What do energy modellers know? An ethnography of epistemic values and knowledge models

Silvast, Antti; Laes, Erik; Abram, Simone; Bombaerts, Gunter

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2020.101495

Cited by 50 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…When analyzing the students’ learning outcomes (Goodlad’s learning sub-dimension), competences are an important indicator. We had our students assess the course using the Academic Competences and Quality Assurance (ACQA), a measure of competence development gauging competencies such as dynamic combinations of knowledge and epistemic values (Silvast et al, 2020 ), understanding, skills and abilities (Anderson et al, 2001). The ACQA offers a framework for the evaluation of engineering education (Meijers et al, 2005 ; Perrenet et al, 2017 ) by distinguishing seven competence domains relevant to all training programs and defining five to eight discipline-independent competencies per domain at the bachelor’s and master’s level.…”

Section: Assessing the Effectiveness Of Case Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engineering Students as Co-creators in an Ethics of Technology Course

et al. 2021

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Research on the effectiveness of case studies in teaching engineering ethics in higher education is underdeveloped. To add to our knowledge, we have systematically compared the outcomes of two case approaches to an undergraduate course on the ethics of technology: a detached approach using real-life cases and a challenge-based learning (CBL) approach with students and stakeholders acting as co-creators (CC). We first developed a practical typology of case-study approaches and subsequently tested an evaluation method to assess the students’ learning experiences (basic needs and motivation) and outcomes (competence development) and staff interpretations and operationalizations, seeking to answer three questions: (1) Do students in the CBL approach report higher basic needs, motivation and competence development compared to their peers in the detached approach? (2) What is the relationship between student-perceived co-creation and their basic needs, motivation and competence development? And (3) what are the implications of CBL/CC for engineering-ethics teaching and learning? Our mixed methods analysis favored CBL as it best supported teaching and research goals while satisfying the students’ basic needs and promoting intrinsic motivation and communication competences. Competence progress in other areas did not differ between approaches, and motivation in terms of identified regulation was lower for CBL, with staff perceiving a higher workload. We propose that our case typology model is useful and that as a method to engage students as co-creators, CBL certainly merits further development and evaluation, as does our effectiveness analysis for engineering ethics instruction in general and for case-study approaches in particular.

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Section: Assessing the Effectiveness Of Case Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engineering Students as Co-creators in an Ethics of Technology Course

et al. 2021

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“…After all, safety cases for geological disposal based on modelling rely on various assumptions and scenarios. Trust in the results of the models used therefore boils down to trust in the scientific community developing and using these models (Silvast et al, 2020): have the best models available really been used? And can the necessary simplifications that always form the basis of mathematical models be justified considering the real complexity of the geological reference concept?…”

Section: Techno-scientific Mediation: Geological Disposal As a Technology Of Forgettingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Mediation in Nuclear Waste Management: a Foucauldian Perspective

Laes

Bombaerts

2021

Philos. Technol.

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This paper aims to open up high-level waste management practices to a political philosophical questioning, beyond the enclosure implied by the normative ethics approaches that prevail in the literature. Building on previous insights derived from mediation theory (in particular the work of Verbeek and Dorrestijn), Foucault and science and technology studies (in particular Jasanoff’s work on socio-technical imaginaries), mediation theory’s appropriation of Foucauldian insights is shown to be in need of modification and further extension. In particular, we modify Dorrestijn’s figure of “technical determination of power relations” to better take into account the (literal and figurative) aspects of imagination, and complement Dorrestijn’s work with the figures of techno-scientific mediation, and the inherently political figures of socio-technical and state-technical mediation, both based on Foucault’s notion of governmentality. Our analysis implies that the practical implementation of a high-level nuclear waste (HLW) management strategy will require the “stitching together” of these different mediations, which is an inherently political task.

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“…STS has advocated the study of computer models as means to bring different social worlds together (McDowall 2014;Aykut 2019). The very term 'model' has referred to an extraordinarily wide range of methods and entities, including a wide diversity of computer models in use in the energy field (Silvast et al 2020). Individual models have intricate development stories that are tied to the lives of their developers (Ialenti 2020).…”

Section: Framework: the Enactment Of Esi In Computer Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These different designs had material impacts on what the models could know about energy systems themselves (Silvast et al 2020). On numerous occasions, the ethnography observed that the kind of model that a scientist used shaped the areas of concern that they articulated in relation to energy demand dynamics, supply dynamics, energy future, technological detail or other related issues.…”

Section: Design Challenges For Integrated Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This raises questions around what makes a model useful, for whom, and how scholarship can understand the relationship between a model's usefulness and its scientific 'quality' (i.e. its epistemological and non-epistemological valuessee Silvast et al 2020). First, ESI researchers are aware of the social, economic and political context of their work, though many of these contexts are difficult to incorporate in any useful modelling process.…”

Section: How Are System Models Thought To Aid Communication Between Science and Policy?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Energy systems integration as research practice

Silvast

Abram

Copeland

2021

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management

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This article adopts frameworks and methods from Science and Technology Studies for examining Energy Systems Integration (ESI). ESI, the integrated operation and planning of multiple energy supplies and demands, can contribute to improvements in energy reliability, security and flexibility, and therefore facilitate a transition to a low carbon economy. The article examines UK research towards integrated computer models of energy system 'vectors'. The research is based on fieldwork and participation in a large ESI research project in the UK, drawing on interviews, workshops and observations. We highlight three main contributions to the studies on ESI and STS research of modelling. First, ESI researchers are aware of the social, economic and political context of their work, though many of these contexts are difficult to incorporate in any useful modelling process. Second, issues that touch on both science and policy around energy systems were the motivation for ESI researchers yet were also underemphasised in project work. Third, we develop unique mixed ethnographic methods to study ESI and that enable researchers to build relations of trust with research participants that contribute to the discussion of sensitive topics such as the politics and ethics of energy modelling approaches.

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What do energy modellers know? An ethnography of epistemic values and knowledge models

Cited by 50 publications

References 42 publications

Engineering Students as Co-creators in an Ethics of Technology Course

Engineering Students as Co-creators in an Ethics of Technology Course

Political Mediation in Nuclear Waste Management: a Foucauldian Perspective

Energy systems integration as research practice

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