STS 5424: Energy, Society and Human Values
Time:Spring Semester 2009, Mondays, 7:00 to 9:45 pm.
Location:Classroom to be assigned at Northern Virginia Center
CRN:TBD
Professor:William M. Shields, Ph.D., Adjunct Assoc. Prof. of Science & Technology Studies
Telephone: 703-938-0785(h), 202-694-7015 (w)
E-mail:
Office: 625 Indiana Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.
Office hours: By appointment.
Summary Description:
The recent extraordinary spike in oil and gas prices has focused public attention squarely on the two great questions surrounding energy for human use: how do we make more energy, and what will be the environmental and societal consequences? Long gone are the days when more energy simply meant more coal mining and bigger generating stations. In this course we will take a step back from the popular-press debates over the energy crisis and global warming and try to gain some new perspectives on why we find ourselves in this threatening worldwide condition. Rather than leaping ahead to the usual weighing of alternatives, costs, and benefits, we will begin in Part I of the course with an exploration of sociological, historical, philosophical, and policy viewpoints which might generate fresh insights into the problem of energy. With these sorts of inquiries and perspectives in mind, in Part II (beginning with the 8th class session) we will explore alternative solutions to the energy problem and their associated consequences.Our fundamental objective is to view the energy problem in the broadest possible technological, philosophical and cultural perspective.
Grades:
Classroom Participation, Presentations, Leading Discussion(50%). Students are expected to complete all reading assignments prior to each class and to participate actively in class discussions.Students will have periodic responsibility for leading the discussion of assigned readings, frequency depending on enrollment. When assigned readings for the next class, the student will be expected to provide the class with a 2-3 page written summary of the assigned work, critical analysis, and a series of questions to stimulate class discussion. The student will also lead the discussion with the support of the instructor. If a student assigned the presentation finds that he or she is unable to carry out the assignment, it must be traded with another student. Leaving the class with a “blank” for a presentation damages everyone’s learning experience.
Academic Paper (50%). Students will be asked to write a paper of approximately 5,000 words exploring in depth a topic related to the readings and class discussions. The topic should be selected and discussed (in person, by email, or by phone) with the instructor no later than the fourth class meeting. It will be due to the instructor in electronic format (Word or Adobe Acrobat) by the last class of the term. The paper should written in proper academic style, with complete footnoting of references. A word of caution: your grade will be affected by poor style, format and editing.
Readings
Assigned readings are listed in the week-by-week schedule below. Some readings are listed as optional; you may find these extra works useful in preparing your papers.
Books
You will need to buy or obtain library access to the following books. The first seven are well-known volumes in science and technology studies; if you are in STS you should own copies. All are available on the used market (e.g. abebooks.com). The Bent et al. book is available used for around $40; the Nye book for around $12-$15. Amazon sells the Boyle et al. book new for $27.50. Buying used copies, I think you can come in under $150 for everything.
Bijker, Hughes, and Pinch, The Social Construction of Technological Systems. Cambridge: MIT Press (1987)
Hughes, Thomas, Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press (1983)
Kuhn, Thomas, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1962) (latest edition is dated 1996)
Smith, Merritt Roe, Marx, Leo, eds. 1994. Does Technology Drive History? Cambridge: MIT Press (1994)
Heidegger, Martin, “The Question Concerning Technology,” essay in Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays, New York: Harper Perennial (1982).
Borgmann, Albert, Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life, Chicago: Chicago University Press (1987)
[Optional: Higgs, E., Light, A., Strong, D., eds., Technology and the Good Life? Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2000)]
Cowan, Ruth Schwartz, More Work for Mother.New York: Basic Books (1983)
Bent, Robert, Orr, Lloyd, Baker, Randall, eds., Energy: Science, Policy, and the Pursuit of Sustainability Washington DC: Island Press (2002)
Boyle, Godfrey, Everett, Bob, Ramage, Janet, eds., Energy Systems and Sustainability, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press (2003)
[Optional: Tester at al., Sustainable Energy: Choosing Among Options, Cambridge: MIT Press (2005)
Nye, David, Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies, Cambridge: MIT (1999).
Articles
Articles are listed in the weekly readings below; all are available online via Virginia Tech’s research portal, except one which I will hand out. The IPCC report, Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovern-mental Panel on Climate Change, is available online at
I will hand out copies of Heilbroner, R. 1972 [1967]. “Do Machines Make History?” in Kranzberg and Davenport, eds., Technology and Culture: An Anthology. New York: New American Library. This book is long out of print. It is inexpensive to buy used, however, and STS students should consider acquiring a copy.
Class Schedule
Date / Topic/Readings / Instructor QuestionsJan. 26 / Nature of Energy
Wikipedia, “Energy” (article on the physical quantity); Wikipedia, “Energy (society)” (article on the human use of energy).
“Energy for the Long Haul” and “Energy and Sustainability,”in Science 315:5813 (February 9, 2007), p. 781; 737.
Nocera, Daniel G., “On the Future of Global Energy,” Daedalus 135:4, (Fall 2006), p.112-115.
Nye, David, Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies, Cambridge: MIT (1999), Introduction, p. 1-14. / 1. What is energy from the physical point of view?
2. What kinds of physical energy are usable and practical as “energy” for human activities?
3. What underlying biases and assumptions can you detect in the Science and Daedalus selections?
4. How does David Nye frame the study of America’s relationship to energy differently from a standard history-of-technology work?
Feb. 2 / Systems, Momentum, and Reverse Salients
Shields Dissertation (STS, 2007), Sections 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1: available online at the Virginia Tech ETD database.
Hirsh, Richard, and Serchuk, Adam, “Momentum Shifts in the American Electric Utility System: Catastrophic Change—or No Change at All?” Technology and Culture 372: 280-311 April 1996.
Hirsh, Richard, and Sovacool, Benjamin,“Technological Systems and Momentum Change: American Electric Utilities, Restructuring, and Distributed Generation Technologies,” Journal of Technology Studies, p.72-85, Spring 2006.
Hughes, Thomas, “The Evolution of Large Technological Systems,” in Bijker, Hughes, and Pinch, The Social Construction of Technological Systems. Cambridge: MIT Press (1987).
Hughes, Thomas, Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press (1983). [pages 1-17, 79-105, 140-174, 461-465] / 1. Can the worldwide human need for and use of energy be considered a Hughesian technological system?
2. If the answer to #1 is yes, is the system open or closed?
3. At what stage is the energy system?
4. Does the energy system have technological momentum? In what directions?
5. What might be some reverse salients of the energy system?
Feb. 9 / Paradigms
Kuhn, Thomas,The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1962). (latest edition is dated 1996)
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online at “Thomas Kuhn.”
Conduct a Google search on “Energy Paradigm,” read some of the hits, make copies of those you feel have some genuine connection to Kuhn’s ideas. / 1. Can Kuhn’s notion of a scientific paradigm be extended to technology? Why/why not?
2. If we answer yes to #1, what is a “technological paradigm”?
2. Is the widespread use of the term “energy paradigm” justified, i.e., would Kuhn have been likely to embrace it?
Feb. 16 / Technological Determinism
Smith, Merritt Roe, Marx, Leo, eds,Does Technology Drive History? Cambridge: MIT Press (1994).[Intro – 114; last two entries by Marx and Staudenmaier]
Heilbroner, R. 1972 [1967]. “Do Machines Make History?” in Kranzberg and Davenport, eds., Technology and Culture: An Anthology. New York: New American Library.(instructor will Xerox – book is long out of print)
Online notes: Prof. Robert Keel, University of Missouri: / 1. What is the relationship between Hughes’s system/momentum ideas and technological determinism?
2. Do energy technologies drive human history, or are such technologies created out of human needs – or are both true to a degree?
3. Are our policy choices influenced by the kind of answer we give to question #1?
Feb. 23 / Enframing and Poesis
Heidegger, Martin, “The Question Concerning Technology” and “The Turning,” essays in Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays, New York: Harper Perennial (1982). / 1. What the heck is Heidegger talking about?
2. Are we “enframed” with energy technology so we can’t see outside it?
3. Do we treat the Earth’s resources as a “standing reserve” for our consumption and destruction?
4. What role might poesis play when looking at energy and society?
March 2 / Devices, Commodities and Focal Things
Borgmann, Albert, Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life, Chicago: Chicago University Press (1987).
Optional: for later perspectives on Borgmann’s work, see:
Higgs, E., Light, A., Strong, D., eds., Technology and the Good Life? Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2000). / 1. How is Borgmann’s work related to Heidegger’s?
2. What does Borgmann’s approach tell us about the human relationship to energy?
3. Can energy ever be considered a focal thing rather than a commodity? When?
4. Does the commodification of energy tend to conceal its real impacts and potential dangers?
5. Can we break free of the device paradigm?
March 16 / The Consumer Viewpoint
Cowan, Ruth Schwartz, More Work for Mother.New York: Basic Books (1983).
Cowan, Ruth Schwartz, “The Consumption Junction: A Proposal for Research Strategies in the Sociology of Technology,” inBijker, Hughes, and Pinch, The Social Construction of Technological Systems, Cambridge: MIT Press (1987).
Shields Dissertation (STS, 2007), Section 1.6: available online at the Virginia Tech ETD database. / 1. How does our view of energy production and use change if we view matters from the consumer’s perspective?
2. Is this perspective important in making decisions about energy production and use?
3. Consider the latest spike in gas and oil prices from Cowan’s perspective: can consumer impact be a force for societal change?
March 23 / Production of Energy I:Fossil and Nuclear
Boyle, Godfrey, Everett, Bob, Ramage, Janet, eds., Energy Systems and Sustainability, Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press (2003) For this week, read the introductory chapters and the chapters on fossil and nuclear power. This volume is UK-centered, but nearly all of the information present is equally applicable to all industrialized nations. / 1. With respect to fossil fuels, has the emission of CO-2 into the atmosphere become an insuperable reverse salient that will eventually drain the momentum from this system?
2. How would you balance alternatives such as drilling for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Preserve versus building more nuclear power plants?
March 30 / Production of Energy II:Hydro, Wind & Waves, Solar, Biomass, Geothermal, Hydrogen, and Everything Else
Read the chapters on these energy sources in Boyle et al. / 1. Does Cowan’s work caution us to look carefully at these seemingly-benign options from the bottom up, as well as using the “grand view” of national or global policy?
2. Do some of these options get us away from treating the Earth as a “standing reserve” to be consumed at our will?
April 6 / Reducing the Demand: Conservation and Efficiency
The State of California maintains an excellent website on all aspects of energy. For this class, spend a couple of hours reviewing the “Efficiency” tab [ and prepare a written synopsis of an efficiency or conservation measure recommended by the state. / 1. Are we so locked into a paradigm of solving our problems by producing more that we can’t give fair treatment to using less?
2. Can we say that “living lighter on the land” by conserving energy use is a form of “poesis” living versus treating Nature as a “standing reserve”?
April 13 / Policy Choices
Bent, Robert, Orr, Lloyd, Baker, Randall, eds., Energy: Science, Policy, and the Pursuit of Sustainability Washington DC: Island Press (2002) / 1. Is the sudden onslaught of energy price increases doing more to educate public opinion than government and journalistic efforts?
2. Can government play an important role in energy futures, or is it more likely that market forces and competition for scarcity will force solutions upon us?
April 20 / Global Warming and CO-2, Part I
Collins, William; Colman, Robert; Haywood, James; Manning, Martin R.; Mote, Philip; “The Physical Science behind Climate Change,” Scientific American, Aug 2007, Vol. 297 Issue 2, p. 64-71.
Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007, available at:
/ 1. Is “global warming” forcing a change in the technological paradigm of energy?
2. Is “global warming” draining momentum from the fossil fuel technological system and diverting it to a new technological system that (like most new systems) is plagued by reverse salients?
3. Is technological determinism still firmly in control of our assumptions, i.e., do we simply need new and better technologies to get us out of the mess our older technologies got us into?
April 27 / Global Warming and CO-2, Part II:Film Viewing and Class Discussion:
Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth
Prior to class, please watch Jimmy Carter’s 1977 address to the nation on energy: / 1.Can one man or woman manage actually make a difference in diverting the course of an enormous and complex technological system?
2. Why was Gore’s film so well received (in general) and Jimmy Carter’s “truth about energy” speech either ignored or scoffed at?
May 4 / Nye, David, Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies, Cambridge: MIT (1999), Chapters 8 and 9. / 1. Is Nye’s perspective (from the mid-1990’s) already dated, and if so, how?
2. What conclusions reached by Nye can you agree with after all we have read and discussed?