Digital Commons Network^™

Corporate Ventriloquism: Corporate Advocacy, The Coal Industry, And The Appropriation Of Voice, Peter K. Bsumek, Jen Schneider, Steve Schwarze, Jennifer Peeples

Jen Schneider

In the second decade of the 21st century, the U.S. coal industry is facing unprecedented challenges. While for many years coal provided nearly half of the U.S. electricity, in the spring of 2012 that share dropped to below 40% and is expected to continue falling (Energy Information Administration, 2012).¹ Coal production is increasing not in Appalachia, the primary U.S. source for coal historically, but in Wyoming's Powder River Basin (Goodell, 2006). Market competition from the natural gas industry combined with well organized climate and anti-nountaintop removal (MTR) campagins have significantly curtailed the production of new coal-fired power plants in …

Industrial Apocalyptic: Neoliberalism, Coal, And The Burlesque Frame, Jennifer Peeples, Pete Bsumek, Steve Schwarze, Jen Schneider

Jen Schneider

Rhetorical scholarship and cultural commentary have demonstrated that environmentalist voices are consistently associated with apocalyptic rhetoric. However, this association deflects attention from the apocalyptic rhetoric that comes from industry and countermovements to environmentalism. This essay seeks to remedy that oversight by proposing the concept of "industrial apocalyptic" as a significant rhetorical form in environmental controversy. Based on analysis of the rhetoric of the U.S. coal industry, we find that these industrial apocalyptic narratives rely on a burlesque frame to disrupt the categories of establishment and outsider and thus thwart environmental regulation. Ultimately, we argue that industrial apocalyptic co-opts environmentalist appeals …

Policy Pathways, Policy Networks, And Citizen Deliberation: Disseminating The Results Of World Wide Views On Global Warming In The Usa, Jason Delborne, Jen Schneider, Ravtosh Bal, Susan Cozzens, Richard Worthington

Jen Schneider

Leading a coalition spanning 38 countries, the Danish Board of Technology organized World Wide Views on Global Warming (WWViews) on September 26, 2009. WWViews represented a pioneering effort to hold simultaneous citizen deliberations focusing on questions of climate change policy addressed at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in December 2009. Sponsors and organizers envisioned WWViews as a means to affect the COP15 negotations, and the project included numerous strategies to influence policy-making. This paper examines the success of such strategies in the USA through the lens of 'policy pathways,' routes of influence to affect the behavior of policy-makers and …

Connecting The “Forgotten”: Transportation Engineering, Poverty, And Social Justice In Sun Valley, Colorado, Jen Schneider, Junko Munakata Marr

Jen Schneider

Yet [Sun Valley] has persisted. Out of neglect. Or the lack of resources and political will. It persists because Sun Valley represents in pure form the daunting legacy of social and economic segregation and the challenge of providing economic and educational opportunity to the neediest among us.

-Tina Griego, The Denver Post, 2010

The light rail stop at this location would be creating a means for companies to move into the community and the Sun Valley residents should not be forgotten when serving the area is concerned...the permanent residents of this area must not be forgotten.

-Student, Sustainable Engineering …

Are Engineering And Social Justice (In)Commensurable? A Theoretical Exploration Of Macro-Sociological Frameworks, Jon A. Leydens, Juan C. Lucena, Jen Schneider

Jen Schneider

The degree to which engineering and social justice as fields of practice are (in)commensurable remains an open question. To illuminate important dimensions of that question, we explore intersections between those fields and two macro-sociological frameworks. Those theoretical frameworks—structural functionalism and social conflict—represent contrasting perspectives on how society should be organized. Specifically, we reveal conceptual alignments between structural functionalism and engineering/engineering education and between social conflict and social justice. Those alignments suggest some salient potential catalysts for tensions between engineering and social justice and provide a useful ideological mirror for reflection by all who are committed to the engineering profession and/or …

Seeking The Spotlight: Wwviews And The Us Media Context, Jen Schneider, Jason Delborne

Jen Schneider

This chapter focuses on the development and implementation of various media plans and strategies for World Wide Views on Global Warming (WWV) in the United States. While we aim to consider the U.S. case within the larger context of global media coverage of WWV, we focus primarily on the U.S. for two reasons: first, our participation in the U.S. WWV team provides rich understanding of efforts to attract U.S. media, and second, the U.S. media landscape and norms create particular challenges of garnering media coverage for an event like WWV that may not translate to other cultural contexts. Further collaborative …

The Impact Of ‘‘No Impact Man’’: Alternative Hedonism As Environmental Appeal, Jen Schneider, Glen Miller

Jen Schneider

As ‘‘No Impact Man,’’ writer Colin Beavan conducted a one-year experiment to determine whether he and his family could reduce their environmental impact to zero while living and working in Manhattan. This article examines the No Impact Man (NIM) experiment both as ‘‘alternative hedonism,’’ a reconceptualization of the ‘‘good life’’ that avoids unduly damaging the natural world, and also as a kind of ‘‘eco-stunt,’’ an attempt to garner significant media coverage about positive environmental behaviors. We use DeLuca’s theorization of the ‘‘image event’’ to analyze the No Impact Man franchise—blog, book, and documentary film—though we modify that theory in order …

Integration Of Climate Change In The Analysis And Design Of Engineered Systems: Barriers And Opportunities For Engineering Education, Juan Lucena, Jason Delborne, Katie Johnson, Jon Leydens, Junko Munakata-Marr, Jen Schneider

Jen Schneider

The goal of this paper is to begin mapping perspectives of engineering faculty on barriers and opportunities related to the integration of climate change in the analysis and design of engineered systems (CC&ES). Although both sustainability and renewable energy have been receiving increasing attention in engineering education for quite some time¹, climate change, especially as it relates to engineered systems, has yet to become a widely accepted topic of teaching and research. From recent literature on engineering education and from interviews with engineering faculty, a picture emerges of whether and how climate change is an important dimension in …

Making The Human Dimensions Of Sustainable Community Development Visible To Engineers, Juan Lucena, Jen Schneider, Jon A. Leydens

Jen Schneider

Recently, engineers – particularly those working on sustainability-related initiatives – have increasingly turned their efforts towards under-served communities. This paper summarises the findings in Engineering and Sustainable Community Development (Juan Lucena et al., 2010) aimed at a diversity of these efforts which are grouped here under the term ‘engineering to help’. These initiatives often exist under names such as community service, humanitarian engineering, and engineers without borders or activities such as the Institution of Civil Engineers' co-sponsored workshop ‘Helping local communities to help themselves’. Although there has been a blossoming of engineering-to-help-related programmes around the world, there is a …

Moving Forward With Citizen Deliberation: Lessons And Inspiration From The National Citizens' Technology Forum, Jason Delborne, Jen Schneider

Jen Schneider

In his article on the National Citizens' Technology Forum (NCTF) in this chapter, Cobb notes that the NCTF was essentially a decendant of the "consensus conference," a form of political engagement that originated in Denmark and then traveled elsewhere. Sponsored by the Danish Parliament, the Danish Board of Technology was tasked with involving groups of citizens in making informed policy recommendations related to science and technology: these policy recommendations were and are considered by lawmakers in forming science policy. Cobb and others have noted that the consensus conference and related forms of public engagement have garnered significant academic interest in …

Putting Partnership First: A Dialogue Model For Science And Risk Communication, Jen Schneider, Roel Snieder

Jen Schneider

In April 2010, the New York Times reported that Vattenfall AB, an energy company owned by the Swedish government, had built one of the first coal-fired power plants designed to capture ~90% of the CO₂ it produced, with plans to sequester that CO₂ underground in geologic repositories near its plant in Brandenburg, Germany (Voosen, 2010). By most measures, if the plant's operations were proven to be successful, it could have served as a model for other carbon capture and sequestration plants worldwide.

Making Space For The “Nuances Of Truth”: Communication And Uncertainty At An Environmental Journalists’ Workshop, Jen Schneider

Jen Schneider

In 2008, the Society of Environmental Journalists listed nearly 50 science or science immersion workshops for environmental journalists. Yet relatively little is known about the content of these workshops and their impact on participants. This ethnographic study, conducted at a science immersion workshop for environmental journalists, aims to fill this void in our knowledge. Relying on participant observation and depth interviews, the study suggests that such workshops are useful for participating journalists: Reporters feel they leave the workshop better understanding the scientific method and scientific uncertainty. But the findings also reveal that “metacommunication”—communication about communication—is equally as important as science …

Environmental Crisis And Religious Rhetoric In Is God Green?, Jen Schneider

Jen Schneider

In the 2006 PBS documentary Is God Green?, Bill Moyers presents the emergence of two key contemporary trends in American political and religious life. The first is the growing popularity of an environmental movement within Christian evangelicalism called 'Creation Care'. Motivated by biblical passages that suggest humans have been 'commissioned' as stewards to care for the earth, or 'God's Body', Creation Care emerged in the late 1970s, gained momentum in the 1990s, and now 'constitutes the "fastest-growing form of Christian ministry"', according to the evangelical publication Christianity Today (Frame 1996:84, see also Psaros 2006:20-32). Is God Green? highlights what …

Innovations In Composition Programs That Educate Engineers: Drivers, Opportunities, And Challenges, Jon A. Leydens, Jen Schneider

Jen Schneider

Recent developments in engineering education have shaped the nature of composition programs at institutions or programs that emphasize engineering and science. Among these developments are revised accreditation guidelines and a curricular debate with a long history. Such developments highlight collaborative opportunities between technical and humanities/social sciences faculty. This multi-case study investigates how composition programs have responded to such drivers, opportunities, and challenges. The study draws from historical, observation, document, and interview data, and particularly interviews with composition program administrators at six institutions with significant technical emphases. Findings indicate shifts in historical emphasis on culture and utility, and three contemporary responses. …

Engineering To Help: The Value Of Critique In Engineering Service, Jen Schneider, Juan Lucena, Jon A. Leydens

Jen Schneider

Given the fairly recent and dramatic increase in the number of "engineering to help" (ETH) programs in the developed world, we seem to be observing a theme that resonates with engineering students and faculty. Within this context, this article has two goals: first, it positions ETH programs within a history of the U.S. engineering profession generally. We argue that the emergence of ETH programs represents a shift in how some engineers and engineering educators are re-imagining and re-framing their profession and engineering education from a constraining concept of "service" to include a broader notion of "helping." Second, we want to …

Guiding Principles In Engineering Writing Assessment: Context, Collaboration, And Ownership, Jen Schneider, Jon A. Leydens, Barbara M. Olds, Ronald Miller

Jen Schneider

Several years ago, one of the authors of this chapter was privy to details of a large-scale writing assessment of junior high students. The students had been given a brief prompt asking them to think through how watching television affects people's thinking styles. One of the students involved in the assessment had approached the task creatively, beginning his essay as one would a television commercial and echoing that tone, complete with channel changes and other fragmenting interruptions. He began his essay this way: "Hi there! Television has not affected my mind ... " and then proceeded to show, in a …

Filming Engineers, Jen Schneider

Jen Schneider

Film and media studies have been substantial fields in liberal arts education since the 1970s. It is only in the last decade, however, that engineering educators have begun to pay attention to the importance of these fields for how they might provide future engineers and applied scientists with valuable interpretive, communicative, and ethical competencies. Given that engineers trained in the United States and abroad are expected not only to exhibit excellent design skills but also management abilities and cultural fluency, film studies offer these students the opportunity to develop all three. Exposing students to film can broaden their understanding of …

Engineers, Development, And Engineering Education: From National To Sustainable Community Development, J. Lucena, J. Schneider

Jen Schneider

In October 2007, Norman Borlaug wrote in Science magazine that ‘more than 200 science journals throughout the world will simultaneously publish papers on global poverty and human development – a collaborative effort to increase awareness, interest, and research about these important issues of our time’. Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and father of the green revolution, was demonstrating that the scientific community is at last taking questions seriously of sustainability and development. Borlaug's own contentious role in the history of ‘development,’ however, points to the complexity of the term and the contested role scientists and engineers have played in that …

Where Is ‘Community’?: Engineering Education And Sustainable Community Development, J. Schneider, J. A. Leydens, J. Lucena

Jen Schneider

Sustainable development initiatives are proliferating in the US and Europe as engineering educators seek to provide students with knowledge and skills to design technologies that are environmentally sustainable. Many such initiatives involve students from the ‘North,’ or ‘developed’ world building projects for villages or communities in the ‘South.’ Sustainable development projects in engineering education are being lauded for meeting multiple educational outcomes and providing students with important international training. This paper argues that such programmes need to educate students to think critically about their role as development professionals, to understand and value the role of community in development projects, and …