Crowd science : it is not just a matter of time (or funding)

The last years, citizen science, or crowd science, has increased tremendously, both in number of projects, and number of participants. Most literature on crowd science focuses on its advantages, for both scientists, and the participating citizens. The challenges of crowd science come mainly from limited organizational capacity of some of these projects. As a result of this line of reasoning, the main issue becomes, how we can facilitate citizen science, and help it expand to more projects, and involve more (types of) participants. My aim in this discussion note is to make two points: first, that, most recent work on citizen science fails to elaborate on the new types of relationships, practices and interactions that are facilitated by information and communication technologies, when compared to traditional volunteer science. The second point is that there are pronounced disciplinary differences among citizen science projects, something that, again, is generally being missed in much recent work. Missing these points can lead us to imagine that it’s only a matter of time (and of course funding) before all sciences catch up with citizen science. Such a line of thought can result in investing resources (money, time, effort) in projects and infrastructures that are doomed to fail, because of their topic. I conclude by offering some thoughts on a research agenda

Communicating adaptation with emotions : the role of intense experiences for concern about extreme weather

Adaptation to extreme weather is often considered as having a low urgency and being a low priority governance option, even though the intensity of extreme weather events is expected to increase as a result of climate change. An important issue is how to raise an adequate level of concern among individuals, policy makers, and broader decision makers in companies and organizations so that adaptation to extreme events becomes mainstream practice. We conducted 40 indepth interviews with individuals from different sectors in The Netherlands to identify the different types of experiences with extreme events, as well as the relationship between such experiences and the level of concern about extreme weather. Our results indicate that individuals who have experienced an intense, life-threatening event have a significantly higher level of concern than those without such an experience. Professional experience and secondhand experience through participating in information events do not significantly affect the level of concern about extreme events. This suggests limited intervention possibilities for communication of adaptation, as well as for raising support for adaptation measures. Framing adaptation measures in relation to personal circumstances and emotions during extreme events could help raise concern about extreme weather events, as well as societal support for adaptation measures

Opening up the societal debate on climate engineering: How newspaper frames are changing

The use of climate engineering or geoengineering technologies to combat climate change has been a controversial topic, even in the scientific debate. In recent studies, it has been claimed that the debate on climate engineering technologies may be closing down prematurely, with detrimental effects on the possibility of social and ethical reflection in appraising these controversial technologies. We examined the extent to which the debate on climate engineering is opening up or closing down, analyzing the diversity of English-speaking newspaper frames in the period 2006–2011. The results provide strong support for an opening of the debate, especially since 2009, given the decline of overly deterministic frames, the emergence of frames related to sociopolitical issues and an overall more balanced distribution of the various frames. This provides evidence that different perspectives are voiced in the public debate, which may enable societies to critically reflect on these emerging technologies

Ethics of the psychologist working in the field of clinical psychiatry

Η δεοντολογία του κλινικού ψυχολόγου που ασχολείται με ψυχιατρικά περιστατικά είναι ιδιότυπη μορφή επαγγελματικής δεοντολογίας. Διαπιστώνεται ασάφεια ως προς το κανονιστικό της πλαίσιο και την οριοθέτησή της (π.χ. από την δεοντολογία της κλινικής ψυχιατρικής). Η σχέση του κλινικού ψυχολόγου με τον «πελάτη» του είναι ιδιότυπη εμπιστευτική σχέση, της οποίας μπορεί εύκολα να γίνει καταχρηστική εκμετάλλευση αφού ο «πελάτης» είναι συνήθως ευάλωτος σε χειραγώγηση, εμπιστεύεται στον ψυχολόγο ευαίσθητα προσωπικά του δεδομένα, η αυτονομία (αυτοκαθορισμός) του δεν είναι πάντα εμφανής και δεδομένη όπως σε άλλες θεραπευτικές σχέσεις κα. Ο κλινικός ψυχολόγος εργάζεται σε ομάδα υποστήριξης της ψυχικής υγείας και αυτό απαιτεί ισορροπία αρμονικής συνεργασίας με τα άλλα μέλη της ομάδας αλλά και διατήρηση της επιστημονικής του ελευθερίας και ηθικής αυτονομίας και αξιοπρέπειάς του. Θεωρούμε ότι το ασαφές δεοντολογικό πλαίσιο που αφορά τον κλινικό ψυχολόγο που συνεργάζεται με την κλινική ψυχιατρική μπορεί να υποστηρίζεται από την αναλογική εφαρμογή συναφών δεοντολογικών ρυθμίσεων (όπως του Κώδικα Ιατρικής Δεοντολογίας) και τον σεβασμό στις θεμελιώδεις αρχές της κλινικής βιοηθικής. Επίσης, είναι σημαντικός ο ρόλος της λεγόμενης «ηθικής των αρετών» η οποία συνάδει με την ιπποκρατική-μεσογειακή μας βιοηθική αντίληψη όπου οι αρετές και τα χαρακτηριστικά του κλινικού ψυχολόγου έχουν κεντρικό ρόλο στην επίλυση συχνών οριακών ηθικών διλημμάτων.The ethics of the clinical psychologist who gets involved with psychiatric patients are a peculiar form of professional ethics and its limitations is not always clear. The relationship of the clinical psychologist with his patient is a peculiar confidential one during which the patient can be easily manipulated. The patient whose autonomy is not always clear is totally in the hands of his psychologist, trusting him with confidential personal data. Since clinical psychologist is also a part of a mental support team, he should cooperate with the other members of the team while maintaining his scientific freedom, ethic autonomy and dignity. We believe that the unclear ethic frame of the clinical psychologist commands the use and the respect of the Medical Ethic Code and Medical Bioethics. Equally important is the “Moral of Virtues” which agrees with our Mediterranean and Hippocrates Bioethical thinking where the clinical’s psychologist’s virtues and traits are the most useful tool in the resolution of frequent ethical dilemmas

Evolution of System, Modelling and Control Concepts in Ancient Greece

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the historical origins of system, modelling, and automatic control concepts as well as to follow their development. An attempt is made to place the early formation and evolution of these concepts within the framework of their current understanding. Our research focuses on ancient Greece and involves searching through the primary sources and the literature on archaeological findings related to system, modelling and control ideas. Nowadays, the application fields of system, modelling, and control concepts are mostly associated with complex, industrial or business processes and problems. However, the emergence of the system and modelling concepts is to be found in the early scientific and technological human thought, when the under consideration issues are the creation and the structure of the world, the natural processes and phenomena, or the functions of human body. On the other hand, the mythical intention of constructing automatic machines that imitate the living beings at the beginning, and the realisation of them in the Hellenistic times, give birth to the concept of feedback and control. The study of the primitive appearance of system, modelling, and control concepts and their evolution from the Mythical period to the Hellenistic era serves the purposes of: a) the in depth understanding of these concepts, b) placing them in a proper historical setup, c) highlighting aspects of the current advanced system theories, modelling methodologies and control methods from a historical perspective, and d) expanding their application in more and more complicated problems