Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Science and Technology -- response strategy and social cause
This section from the article I linked earlier, CLA as Pedagogy In studies of Science and Technology, triggered two somewhat vague discussions to sharpen a bit for me:
Science and technology promise a secure
pathway to the future. As social practices they
are widely regarded as the most reliable means
by which a better future can be achieved than
would otherwise be if 'nature' were left to run
its own course. The word 'causes' in the 'social
causes' level of CLA implies a claim that given
certain conditions, certain other things will necessarily
follow. For those promoting science
and technology as a cause of the future, what
they want is a ready explanation for how things
got to be the way they are in order to propose a
remedy to a problem. Models are needed. A
typical model or metaphor for the causal analysis
is a dam impeding the flow of a river. Take
away the impediments or barriers and the river
will flow. The social causes may be understood
as barriers, thwarting the desires of people
wanting to make progress. An alternative
metaphor is that the river contains wasted
potential. Build a dam and the potential is
stored. In thinking about social causes, the
question is whether the cause (in both cases the
dam wall) is an impediment to flow or means of
storing potential.
(Turnbull et al. 2006)
The first bit is about how we're conceiving of science and technology: science is not just a secure authority in our discussions, but it has it's own changing configurations and relationship to society. But we ARE focusing on it as a channel to the futures in the scope of our challenge, as a wellspring of responses (ones that will hopefully eventuate a future with more wellbeing and greater capacities for resilience, perhaps.
The second is inspired by their discussion of the "model" of the dam at face-value, which I think is useful even if it's not really their point. The challenge of transforming bodies and lifestyles needs to be broken down into smaller bits for us to really present a useful framework... thinking about those questions: "what are the blockages, and are they impediments to flow or means of storing potential?" seems like a promising place to take a step back and see if we can subdivide the challenge in a way that's useful and clear but also novel and provocative.