Scientific & Political Change

A series of articles by Tom Vanderbilt exploring the behavioral consequences of infrastructure development in American transportation systems.

On-the-job learning

Those lunch pictures look great! But the real reason I responded here is that the Scott Arboretum and other public horticulture organizations across the country have assisted with many school gardens. The problems always fall back to maintenance when the children are not in school over the summer months and then they lay dormant most of the winter in colder climates.

Rhoda, those are good points. This might open up opportunities for small groups. Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, Youth Center groups, and Community Service could handle the summer months and vacation days and weeks. I am not sure if there is much that could be done in the winter in New England. I will try to have something on this for my PowerPoint.

an entry point to a checklist of conditions for organizers and facilitators to foster when running a collaborative process. The checklists are organized under four headings: Respect, Risk, Revelation, Re-engagement. The thinking behind these headings is, in brief, that a well-facilitated collaborative process keeps us listening actively to each other, fostering mutual Respect that allows Risks to be taken, elicits more insights than any one person came in with (Revelation), and engages us in carrying out and carrying on the plans we develop (Re-engagement). What we come out with is very likely to be larger and more durable than what any one person came in with; the more so, the more voices that are brought out by the process. The sequence of 4Rs grew out of an an annual series of experimental, interaction-intensive, interdisciplinary workshops that "foster collaboration among those who teach, study, and engage with the public about scientific developments and social change" (http://www.stv.umb.edu/newssc.html). Since we named the 4Rs, we have found ourselves using them to review and redesign our teaching, theories about learning, committee meetings, and, in general, the cultivation of collaborators.

For more than 30 years the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Philadelphia Green program has used horticulture to build community and improve the quality of life in Philadelphia's neighborhoods and downtown public spaces. In that time there have been significant signs of rebirth in the city, and the work of Philadelphia Green has played an important role in the environmental, social, economic, and aesthetic changes taking place.

It would be interesting to know how programs like this and other environmental stewardship and conservations efforts link to increased awareness, support and engagement in policy efforts.

Occupy the Farm Activists Reclaim Prime Urban Agricultural Land in SF Bay Area. Category: Comments from The Berkeley Daily Planet

This is interesting... UC Berkley of all places. I wonder what their side of the story is and why they don't want to support a sustainable farm program.

Cornell University monetary value study on pollination contributions to US Agriculture.

In Bakersfield, CA a beekeeper claims in court that a crop duster killed 1 million honeybees by spraying pesticides without warning on cotton fields the bees were pollinating.

An amazing timeline map showing GMO introduction to field crops in the USA.

Thanks for posting this, Felicia. It's interesting that Poland was first to make this link stick. Makes me wonder what else in Poland was at play. But great news for the bees and beekeepers!

GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. This article explores issues around UPOV and non USA-EU countries adopting sui generis policies.

Felicia - I saw a video about this story a while back with Vandana Shiva (on BBC?) and was amazed at this desperate reality. And the most common way farmer's committed suicide was to drink pesticides.

"This article... was written by GRAIN and the Pesticides Eco-Alternatives Centre (PEAC) in China to raise Chinese farmers' awareness about the broad historical context of industrial agriculture, and how it paved the way for the introduction of modern varieties of crops and agricultural technologies."

After Felicia's post about farmer suicides in India related to the use of GMO cotton seeds, I thought some might be interested in a more upbeat article about efforts to raise farmer's awareness about industrialized agriculture, etc.

an initiative to build an international infrastructure, open to public as well as researchers. mimics what it studies.

The Center for Digital Storytelling engages people to share personal stories, bearing witness as related to their lives leading to action and positive change.

Narratives and frames are powerful things. It would seem that any endeavor would benefit from knowing what is a compelling "story" to engage the public. Youth development organizations use this tool quite a lot in their work.

I remember you had been talking about using story boards in one of the other cases. I am wondering if there is a way to use both of those ideas for Case 4.

a nice overview from a personal perspective about the power of story in a changing world.

The goal of the GMO Education Network is to present factual and objective information about genetically engineered crop species. The site strives to be accessible to readers who are unfamiliar with the subject of plant biology while at the same time providing the detailed information necessary for people to synthesize independent and informed opinions about GMOs. It also seeks to promote constructive debate and discourse on the forum page to engage those on both sides of the GMO issue to articulate their positions in a factual and scientific manner. This wiki depends upon the community at large for it to be developed and updated. If you have an interest in contributing please visit the join page. If there is a topic which you would like to see covered that is not, please consider stubbing an article or posting on the forum.

Rhoda, I posted a resource above that talks about GMO regulation as anti-science activism. It is coming from a pro-business perspective. I wonder what forums would bring these opposing sides into "conversation" or "dialogue" with one another. Is there a meeting ground? Should there be?

A great site with short podcast stories but also links to live events around the country.

I haven't had time to read this fully, but it would seem finding ways to help groups of individuals work to come to decisions regarding science and technology change in a way that can expose and understand a complex situation. This bit seems relevant: "Disputes between experts provoke major difficulties for decision-making and policy implementation in the case of such public confrontations, which, more often than not, are vociferous, protracted, rancorous and unresolved. Traditionally, the neutral, disinterested and objective expert has been promoted -- not least by scientists themselves -- as the rational and authoritative arbiter of public disputes over scientific or technical issues." Published in Sheila Jasanoff, Gerald E. Markle, James C. Petersen, and Trevor Pinch (eds.), Handbook of Science and Technology Studies (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1995), pp. 506-526, plus references, with minor changes due to sub-editing. Brian Martin and Evelleen Richards 1.

Participation of experts in working groups, not all citizens. Interesting nevertheless.

This piece talks about activism that hampers scientific research, innovation and industries that are related to things suc as "pesticides, food additives, chemicals in general, pharmaceuticals, nuclear power, and biotechnology." The article states that the scientific illiteracy of the general public makes it easy for activists to generate support for increased regulation and dampening of efforts in these areas. How do you help communities assess scientific information? How do you help them look at not only the research, but the context of the research? How should informed decisions about potentially harmful technologies and processes be handled? How do you support and engage in honest and open dialogue and debate about complex and unknown outcomes?