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School of Public Policy

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/70716

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Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

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Technology Policy and Assessment Center

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https://finding-aids.library.gatech.edu/agents/corporate_entities/1033

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Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 16

Reflective Argumentation

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-12) Hoffmann, Michael H. G.

Theories of argumentation usually focus on arguments as means of persuasion, finding consensus, or justifying knowledge claims. However, the construction and visualization of arguments can also be used to clarify one's own thinking and to stimulate change of this thinking if gaps, unjustified assumptions, contradictions, or open questions can be identified. This is what I call "reflective argumentation." The objective of this paper is, first, to clarify the conditions of reflective argumentation and, second, to discuss the possibilities of argument visualization methods in supporting reflection and cognitive change. After a discussion of the cognitive problems we are facing in conflicts--obviously the area where cognitive change is hardest--the second part will, based on this, determine a set of requirements argument visualization tools should fulfill if their main purpose is stimulating reflection and cognitive change. In the third part, I will evaluate available argument visualization methods with regard to these requirements and talk about their limitations. The fourth part, then, introduces a new method of argument visualization which I call Logical Argument Mapping (LAM). LAM has specifically been designed to support reflective argumentation. Since it uses primarily deductively valid argument schemes, this design decision has to be justified with regard to goals of reflective argumentation. The fifth part, finally, provides an example of how Logical Argument Mapping could be used as a method of reflective argumentation in a political controversy.
Potential Impacts of Energy and Climate Policies on the U. S. Pulp and Paper Industry

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-06-09) Brown, Marilyn A. ; Atamturk, Nilgun

Many energy and climate policies are being debated in the United States that could have significant impact upon the future of the pulp and paper industry. Five of these policies are examined here in terms of their possible directional influences on biomass energy and paper production: (1) a national renewable electricity standard, (2) a U.S. greenhouse gas cap and trade system, (3) stronger renewable fuels standards, (4) expanded state incentives for biomass pilot plants, and (5) more favorable taxation of forest property. The observed trends reinforce the value of forest product diversification through the addition of biomass power generation and transportation fuels/chemicals production as co-products of the pulp and paper industry. Therefore, directing capital expenditures to the increasingly cost-competitive and expanding biopower and biofuels markets would appear to have merit in anticipation of the promulgation of new energy and climate legislation. Accelerated investments in new facilities such as biorefineries and cogeneration units and in energy-efficiency upgrades would position the pulp and paper industry to profit from current trends and likely policy initiatives.
A Conscious Geography: the Role of Research Centers in the Coordination of Innovation Policy and Regional Economic Development in the US and Canada

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-06) Clark, Jennifer

Through a comparison of how a "conscious geography"; has informed the organization of research centers in the US and Canada, this article contributes to the debate about the role of regions in the devolution of national science, technology, and innovation (STI) policy. A "conscious geography" refers to a policy framework in which the spatial distribution (and concentration) of innovation and/or production is explicitly considered. In both countries, Centers of Excellence, either based in, or affiliated with, universities, have become lynchpins of an evolving multi-scalar STI policy. The geographic consciousness informing each set of institutional structures, however, varies significantly. Early evidence indicates that the Canadian model, which explicitly takes a geography of production and innovation into account, produces more positive policy outcomes than the US model which employs an ad hoc approach to space. The explicit consideration of the spatial distribution of production appears critical to multi-scalar collaboration, contributing to both horizontally-distributed networks across regions and between researchers and vertically-integrated networks within scales (e.g. the national and regional).
Integrating investment and equity: a critical regionalist agenda for a progressive regionalism

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-06) Clark, Jennifer ; Christopherson, Susan

Since the 1980s different conceptions of regionalism have emerged, reflecting distinct perspectives on place and space, and a variety of policy orientations. The debates in planning over which regional policies are both "equitable" and "democratic" have been intense. This article clarifies these debates through a critical regionalist approach to the two prominent "regionalisms," investment and distributive. This article then proposes how to strengthen the connections between investment and distributive regionalism and build on the successful practices in each arena. We argue that a progressive regionalism requires focus on 1) the labor market as a whole, and 2) multi-scalar coalitions and policy initiatives.
The Transportation Energy and Carbon Footprints of the 100 Largest U.S. Metropolitan Areas

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-05-23) Southworth, Frank ; Sonnenberg, Anthon ; Brown, Marilyn A.

In this paper we present estimates of the automobile and truck travel based energy and carbon footprints of the largest 100 U.S. metropolitan areas. The footprints are based on the estimated vehicle miles traveled and the transportation fuels consumed. Results are presented on an annual basis and represent end use emissions only. Total carbon emissions, emissions per capita, and emissions per dollar of gross metropolitan product are reported. Two years of annual data were examined, 2000 and 2005, with most of the in-depth analysis focused on the 2005 results. In section 2 we provide background data on the national picture and derive some carbon and energy consumption figures for the nation as a whole. In section 3 of the paper we examine the metropolitan area-wide results based on the sums and averages across all 100 metro areas, and compare these with the national totals and averages. In section 4 we present metropolitan area specific footprints and examine the considerable variation that is found to exist across individual metro areas. In doing so we pay particular attention to the effects that urban form might have on these differences. Finally, section 5 provides a summary of major findings, and a list of caveats that need to be borne in mind when using the results due to known limitations in the data sources used.
Technological diversity, scientific excellence and the location of inventive activities abroad: the case of nanotechnology

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-05) Fernández-Ribas, Andrea ; Shapira, Philip

Our contribution to the expanding literature on the globalization of research and innovation is to investigate the extent to which sector-specific developments in an emerging technology (such as increasing interdisciplinarity and complexity) affect inventive activities developed abroad. We look at how technological diversity and scientific excellence of host countries in the field of nanotechnology affect the development of inventive activities by US multinational companies (MNCs). We identify the most active US-based MNCs in nanotechnology-related patenting and examine location decisions of these companies and their international subsidiaries. Econometric results confirm our hypothesis that the technological breadth of host countries positively influences the expected number of inventions developed abroad by US MNCs. Science capabilities of countries also have a positive impact on the decision to invent abroad, while the influence of market specific factors is less clear. We interpret these results as suggesting that host country science capabilities are important to attract innovative activities by MNCs, but as the interdisciplinary and convergent nature of nanotechnology evolves, access to a broadly diversified knowledge base becomes important in increasing the relative attractiveness of host locations.
The Residential Energy and Carbon Footprints of the 100 Largest U.S. Metropolitan Areas

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-05) Brown, Marilyn A. ; Logan, Elise

The nation’s carbon footprint has a distinct geography that is not well understood or recognized in the national climate debate, partly because data on GHG emissions are so inadequate. Metros and the built environment are often neglected when solutions to the climate challenge are being discussed, yet they are major carbon emitters and they are poised to be part of the solution. To characterize metropolitan contributions to the global climate change problem, this paper quantifies the energy consumed and carbon emitted by the residential building sector of the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. It thereby provides, for the first time, a set of consistent indices that enable cross-metro comparisons and comparability with national statistics and across metropolitan areas. The residential footprints are derived from proprietary utility sales data from Platts Analytics supplemented by Census region and state-level data provided by EIA. We find that the average metropolitan resident emits 0.93 metric tons of carbon as a result of their residential energy consumption, which is 18 percent smaller than the average American. Per capita footprints vary substantially across metropolitan areas. Some of this variation can be attributed to climate, electricity prices, and the fuels used to generate electricity. In addition, compact metros consistently have lower per capita residential carbon footprints than more sprawling metros.
Evolving regimes of multi-university research evaluation

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-03) Hicks, Diana

Since 1980, national university departmental ranking exercises have developed in several countries. This paper reviews exercises in the U.S., U.K. and Australia to assess the state-of-the-art and to identify common themes and trends. The findings are that the exercises are becoming more elaborate, even unwieldy, and that there is some retreat from complexity. There seems to be a movement towards combining peer evaluation with bibliometric measures. The exercises also seem to be effective in enhancing university focus on research strategy.
For Money or Glory?: Commercialization, Competition and Secrecy in the Entrepreneurial University

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-02-18) Hong, Wei ; Walsh, John P.

Scholars have grown concerned that the commercialization of academic science is increasing secrecy at the expense of cooperation and information sharing. Using data from comparable surveys of academic scientists in three fields (experimental biology, mathematics and physics), we test whether scientists have become more competitive and more secretive over the last 30 years. We also use the recent survey to test a multivariate model of the effects of scientific competition and commercialization (patenting, industry funding and industry collaboration) on scientific secrecy. We find that secrecy has increased, and has increased particularly for experimental biologists. Only 13% of experimental biologists in 1998 felt safe discussing their ongoing research with all others doing similar work. Our multivariate analysis shows that this secrecy is most related to concerns about being anticipated (scientific competition). We find that patenting is associated with increased secrecy among mathematicians and physicists, but not for experimental biologists. We find that industry funding is associated with more secrecy, while industry collaboration is associated with less secrecy, across fields. Our results suggest that the recent concern over increasing scientific secrecy has merit. However, this increased secrecy seems to result from a combination of increasing commercial linkages and increased pressures from scientific competition. Our research highlights the central role that scientists’ competition for priority plays in the system of science and that, while such competition spurs effort, it also produces negative effects that recent trends toward commercialization of academic science seem to be exacerbating.
On Being Stuck: Looking for the Limits of Ethics in the Built Environment

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-02) Kirkman, Robert ; Noonan, Douglas S.

We seek here to lay the groundwork for a multi-disciplinary inquiry into one aspect of the phenomenology of moral experience, which is a general project of elucidating what it is like for people to make ethical decisions in particular contexts. Taking urban and suburban environments as the context for decision making, we focus in particular on the common human experience of being stuck. Just as a person can get physically stuck while trying to crawl through a hole that is too small, people can get ethically stuck when some feature of their relationship with their context blocks or deflects their efforts to make good decisions and to do the right thing. We develop a preliminary typology of stuckness for ordinary residents of urban and suburban environments, and suggest ways in which various disciplinary perspectives might be brought to bear on each type. We close by looking ahead to two possible extensions of inquiry into stuckness: a consideration of how people and groups who have some power in shaping the built environment (e.g., developers, planners) may be stuck, and a consideration of when and under what circumstances people might get unstuck.