Introduction: Ironists, reformers, or rebels?

Public engagement has become increasingly important within the sphere of science policy making. A broad range of discursive experiments and participatory methods involving citizens, consumers, and other key stakeholders are frequently used to consult the public about their opinion of new developments in science and technology. This special issue of STI-Studies aims at addressing the role(s) of scholars in this important field. Having personally participated in a variety of public engagement exercises and public discourse experiments, and having carefully considered how we (as social scientists) fit within these exercises, we have come to realise that our roles are heterogeneous, complex and ambiguous. Social scientists complete a number of tasks in participatory science policy making: For example, they initiate public and/or stake holder discourses by adopting or even developing participatory and discursive methods. They organise and moderate various dialogues (for the case of Germany see e.g. Renn 1999). They oversee various public discourse events and evaluate the process (for the case of Switzerland see e.g. Gisler 2000-2003). They analyse and comment on the impact of participatory methods, drawing on sociological and political theories (e.g. Maasen/Merz, 2006). In brief, social scientists play a variety of formal roles, serving as organisers, moderators, evaluators, commentators and others. However, these formal descriptions are rigid and do not fully convey the underlying social, moral and political dimensions of these roles. Furthermore, there is some ambivalence between the formal functions and the socio-moral-political roles taken on by social scientists. This ambivalence arises due to a conflict between the form and content of these roles as well as the fact that multiple roles may coincide with each other. For a better understanding of the ongoing debate on participatory science policy making, it is necessary to reflect upon this ambivalence because it affects social scientists accomplishments in this important field. Our contribution to the recent debate is a kind of self-reflexive turn: We would like to carefully consider the role of the social sciences and the role(s) social scientists expect and are expected to play in the field of participatory science policy making. Therefore, in this introduction, we raise the following questions from a theoretical point of view: How do the social sciences influence participatory policy procedures? What kind of explicit and/or implicit role(s) do social scientists play in the construction of political procedures and public debates? In an effort to address these questions, we will, first, argue how participatory policy making is linked to the social sciences and its methodologies (chapter 1). Second, we will contextualize the development of participatory policy making within the methodological framework of the social sciences and the broader historical shift towards the democratization of society (chapter 2). Third, we will assess some of the roles social scientists have come to play in participatory policy making. We suggest a way of rethinking such roles by unmasking their often rather implicit social, political and moral premises and by critically reflecting on the idea that there is only a formal role played by the social sciences. This way Canadian philosopher Ian Hacking (1999). We will highlight some of the complexities and moralities linked to the concrete roles the social sciences play, especially in the sphere of science and politics. This will be discussed in more detail in the case studies and articles assembled in this issue (chapter 3). Fourth, and finally, we would like to consider some looping effects that the deconstruction of social scientific roles may have on participatory policy making on a more general level (chapter 4). The social sciences, as a collection of disciplines, could eventually contribute more to participatory policy making by reflecting on its current role(s) and by revising the methods that are applied to specific scientific fields. In doing so, the social sciences may gain considerable insight into how they function as a thought collective

Operational experiences of a TDHP system for solar cooling and heating of a canteen

Part of: Thermally driven heat pumps for heating and cooling. – Ed.: Annett Kühn – Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2013 ISBN 978-3-7983-2686-6 (print) ISBN 978-3-7983-2596-8 (online) urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-39458 [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-39458]Solar cooling systems offer the possibility to use primarily the renewable energy source solar heat for space cooling. Moreover, a solar cooling system can also be used to provide heat for space heating, in the case of working in heat pump mode. Besides theoretical investigations practical experience is required to evaluate the performance of solar cooling in the field. This document presents the main results from a solar cooling installation for canteen cooling, which is in operation since 2007. The data evaluation shows a seasonal electrical performance factor of 26.1 for space heating and 6.5 for space cooling. A seasonal thermal performance factor for cooling of 0.4 has been determined

Failed surrogate conceptions: social and ethical aspects of preconception disruptions during commercial surrogacy in India

BACKGROUND: During a commercial surrogacy arrangement, the event of embryo transfer can be seen as the formal starting point of the arrangement. However, it is common for surrogates to undergo a failed attempt at pregnancy conception or missed conception after an embryo transfer. This paper attempts to argue that such failed attempts can be understood as a loss. It aims to reconstruct the experiences of loss and grief of the surrogates and the intended parents as a consequence of their collective failure to conceive a surrogate pregnancy. METHODS: Drawing on a qualitative study conducted over a period of eight months between 2014 and 2015 at two fertility clinics in Delhi and two in Kolkata, India, this paper examines the experiences of the surrogates and the intended parents when faced with missed conceptions or failed conceptions during a surrogacy arrangement. RESULTS: We argue that while the surrogate grieves the non-arrival of a ‘good news’ as an uncertain loss, the intended parents experience yet another, failure in addition to the losses they might have incurred during their previous fertility treatments. The body of the surrogate becomes a site of ‘a lost opportunity’. The surrogate embodies a loss in her quest to achieve social mobility and the intended parents experience a disembodied pregnancy loss. This very emotional experience stands in stark contrast to the conceptualisation of such failed attempts as non-events within the discourse of the surrogacy industry. The experience of loss of the intended parents is recognised but their grief is given no space. We argue that such ambiguity around the nature of losses resulting out of a missed or failed conception during surrogacy is an outcome of lack of interpersonal relationship between the surrogate and the intended parents. CONCLUSIONS: Since commercial surrogacy is a relational process, the only way in which the experiences of losses and failures of the actors at the preconception stage can be better addressed is through developing close sharing and understanding between each other through an ethics of care. Therefore, to nurture caring relationships, surrogacy needs to be understood as a moral commitment by –the surrogates and intended parents. To enable such a commitment, there is a need to reconsider the pre-defined and legally regulated professional duty of the doctors, agents and agencies. It cannot be a one-sided commitment, but has to have elements of mutuality

The "spare parts person"? Conceptions of the human body and their implications for public attitudes towards organ donation and organ sale

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The increasing debate on financial incentives for organ donation raises concerns about a "commodification of the human body". Philosophical-ethical stances on this development depend on assumptions concerning the body and how people think about it. In our qualitative empirical study we analyze public attitudes towards organ donation in their specific relation to conceptions of the human body in four European countries (Cyprus, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden). This approach aims at a more context-sensitive picture of what "commodification of the body" can mean in concrete clinical decisions concerning organ donation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We find that moral intuitions concerning organ donation are rooted in various conceptions of the human body and its relation to the self: a) the body as a mechanical object owned by the self, b) the body as a part of a higher order embodying the self, and c) the body as a hierarchy of organs constitutive of the self.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The language of commodification is much too simple to capture what is at stake in everyday life intuitions about organ donation and organ sale. We discuss how the plurality of underlying body-self conceptions can be taken into account in the ethical debate, pointing out consequences for an anthropologically informed approach and for a liberal perspective.</p

The ethics of ‘public understanding of ethics’—why and how bioethics expertise should include public and patients’ voices

“Ethics” is used as a label for a new kind of expertise in the field of science and technology. At the same time, it is not clear what ethical expertise consists in and what its political status in modern democracies can be. Starting from the “participatory turn” in recent social research and policy, we will argue that bioethical reasoning has to include public views of and attitudes towards biomedicine. We will sketch the outlines of a bioethical conception of “public understanding of ethics,” addressing three different issues: (a) the methodological relevance of moral questions and problems raised by lay persons in everyday life regarding biomedicine and technology, (b) the normative relevance of such lay moralities for the justification of ethical decisions, and (c) the necessity of public deliberation in this context. Finally, we draw conclusions in view of the concepts and methods such a conception of “public understanding of ethics” should employ

DEM Simulation of Concrete Fracture Phenomena

Concrete fracture phenomena are investigated in this work. It is the fracture processes and failure mechanisms which are specifically investigated rather than the reaching of a certain maximum load or the investigation of the concrete’s behaviour within a range of safe working loads. The following questions are addressed. How do the crack positions vary from one test to another? Is it possible to identify in advance where for example micro-cracks will emerge to a global macro-crack later on? In order to investigate this matter, a two-dimensional numerical simulation based on the Discrete Element Method (DEM) is used for the analysis of concrete behaviour under compression load. Frictional behaviour, crack initiation and damage evolution are analysed. Regarding the concrete body, convex and concave geometries can be treated. The cracks are discrete just as in real laboratory experiments. The cracks arise due to the interaction of the concrete particle elements and without the predefinition of any crack zones or crack elements. The simulation results are compared to the ones of laboratory experiments. The ratio of longitudinal strain to lateral strain is obtained as a result of the simulation and compared to experimental results. The qualitative evolution of postprocessing entities such as stresses and strains is analysed

Interpersonale Beziehungsgestaltung und Depression: Eine kulturvergleichende Untersuchung in Chile und Deutschland

Hintergrund: Depressive Störungen gehen mit erheblichen Einschränkungen der sozialen Funktionsfähigkeit und einem erhöhten interpersonalen Belastungserleben einher. Bislang mangelt es an einer Integration der auf das zwischenmenschliche Geschehen bezogenen Annahmen psychologischer Depressionstheorien in ein umfassendes Modell depressiver Beziehungsgestaltung. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit bestand darin, interpersonale Aspekte der Depression unter Bezugnahme auf die Theorie und Konzepte des interpersonalen Circumplexmodells (Leary, 1957) zu untersuchen. Dabei wurde erwartet, dass depressive Personen sich angepasster, unterwürfiger und sozial zurückgezogener verhalten, andere Personen als unfreundlich und feindselig wahrnehmen und dass sich die depressive Beziehungsgestaltung zudem in veränderten Prozessen alltäglicher zwischenmenschlicher Interaktionen äußert. Ferner wurde überprüft, inwiefern sich das Erleben belastender Interaktionen auf die tägliche Stimmung auswirkt (interpersonale Sensibilität) und ob sich das depressionsspezifische zwischenmenschliche Verhalten auf veränderte interpersonale Motive zurückführen lässt. Da zu der Frage, ob Depression weltweit mit denselben interpersonalen Merkmalen einhergeht, noch Forschungsbedarf besteht (Tsai & Chentsova-Dutton, 2002), wurde die vorliegende Untersuchung an Stichproben aus zwei Ländern durchgeführt. Mit dem Ziel, die den kulturellen Unterschieden zugrundeliegenden psychischen Prozesse zu identifizieren, wurden persönliche Werthaltungen als kulturvermittelnde Kontextvariablen untersucht. Methode: Zur Beantwortung der Fragestellungen wurden zunächst Skalen zur Erfassung des täglichen interpersonalen Erlebens im Rahmen des IPC (Interaktionstagebuch) entwickelt. Zudem erfolgte eine Übersetzung und Evaluation des Inventars zur Erfassung interpersonaler Motive (IIM, Thomas et al., 2012) ins chilenische Spanisch. Daten zur Depressivität (CES-D, Radloff, 1977), interpersonalen Motiven (IIM) und persönlichen Werthaltungen (PVQ, Schwartz et al., 2001) wurden per Fragebogen an einer Gesamtstichprobe von N = 111 depressiven und nicht depressiven Frauen aus Chile und Deutschland erhoben. Ein Teil der depressiven (n = 37) und nicht depressiven (n = 53) Probandinnen beschrieb zudem über einen ca. zweiwöchigen Zeitraum hinweg täglich anhand des Interaktionstagebuch mehrere spezifische Begegnungen mit anderen Menschen, wobei das eigene Verhalten, das wahrgenommene Verhalten des Interaktionspartners sowie Aspekte der Beziehungsqualität, des Belastungserlebens und der täglichen Stimmung erfasst wurden. Ergebnisse: Im Vergleich zu Kontrollprobandinnen (KP) beurteilten die depressiven Probandinnen (DP) ihre Beziehungen als weniger vertrauensvoll, erlebten soziale Interaktionen als belastender und beschrieben ihr eigenes tägliches Verhalten vergleichsweise unterwürfiger, introvertierter und unfreundlicher, jedoch nicht, wie angenommen, sozial angepasster. Zudem war Depression mit Wahrnehmungen introvertierter Interaktionspartner assoziiert, eine gesteigerte Feindseligkeit und Distanziertheit der anderer zeigte sich nicht. Die Analysen interaktioneller Prozesse ergaben, dass die Unterwürfigkeit der DP in höherem Maße vom Beziehungskontext abhing als bei KP. Zudem war die Komplementarität freundlichen Verhaltens in den Interaktionsbeschreibungen der DP geringer ausgeprägt als bei KP. Die Komplementarität dominanten Verhaltens (Reziprozität) fiel bei deutschen DP höher aus als bei KP, während sich in Chile generell keine Hinweise auf Reziprozität ergaben. Das Erleben belastender interpersonaler Interaktionen ging sowohl bei KP als auch DP mit negativerem täglichem Affekt einher, DP zeigten jedoch gegenüber KP keine erhöhte interpersonale Sensibilität. Depression war in beiden Ländern mit einer niedrigeren Ausprägung des Motivs Communion assoziiert, eine niedrigere Ausprägung des Agency-Motivs zeigte sich hingegen nur bei deutschen DP. Verhaltensunterschiede zwischen KP und DP wurden teilweise durch Agency vermittelt. Nationale Unterschiede konnten jedoch nicht auf kulturvermittelnde Kontextvariablen zurückgeführt werden. Diskussion: Aus den Ergebnissen kann geschlossen werden, dass sich interpersonale Aspekte der Depression anhand der Konzepte des IPC operationalisieren und zudem in dynamischen Bezug zueinander setzen lassen. Ferner unterstreichen die Befunde die Bedeutung einer interpersonalen Sichtweise der Depression, da das depressive Beziehungsverhalten auf spezifische Weise mit dem Beziehungskontext sowie dem Verhalten anderer Personen assoziiert war. Die kulturvergleichenden Befunde sprechen einerseits für die Universalität typischer depressiver Verhaltensweisen, andererseits für kulturspezifische Prägungen interaktioneller Prozesse und motivationaler Ausrichtungen im Rahmen depressiver Störungen. Da interpersonale Prozesse aus der subjektiven Sicht der befragten Personen erhoben wurden, bleibt jedoch offen, inwieweit die Befunde dem realen interaktionellen Geschehen entsprechen. Unklar ist zudem, in welcher kausalen Beziehung interpersonale Motive und Depression zueinander stehen