for decarbonisation. It specifically addresses the following questions: Why are current conceptualisations of innovation narrowly framed and with what consequences? How would a framing of innovation grounded on complex systems and social practice theories improve the understanding of opportunities and challenges at stake with innovation for decarbonisation? How could this framing help uncover and deploy an important and still often neglected social innovation potential? In a nutshell, the authors advocate for research and policy agendas that are firmly grounded in social practices and take complex and dynamic interactions of energy supply and demand as departing point to seriously reflect about the transitions that are put before us

Luhmann auf Panta.: Zum Verhältnis von funktionaler Differenzierung und Humandifferenzierung in Stanisław Lems Sterntagebüchern.

The article deals with the relationship between functional differentiation and human differentiation from a systems-theoretical perspective using Stanisław Lem's description of the fictitious planet Panta. It comes to the conclusion that the hitherto prevailing systems-theoretical view of the social relevance of human differentiation applies at best to this fictitious example, but not to human world society, and argues for a social-theoretical reassessment of human differentiation

Climate Shocks and Conflict: Evidence from colonial Nigeria

This paper offers a historical micro-level analysis of the impact of climatic shocks on the incidence of conflict in colonial Nigeria (1912–1945). Primary historical sources on court cases, prisoners and homicides are used to construct an index of socio-political conflict using principal component analysis and measure climatic shocks through deviations from long-term rainfall patterns in a nonlinear (U-shaped) relation, capturing both drought and excessive rainfall. We find a robust and significant relationship between rainfall deviations and conflict intensity, which tends to be stronger in agroecological zones that are least resilient to climatic variability (such as Guinean savannah) and where (pre-) colonial political structures were less centralized. We find tentative evidence that the relationship is weaker in areas that specialize in the production of export crops (such as cocoa and palm oil) compared to subsistence farming areas, suggesting that agricultural diversification acts as an insurance mechanism against the whims of nature. Additional historical information on food shortages, crop-price spikes and outbreaks of violence is used to explore the climate–conflict connection in greater detail

Over historische excuses, morele genoegdoening en verzoening

On Historical Apologies, Recognition and Reconciliation Making historical apologies involves notions of forgiveness, recognition, reconciliation and compensation. Ethical beliefs, religious convictions and legal principles come into play, as do politics and emotions like grief, greed and generosity. As historians, we are apt to ask questions of origin. From where does the recent culture of apologies for historical wrongdoings stem? Is it really a post-national phenomenon? Next, we can discern many contexts of making apologies. Claimants might be individual victims or highly organised caretakers. The institutions they address range from national governments to churches, private associations and small communities. In the precarious process of reconciliation we see two rival mind-sets at work, that of the ethics of conviction contrasting with that of the ethics of responsibility. Combining these two attitudes and styles often results in disappointments in actual cases of demanding, offering, granting and accepting apologies. Het aanbieden van historische verontschuldigingen is verweven met begrippen van vergeving, verzoening en genoegdoening. Ethische opvattingen, religieuze overtuigingen en rechtsregels spelen een rol, net als politiek en emoties als rouw, hebzucht en generositeit. Historici stellen vragen naar de oorsprong van verschijnselen. Waar komt de recente excuuscultuur vandaan? Is het echt een post-nationaal fenomeen? Voorts spelen verontschuldigingen zich af in sterk uiteenlopende omstandigheden. De eisers kunnen individuele slachtoffers zijn, of goed georganiseerde groepen van belangenbehartigers. Het palet van instellingen dat zij aanspreken, loopt van nationale overheden tot kerken, particuliere verenigingen en kleine gemeenschappen. In het fragiele proces van verzoening treden twee conflicterende denkwijzen op, die van de overtuigingsethiek tegenover die van de verantwoordingsethiek. De combinatie van deze twee houdingen en stijlen leidt maar al te vaak tot teleurstellingen in specifieke gevallen van het vragen, aanbieden, toekennen en accepteren van verontschuldigingen

Colonizing the Free Atmosphere: Wladimir Köppen’s ‘Aerology’, the German Maritime Observatory, and the Emergence of a Trans-Imperial Network of Weather Balloons and Kites, 1873-1906

This article suggests that the meteorological science of ‘aerology’, the global study of the upper air with the help of balloons and kites, emerged most prominently in Imperial Germany in the first decade of the twentieth century as a consequence of trans-imperial networks and field work

Mannen van de microscoop: De laboratoriumbiologie op veldtocht in Nederland en Indië, 1840-1910

Geënthousiasmeerd door Darwin en de Duitse embryologie trokken aan het eind van de negentiende eeuw Nederlandse ontwikkelingsbiologen vanuit hun nieuwe laboratoria naar buiten. Hun leidsman was Pieter Harting: dankzij hem bekeken en vergeleken studenten onder de microscoop nauwkeurig de ontwikkelingsstadia van verschillende plant- en diersoorten. Konden zij sporen van het evolutionaire verleden vinden in de wijze waarop flora en fauna zich nu ontwikkelden?   Vanaf 1872 reisden Nederlandse studenten naar het prestigieuze internationale zoölogische station in Napels, pal aan de kust, om daar de nieuwste technieken te leren. Dit kon dankzij een door de overheid ingesteld nationaal stipendium, een primeur. De zoölogen die daarvan terugkwamen, overtuigden de Nederlandse staat vervolgens om een eigen zoölogisch station te steunen. In Den Helder kwam zo’n station tot stand dat visserijproblemen in de Rijn en de Noordzee te lijf ging. Plantenembryologen zetten in diezelfde periode in Buitenzorg (nu Bogor) in Nederlands-Indië een groot botanisch-agronomisch instituut op, inclusief internationaal bezoekersstation, met grote gevolgen voor de koloniale economie.   Mannen van de microscoop is de biografie van vier biologen (Pieter Harting, Ambrosius Hubrecht, Paulus Hoek en Melchior Treub) en hun lobby voor nationale en koloniale laboratoriumwetenschap. Zonder hen hadden het Nederlandse én het Indonesische wetenschapslandschap er vandaag de dag heel anders uitgezien

Distant impact: tropical volcanic eruptions and climate-driven agricultural crises in seventeenth-century Ostrobothnia, Finland

Large tropical volcanic eruptions can have considerable impact on climates and societies far away from the physical source of the eruption. Past examples of how volcanism caused abrupt climatic changes, and how societies responded to such changes, may provide us with potential lessons to help us better prepare for the changes that climate change will bring. This paper explores the climatic, agricultural and societal responses to tropical eruptions in the Finnish province of Southern Ostrobothnia during the seventeenth century. Our results suggest that in the studied area more than half of the seventeenth-century agricultural crises which had traceable human consequences resulted from volcanism caused cooling. A sharp agricultural response followed every large tropical eruption. Moreover, sudden impoverishment, and in some cases even elevated mortality and famine, succeeded these agricultural crises. Thus, there is strong evidence that climatic changes caused by volcanism can directly paralyze sensitive food systems that are based on primary production. In this regard, if geoengineering solutions, like emulating volcanic forcing to cool global climate, are considered to be a future mitigation strategy, the case study presented here stresses the need to explore all possible unintended human consequences of any such solutions

Let Superstition Cease: Investigating Anti-Pagan Violence in Late Antique Rome

This dissertation investigates Christian attitudes towards Greco-Roman religions in late antique Rome. The Introduction discusses the revisionist position, that these attitudes were essentially peaceful. This idealizing view is at odds with the generalizing observation of sociologists of religion, that religion tends to promote hostility toward outgroups. These two frameworks are put to the test by analysing a broad variety of different types of sources. Chapter One is concerned with the physical end of the Mithraea of Rome. Many Mithraea appear to have been violently destroyed by Christians in the period of 390–450. This is contextualized by a historical narrative, arguing that, whereas pagans and Christians had initially coexisted peacefully, the wholesale Christianization of senators left Mithraea vulnerable to attack. Chapter Two examines the conversion of temples into churches. It shows that, contrary to popular belief, these conversions were sporadic and late. Moreover, in contrast to the destruction of Mithraea, these conversions visibly preserved the architectural remains of ancient temple buildings. The temple conversions in Rome cannot be viewed as examples of anti-pagan triumphalism. Chapter Three explores the effectiveness of anti-pagan legislation. By analysing the laws from a combined legal and historical perspective, it demonstrates that they were highly effective. Furthermore, it argues that, by penalizing judges and governors, these laws triggered the Christianization of the senatorial aristocracy. Chapter Four addresses the question of Christian attitudes by comparing the characters and writings of Damasus and Jerome. Damasus maintained a cordial working relationship with the pagan leaders of Rome, while beautifying martyrs’ graves with heroic epigrams. He made Christianity salonfähig, facilitating the Christianization of the senatorial aristocracy. Jerome called for the conversion of pagans, rejoiced over the death of the pagan consul designate, and applauded the destruction of Mithraea, contributing to anti-pagan sentiments. Chapter Five revisits the destruction of Mithraic monuments and explains the underlying anti-pagan sentiments from the conflict generated by the ideology of martyrdom. Stories of persecution and martyrdom were perceived to legitimize violence against pagans and pagan property. Whereas the previous chapters explained why Christians could destroy Mithraea and glorify their destruction, this last chapter explains why Christians might actually go ahead and destroy a Mithraeum. The general pattern that emerges is, therefore, that, whereas the relationship between Christians and pagans in the fourth century had been one of coexistence and even cooperation, the alignment of State and newly unified Church on issues of anti-paganism and Christian orthodoxy radically shifted the balance of power. Under Theodosius, catholic Christianity unequivocally became the dominant force in the empire and, because of its exclusivism, it required the systematic depaganization of the empire at every level. Because the triumph of Christianity was defined to be a zero-sum game, the only way Christianity could succeed was for other religions to be reduced to social irrelevance. The demand for exclusivism simply left no room for meaningful positive-sum engagements. Coexistence and cooperation therefore gave way to conflict and coercion