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Neelke Doorn

Delft University of Technology, Department of Philosophy, Faculty Member

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Neelke Doorn is full professor Ethics of Water Engineering at the Department of Philosophy of Delft University of Technology and former assistant director of the 3TU.Centre of Ethics and Technology. In 2013, she received a personal NWO Veni grant for her project on The Ethics of Flood Risk Management. In February 2015, she received two grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research under the Responsible Innovation (in Dutch: Maatschappelijk Verantwoord Innoveren; MVI) scheme. Together with Diane P. Michelfelder, Neelke is Editor-in-Chief of the peer reviewed journal Techne: Research in Philosophy and Technology. Neelke’s primary research is dedicated to water ethics, for which she received a prestigious NWO Veni grant, and moral issues in the governance of technological risks.

Educational background:
Neelke has a master degree in Civil Engineering (TU Delft 1997, BSc+MSc, cum laude/highest distinction) and Philosophy (Leiden 2005, BA+MA, cum laude/highest distinction), and Law (Open University 2016, LLB+LLM, cum laude/highest distinction). In May 2011, she obtained her PhD degree from the TU Delft for her thesis on Moral Responsibility in R&D networks.

Past research and working experience:
Neelke has ten years working experience as a research engineer in the field of coastal engineering (1998-2007). In 2007, Neelke joined the Philosophy Section of the TU Delft. Between 2006 and 2010, she was also affiliated to the Radboud University in Nijmegen, where she held a part-time research position at the Centre of Ethics focusing on global justice issues. Neelke spent the spring 2010 term as visiting researcher at the Philosophy Department of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, where she did research on the philosophy of risks. In 2011, Neelke was awarded a grant to spend two months at the Brocher Foundation, a Suisse private law Foundation that facilitates multidisciplinary research on the legal, social, and ethical aspects of medicine and new technologies.

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Books by Neelke Doorn

A Fair Approach to Flooding

Responsible Innovation Volume 1: Innovative Solutions for Global Issues

Early Engagement and New Technologies: Opening Up the Laboratory

"- First book-length discussion of early engagement with new technologies - Comprehensive overvi... more "- First book-length discussion of early engagement with new technologies
- Comprehensive overview of main approaches in early engagement
- Attention for underlying theoretical issues like interdisciplinary cooperation (trading zones), normativity, and the relation to tradition of laboratory studies

Despite the topic’s urgency and centrality, this is the first edited volume to offer a comprehensive assessment of the varying approaches to early engagement with new technologies, including nanotechnology, synthetic biology, biotechnology and ICT. Covering five main approaches to early engagement—constructive technology assessment (CTA), value-sensitive design (VSD), midstream modulation (MM), the network approach for moral evaluation, and political technology assessment—the book will be a pivotal text in the rapidly developing research field of ELSI, which explores the ethical, legal, and social implications of new technologies.

Featuring leading scholars who discuss each early engagement approach in turn, the chapters cover both theory and applications, and include evaluative assessments of specific instances of early adoption of technologies. Further contributions focus on theoretical issues relevant to all approaches, including interdisciplinary cooperation, normativity and intervention, and political and public relevance. The publication has added profile due to the requirement of multi-billion-dollar research programs in the US and Europe to engage in ELSI research alongside that of the technical development itself, even in the early stages. Its comprehensive scrutiny of the core factors in early engagement will ensure a readership of policy makers as well as scientists and engineers."

Moral Responsibility in R&D Networks: A Procedural Approach to Distributing Responsibilities

Public Forgiveness in Post-Conflict Contexts

Wilsbekwaamheid - weldoen, autonomie, identiteit (in Dutch)

Water ethics/philosophy (papers) by Neelke Doorn

The European Flood risk directive and ethics

Water Governance, 2012

The European Flood risk directive (2007/60/EC) requires EU Member States to review their system o... more The European Flood risk directive (2007/60/EC) requires EU Member States to review their system of flood risk management. In doing so, they will have to face ethical issues inherent in flood risk management. This paper discusses three such issues, using examples from the Netherlands. These issues are: (1) whether and, if so, under which conditions differentiation in flood protection levels is acceptable; (2) individual and local responsibility versus solidarity; and (3) the role of environmental considerations in flood risk management. By discussing these three issues in the light of the more philosophical literature on risks, we intend to contribute to an integrated approach to flood risk management.

Rationality in flood risk management: The limitations of probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) in the design and selection of flood protection strategies

The introduction of new flood protection strategies prompts the need for a general framework for ... more The introduction of new flood protection strategies prompts the need for a general framework for evaluating different flood protection strategies. The focus in this paper is on rationality in selecting between flood protection strategies; more particularly, on the question to what extent risk-based design and probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) can provide a general framework for rational evaluation of different flood protection strategies. On the basis of Arrow's impossibility theorem and the standard literature on cost-benefit analysis, the limitations of risk-based design and PRA are discussed. Applied to the context of flood risk management, it is shown that the problem of selecting between different flood protection strategies is susceptible to Arrow's impossibility theorem, which makes risk-based design seem less suitable as a generally applicable procedure. The incommensurability of criteria in the selection of flood protection strategies is related to the uncertainties pertaining to the different flood protection strategies. When selecting between strategies, risk-based design should therefore be complemented with other decision tools.

Water and justice: Towards an ethics of water governance

Public Reason

Water is recognized to pose some very urgent questions in the near future. A significant number o... more Water is recognized to pose some very urgent questions in the near future. A significant number of people are deprived of clean drinking water and sanitation services, with an accordingly high percentage of people dying from water borne diseases. At the same time, an increasing percentage of the global population lives in areas that are at risk of flooding, partly exacerbated by climate change. Although it is increasingly recognized that adequate governance of water requires that issues of “equity” or “social justice” are taken into account, political philosophers or applied ethicists have so far not or only barely been involved in the debate on water governance. In this paper, it is argued that political philosophers or applied ethicists should become more involved in the debate on water governance. Their role can be twofold: (1) clarifying the debate; and (2) help analyzing some urgent distributive questions related to water governance. The paper is concluded with an outline for an ethics of water governance.

Values of water

Governance Experiments in Water Management: From Interests to Building Blocks

Science and engineering ethics, Jan 5, 2015

The management of water is a topic of great concern. Inadequate management may lead to water scar... more The management of water is a topic of great concern. Inadequate management may lead to water scarcity and ecological destruction, but also to an increase of catastrophic floods. With climate change, both water scarcity and the risk of flooding are likely to increase even further in the coming decades. This makes water management currently a highly dynamic field, in which experiments are made with new forms of policy making. In the current paper, a case study is presented in which different interest groups were invited for developing new water policy. The case was innovative in that stakeholders were invited to identify and frame the most urgent water issues, rather than asking them to reflect on possible solutions developed by the water authority itself. The case suggests that stakeholders can participate more effectively if their contribution is focused on underlying competing values rather than conflicting interests.

Risk ethics (papers) by Neelke Doorn

The role of resilience in engineering

In contemporary engineering, resilience represents a particular approach to safety and risks in e... more In contemporary engineering, resilience represents a particular approach to safety and risks in engineering and safety management. Whereas the traditional safety paradigm focuses on the prevention of malfunction or accidents – for example, by assessing a system's performance in terms of how often things have gone wrong – the resilience paradigm is focused on success – that is, a system working normally or a person succeeding in doing a task. The fundamental difference between these two paradigms is illustrated on the basis of their phenomenology, etiology and ontology. When it comes to operationalization and implementation, resilience engineering builds on four abilities of a system: the ability to respond, the ability to monitor, the ability to anticipate, and the ability to learn. In combination, these four abilities indicate how well a system is able to deal with and adapt to changing circumstances. A critical comparison of both paradigms in practice suggests many of the safety measures that follow from traditional approaches to safety management are still relevant, as long as they do not limit a system's room for maneuver.

Should probabilistic design replace safety factors?

Safety is a concern in almost all branches of engineering. Whereas safety was traditionally intro... more Safety is a concern in almost all branches of engineering. Whereas safety was traditionally introduced by applying safety factors or margins to the calculated maximum load, this approach is increasingly replaced with Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) as a tool for dimensioning safety measures. In this paper, the two approaches are compared in terms of what they aim at and what they can in fact achieve. The outcome of this comparison suggests that the two approaches should be seen as complementary rather than mutually exclusive. PRA is particularly useful for priority-setting and for the effect evaluation of safety measures. However, in most applications, uncertainties prevent PRA from providing an objective probability of failure or value of damage. Safety factors are indispensible for dealing with dangers that cannot be assigned meaningful probabilities.

Design for the Value of Safety

Handbook of Ethics, Values, and Technological Design, 2013

Editors' Overview: Experiments, Ethics, and New Technologies

by Shannon Spruit, Neelke Doorn, and Zoë Robaey

The Blind Spot in Risk Ethics: Managing Natural Hazards

Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis, Jan 16, 2014

Many risk scholars recognize the importance of including ethical considerations in risk managemen... more Many risk scholars recognize the importance of including ethical considerations in risk management. Risk ethics can provide in-depth ethical analysis so that ethical considerations can be part of risk-related decisions, rather than an afterthought to those decisions. In this article, I present a brief sketch of the field of risk ethics. I argue that risk ethics has a bias toward technological hazards, thereby overlooking the risks that stem from natural and semi-natural hazards. In order to make a contribution to the field of risk research, risks ethics should broaden its scope to include natural and semi-natural hazards and develop normative distribution criteria that can support decision making on such hazards.

Informed Consent in Asymmetrical Relationships: an Investigation into Relational Factors that Influence Room for Reflection

by Shannon Spruit, Ibo Van de Poel, and Neelke Doorn

In recent years, informed consent has been suggested as a way to deal with risks posed by enginee... more In recent years, informed consent has been suggested as a way to deal with risks posed by engineered nanomaterials. We argue that while we can learn from experiences with informed consent in treatment and research contexts, we should be aware that informed consent traditionally pertains to certain features of the relationships between doctors and patients and researchers and research participants, rather than those between producers and consumers and employers and employees, which are more prominent in the case of engineered nanomaterials. To better understand these differences, we identify three major relational factors that influence whether valid informed consent is obtainable, namely dependency, personal proximity, and existence of shared interests. We show that each type of relationship offers different opportunities for reflection and therefore poses distinct challenges for obtaining valid informed consent. Our analysis offers a systematic understanding of the possibilities for attaining informed consent in the context of nanomaterial risks and makes clear that measures or regulations to improve the obtainment of informed consent should be attuned to the specific inter-personal relations to which it is supposed to apply.

Responsibility in Engineering (papers) by Neelke Doorn

The Problem of Many Hands: Climate Change as an Example

Van de Poel, Ibo, Jessica Nihlen Fahlquist, Neelke Doorn, Sjoerd Zwart, and Lamber Royakkers. 2012. The Problem of Many Hands: Climate Change as an Example. Science and Engineering Ethics 18: 49-67., 2012

In some situations in which undesirable collective effects occur, it is very hard, if not impossi... more In some situations in which undesirable collective effects occur, it is very hard, if not impossible, to hold any individual reasonably responsible. Such a situation may be referred to as the problem of many hands. In this paper we investigate how the problem of many hands can best be understood and why, and when, it exactly constitutes a problem. After analyzing climate change as an example, we propose to define the problem of many hands as the occurrence of a gap in the distribution of responsibility that may be considered morally problematic. Whether a gap is morally problematic, we suggest, depends on the reasons why responsibility is distributed. This, in turn, depends, at least in part, on the sense of responsibility employed, a main distinction being that between backward-looking and forward-looking responsibility.

Editors’ Overview: Moral Responsibility in Technology and Engineering (From the issue entitled "Moral Resposibilty in Technology and Engineering")

A Rawlsian Approach to Distribute Responsibilities in Networks

Due to their non-hierarchical structure, socio-technical networks are prone to the occurrence of ... more Due to their non-hierarchical structure, socio-technical networks are prone to the occurrence of the problem of many hands. In the present paper an approach is introduced in which people’s opinions on responsibility are empirically traced. The approach is based on the Rawlsian concept of Wide Reflective Equilibrium (WRE) in which people’s considered judgments on a case are reflectively weighed against moral principles and background theories, ideally leading to a state of equilibrium. Application of the method to a hypothetical case with an artificially constructed network showed that it is possible to uncover the relevant data to assess a consensus amongst people in terms of their individual WRE. It appeared that the moral background theories people endorse are not predictive for their actual distribution of responsibilities but that they indicate ways of reasoning and justifying outcomes. Two ways of ascribing responsibilities were discerned, corresponding to two requirements of a desirable responsibility distribution: fairness and completeness. Applying the method triggered learning effects, both with regard to conceptual clarification and moral considerations, and in the sense that it led to some convergence of opinions. It is recommended to apply the method to a real engineering case in order to see whether this approach leads to an overlapping consensus on a responsibility distribution which is justifiable to all and in which no responsibilities are left unfulfilled, therewith trying to contribute to the solution of the problem of many hands.

A Fair Approach to Flooding

Responsible Innovation Volume 1: Innovative Solutions for Global Issues

Early Engagement and New Technologies: Opening Up the Laboratory

"- First book-length discussion of early engagement with new technologies - Comprehensive overvi... more "- First book-length discussion of early engagement with new technologies
- Comprehensive overview of main approaches in early engagement
- Attention for underlying theoretical issues like interdisciplinary cooperation (trading zones), normativity, and the relation to tradition of laboratory studies

Despite the topic’s urgency and centrality, this is the first edited volume to offer a comprehensive assessment of the varying approaches to early engagement with new technologies, including nanotechnology, synthetic biology, biotechnology and ICT. Covering five main approaches to early engagement—constructive technology assessment (CTA), value-sensitive design (VSD), midstream modulation (MM), the network approach for moral evaluation, and political technology assessment—the book will be a pivotal text in the rapidly developing research field of ELSI, which explores the ethical, legal, and social implications of new technologies.

Featuring leading scholars who discuss each early engagement approach in turn, the chapters cover both theory and applications, and include evaluative assessments of specific instances of early adoption of technologies. Further contributions focus on theoretical issues relevant to all approaches, including interdisciplinary cooperation, normativity and intervention, and political and public relevance. The publication has added profile due to the requirement of multi-billion-dollar research programs in the US and Europe to engage in ELSI research alongside that of the technical development itself, even in the early stages. Its comprehensive scrutiny of the core factors in early engagement will ensure a readership of policy makers as well as scientists and engineers."

Moral Responsibility in R&D Networks: A Procedural Approach to Distributing Responsibilities

Public Forgiveness in Post-Conflict Contexts

Wilsbekwaamheid - weldoen, autonomie, identiteit (in Dutch)

The European Flood risk directive and ethics

Water Governance, 2012

The European Flood risk directive (2007/60/EC) requires EU Member States to review their system o... more The European Flood risk directive (2007/60/EC) requires EU Member States to review their system of flood risk management. In doing so, they will have to face ethical issues inherent in flood risk management. This paper discusses three such issues, using examples from the Netherlands. These issues are: (1) whether and, if so, under which conditions differentiation in flood protection levels is acceptable; (2) individual and local responsibility versus solidarity; and (3) the role of environmental considerations in flood risk management. By discussing these three issues in the light of the more philosophical literature on risks, we intend to contribute to an integrated approach to flood risk management.

Rationality in flood risk management: The limitations of probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) in the design and selection of flood protection strategies

The introduction of new flood protection strategies prompts the need for a general framework for ... more The introduction of new flood protection strategies prompts the need for a general framework for evaluating different flood protection strategies. The focus in this paper is on rationality in selecting between flood protection strategies; more particularly, on the question to what extent risk-based design and probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) can provide a general framework for rational evaluation of different flood protection strategies. On the basis of Arrow's impossibility theorem and the standard literature on cost-benefit analysis, the limitations of risk-based design and PRA are discussed. Applied to the context of flood risk management, it is shown that the problem of selecting between different flood protection strategies is susceptible to Arrow's impossibility theorem, which makes risk-based design seem less suitable as a generally applicable procedure. The incommensurability of criteria in the selection of flood protection strategies is related to the uncertainties pertaining to the different flood protection strategies. When selecting between strategies, risk-based design should therefore be complemented with other decision tools.

Water and justice: Towards an ethics of water governance

Public Reason

Water is recognized to pose some very urgent questions in the near future. A significant number o... more Water is recognized to pose some very urgent questions in the near future. A significant number of people are deprived of clean drinking water and sanitation services, with an accordingly high percentage of people dying from water borne diseases. At the same time, an increasing percentage of the global population lives in areas that are at risk of flooding, partly exacerbated by climate change. Although it is increasingly recognized that adequate governance of water requires that issues of “equity” or “social justice” are taken into account, political philosophers or applied ethicists have so far not or only barely been involved in the debate on water governance. In this paper, it is argued that political philosophers or applied ethicists should become more involved in the debate on water governance. Their role can be twofold: (1) clarifying the debate; and (2) help analyzing some urgent distributive questions related to water governance. The paper is concluded with an outline for an ethics of water governance.

Values of water

Governance Experiments in Water Management: From Interests to Building Blocks

Science and engineering ethics, Jan 5, 2015

The management of water is a topic of great concern. Inadequate management may lead to water scar... more The management of water is a topic of great concern. Inadequate management may lead to water scarcity and ecological destruction, but also to an increase of catastrophic floods. With climate change, both water scarcity and the risk of flooding are likely to increase even further in the coming decades. This makes water management currently a highly dynamic field, in which experiments are made with new forms of policy making. In the current paper, a case study is presented in which different interest groups were invited for developing new water policy. The case was innovative in that stakeholders were invited to identify and frame the most urgent water issues, rather than asking them to reflect on possible solutions developed by the water authority itself. The case suggests that stakeholders can participate more effectively if their contribution is focused on underlying competing values rather than conflicting interests.

The role of resilience in engineering

In contemporary engineering, resilience represents a particular approach to safety and risks in e... more In contemporary engineering, resilience represents a particular approach to safety and risks in engineering and safety management. Whereas the traditional safety paradigm focuses on the prevention of malfunction or accidents – for example, by assessing a system's performance in terms of how often things have gone wrong – the resilience paradigm is focused on success – that is, a system working normally or a person succeeding in doing a task. The fundamental difference between these two paradigms is illustrated on the basis of their phenomenology, etiology and ontology. When it comes to operationalization and implementation, resilience engineering builds on four abilities of a system: the ability to respond, the ability to monitor, the ability to anticipate, and the ability to learn. In combination, these four abilities indicate how well a system is able to deal with and adapt to changing circumstances. A critical comparison of both paradigms in practice suggests many of the safety measures that follow from traditional approaches to safety management are still relevant, as long as they do not limit a system's room for maneuver.

Should probabilistic design replace safety factors?

Safety is a concern in almost all branches of engineering. Whereas safety was traditionally intro... more Safety is a concern in almost all branches of engineering. Whereas safety was traditionally introduced by applying safety factors or margins to the calculated maximum load, this approach is increasingly replaced with Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) as a tool for dimensioning safety measures. In this paper, the two approaches are compared in terms of what they aim at and what they can in fact achieve. The outcome of this comparison suggests that the two approaches should be seen as complementary rather than mutually exclusive. PRA is particularly useful for priority-setting and for the effect evaluation of safety measures. However, in most applications, uncertainties prevent PRA from providing an objective probability of failure or value of damage. Safety factors are indispensible for dealing with dangers that cannot be assigned meaningful probabilities.

Design for the Value of Safety

Handbook of Ethics, Values, and Technological Design, 2013

Editors' Overview: Experiments, Ethics, and New Technologies

by Shannon Spruit, Neelke Doorn, and Zoë Robaey

The Blind Spot in Risk Ethics: Managing Natural Hazards

Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis, Jan 16, 2014

Many risk scholars recognize the importance of including ethical considerations in risk managemen... more Many risk scholars recognize the importance of including ethical considerations in risk management. Risk ethics can provide in-depth ethical analysis so that ethical considerations can be part of risk-related decisions, rather than an afterthought to those decisions. In this article, I present a brief sketch of the field of risk ethics. I argue that risk ethics has a bias toward technological hazards, thereby overlooking the risks that stem from natural and semi-natural hazards. In order to make a contribution to the field of risk research, risks ethics should broaden its scope to include natural and semi-natural hazards and develop normative distribution criteria that can support decision making on such hazards.

Informed Consent in Asymmetrical Relationships: an Investigation into Relational Factors that Influence Room for Reflection

by Shannon Spruit, Ibo Van de Poel, and Neelke Doorn

In recent years, informed consent has been suggested as a way to deal with risks posed by enginee... more In recent years, informed consent has been suggested as a way to deal with risks posed by engineered nanomaterials. We argue that while we can learn from experiences with informed consent in treatment and research contexts, we should be aware that informed consent traditionally pertains to certain features of the relationships between doctors and patients and researchers and research participants, rather than those between producers and consumers and employers and employees, which are more prominent in the case of engineered nanomaterials. To better understand these differences, we identify three major relational factors that influence whether valid informed consent is obtainable, namely dependency, personal proximity, and existence of shared interests. We show that each type of relationship offers different opportunities for reflection and therefore poses distinct challenges for obtaining valid informed consent. Our analysis offers a systematic understanding of the possibilities for attaining informed consent in the context of nanomaterial risks and makes clear that measures or regulations to improve the obtainment of informed consent should be attuned to the specific inter-personal relations to which it is supposed to apply.

The Problem of Many Hands: Climate Change as an Example

Van de Poel, Ibo, Jessica Nihlen Fahlquist, Neelke Doorn, Sjoerd Zwart, and Lamber Royakkers. 2012. The Problem of Many Hands: Climate Change as an Example. Science and Engineering Ethics 18: 49-67., 2012

In some situations in which undesirable collective effects occur, it is very hard, if not impossi... more In some situations in which undesirable collective effects occur, it is very hard, if not impossible, to hold any individual reasonably responsible. Such a situation may be referred to as the problem of many hands. In this paper we investigate how the problem of many hands can best be understood and why, and when, it exactly constitutes a problem. After analyzing climate change as an example, we propose to define the problem of many hands as the occurrence of a gap in the distribution of responsibility that may be considered morally problematic. Whether a gap is morally problematic, we suggest, depends on the reasons why responsibility is distributed. This, in turn, depends, at least in part, on the sense of responsibility employed, a main distinction being that between backward-looking and forward-looking responsibility.

Editors’ Overview: Moral Responsibility in Technology and Engineering (From the issue entitled "Moral Resposibilty in Technology and Engineering")

A Rawlsian Approach to Distribute Responsibilities in Networks

Due to their non-hierarchical structure, socio-technical networks are prone to the occurrence of ... more Due to their non-hierarchical structure, socio-technical networks are prone to the occurrence of the problem of many hands. In the present paper an approach is introduced in which people’s opinions on responsibility are empirically traced. The approach is based on the Rawlsian concept of Wide Reflective Equilibrium (WRE) in which people’s considered judgments on a case are reflectively weighed against moral principles and background theories, ideally leading to a state of equilibrium. Application of the method to a hypothetical case with an artificially constructed network showed that it is possible to uncover the relevant data to assess a consensus amongst people in terms of their individual WRE. It appeared that the moral background theories people endorse are not predictive for their actual distribution of responsibilities but that they indicate ways of reasoning and justifying outcomes. Two ways of ascribing responsibilities were discerned, corresponding to two requirements of a desirable responsibility distribution: fairness and completeness. Applying the method triggered learning effects, both with regard to conceptual clarification and moral considerations, and in the sense that it led to some convergence of opinions. It is recommended to apply the method to a real engineering case in order to see whether this approach leads to an overlapping consensus on a responsibility distribution which is justifiable to all and in which no responsibilities are left unfulfilled, therewith trying to contribute to the solution of the problem of many hands.

Exploring responsibility rationales in R&D

The present article explores the rationales of scientists and engineers for distributing moral re... more The present article explores the rationales of scientists and engineers for distributing moral responsibilities related technology development. On the basis of a qualitative case study, it was investigated how the actors within a research network distribute responsibilities for these issues. Rawls’ Wide Reflective Equilibrium model was used as a descriptive framework. This study indicates that there is a correlation between the actors’ ethics position and their responsibility rationale. When discussing how to address ethical issues or how to distribute the responsibility for addressing them, actors with similar normative background theories referred to the same type of normative arguments. It was found that these deliberative processes could best be interpreted in terms of an interplay between different layers of morality. The case suggests that people seek coherence between these layers rather than work through them one-directionally. By distinguishing between rationales for distributing responsibilities and the actual distributions, possible sources of misunderstanding can be identified. The benefit from acknowledging these different rationales is that it enables actors to recognize the legitimacy of other people’s opinions, ultimately contributing to a responsibility distribution that is both complete and accepted by all as justified.

Distribution of responsibility in socio-technical networks: the Promest case

Technology Analysis & …, Jan 1, 2011

The aim of the present paper is to show how (informal) responsibility issues within the context o... more The aim of the present paper is to show how (informal) responsibility issues within the context of a network are essentially related with the way networks are organised in order to pursue their objectives. We conceive of organisations as having at least three relevant dimensions: power, coordination and control. The case of the Dutch manure processing factory Promest is analysed in terms of these three dimensions. The analysis provides an illustration of how the dimensions enable actors to discharge their responsibilities, thereby offering insight in responsibility issues within a group of actors and contributing to the prevention of the problem of many hands.

Design for the Value of Responsibility

Handbook of Ethics, Values, and Technological Design, 2014

A Procedural Approach to Distributing Responsibilities In R&D Networks

Poiesis & Praxis: International Journal of Technology …

In professional settings, people often have diverse and competing conceptions of responsibility a... more In professional settings, people often have diverse and competing conceptions of responsibility and of when it is fair to hold someone responsible. This may lead to undesirable gaps in the distribution of responsibilities. In this paper, a procedural model is developed for alleviating the tension between diverging responsibility conceptions. The model is based on the Rawlsian approach of wide reflective equilibrium and overlapping consensus. The model is applied to a technological project, which concerned the development of an in-house monitoring system based on ambient technology. The development of this innovative technology raised questions among the technological researchers about its social acceptance and the way issues related to privacy and security should be addressed. The case is analyzed in terms of two procedural norms (reflective learning and inclusiveness), which are based on literature on policy and innovation networks. Analysis of the case shows that, in a pluralist setting, a procedural approach can be useful for encouraging discussion on the legitimacy of different responsibility conceptions and the question what a fair responsibility distribution amounts to.

Responsibility In Engineering: Toward a New Role for Engineering Ethicists

Bulletin of Science, Technology & …, Jan 1, 2010

Traditionally, the management of technology has focused on the stages before or after development... more Traditionally, the management of technology has focused on the stages before or after development of technology. In this approach the technology itself is conceived as the result of a deterministic enterprise; a result that is to be either rejected or embraced. However, recent insights from Science and Technology Studies (STS) have shown that there is ample room to modulate technology during development. This requires technology managers and engineering ethicists to become more involved in the technological research rather than assessing it from an outsider perspective. Instead of focusing on the question whether or not to authorize, approve, or adopt a certain technology or on the question of who is to blame for potential mistakes, the guiding question in this new approach is how research is to be carried out.

Responsibility Ascriptions in Technology Development and Engineering: Three Perspectives

In the last decades increasing attention is paid to the topic of responsibility in technology dev... more In the last decades increasing attention is paid to the topic of responsibility in technology development and engineering. The discussion of this topic is often guided by questions related to liability and blameworthiness. Recent discussions in engineering ethics call for a reconsideration of the traditional quest for responsibility. Rather than on alleged wrongdoing and blaming, the focus should shift to more socially responsible engineering, some authors argue. The present paper aims at exploring the different approaches to responsibility in order to see which one is most appropriate to apply to engineering and technology development. Using the example of the development of a new sewage water treatment technology, the paper shows how different approaches for ascribing responsibilities have different implications for engineering practice in general, and R&D or technological design in particular. It was found that there was a tension between the demands that follow from these different approaches, most notably between efficacy and fairness. Although the consequentialist approach with its efficacy criterion turned out to be most powerful, it was also shown that the fairness of responsibility ascriptions should somehow be taken into account. It is proposed to look for alternative, more procedural ways to approach the fairness of responsibility ascriptions.

International Conference on Moral Responsibility: Neuroscience

Economics and …, Jan 1, 2006

Moral responsibility in R&D networks

Wide Reflective Equilibrium as a normative model for responsible governance

Soft regulatory measures are often promoted as an alternative for existing regulatory regimes for... more Soft regulatory measures are often promoted as an alternative for existing regulatory regimes for nanotechnologies. The call for new regulatory approaches stems from several challenges that traditional approaches have difficulties dealing with. These challenges relate to general problems of governability, tensions between public interests, but also (and maybe particularly) to almost complete lack of certainty about the implications of nanotechnologies. At the same time, the field of nanotechnology can be characterized by a high level of diversity. In this paper, we discuss and compare two models for framing public policy in relation to technology regulation: the first is a deliberative model based on foresight knowledge and the second the wide reflective equilibrium model, developed by political philosopher John Rawls. In both models, the aim is to find consensus on (a framework for) policy measures and regulation. On the basis of a critical discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of both models, some tentative conclusions are drawn for effective policy making and implementation based on soft law.

Assessing the Future Impact of Medical Devices: Between Technology and Application

Responsible Innovation 1, 2014

Early Engagement and New Technologies: Towards Comprehensive Technology Engagement?

Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, 2013

ABSTRACT In this concluding chapter of the volume “Early engagement and new technologies: Opening... more ABSTRACT In this concluding chapter of the volume “Early engagement and new technologies: Opening up the laboratory,” the editors take stock of the different engagement methods that have been described in this volume, i.e., Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA), Value Sensitive Design (VSD), Socio-Technical Integration Research (STIR), Network Approach for Moral Evaluation (NAME), and Political Technology Assessment (PTA). The methods are compared with respect to their aims and impacts, their type of intervention, the level and phase of technological development, and their normativity. The editors develop a tentative framework for Comprehensive Technology Engagement, identifying the major questions and challenges to advancing interdisciplinary engagements at early stages of technological development. Three theoretical and methodological challenges are addressed: (1) issues of normativity and representation, (2) moving across levels and time, and (3) dealing with uncertainty and indeterminacy.

Mandates and Methods for Early Engagement

Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, 2013

ABSTRACT This introduction to the volume “Early engagement and new technologies: Opening up the l... more ABSTRACT This introduction to the volume “Early engagement and new technologies: Opening up the laboratory” sets out how recent policy developments have demonstrated a growing interest in early engagement with technology, and identifies the various ways in which scholars from the social sciences and humanities have responded to these policies. The five main approaches elaborated in this volume are introduced: Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA), Value Sensitive Design (VSD), Socio-Technical Integration Research (STIR), Network Approach for Moral Evaluation (NAME), and Political Technology Assessment (PTA). A range of broader issues related to technology engagement is identified and an outline of the volume chapters is presented

Ethical Parallel Research: A Network Approach for Moral Evaluation (NAME)

Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, 2013

Responsible Innovation Volume 1: Innovative Solutions for Global Issues

by Neelke Doorn and Tsjalling Swierstra

Applying Rawlsian Approaches to Resolve Ethical Issues: Inventory and Setting of a Research Agenda

Insights from social science are increasingly used in the field of applied ethics. However, recen... more Insights from social science are increasingly used in the field of applied ethics. However, recent insights have shown that the empirical branch of business ethics lacks thorough theoretical grounding. This article discusses the use of the Rawlsian methods of wide reflective equilibrium and overlapping consensus in the field of applied ethics. Instead of focussing on one single comprehensive ethical doctrine to provide adequate guidance for resolving moral dilemmas, these Rawlsian methods seek to find a balance between considered judgments and intuitions concerning particular cases on the one hand and general principles and theories on the other. In business ethics this approach is promising because it enables decision-making in a pluralist context with different stakeholders who often endorse different or even conflicting cultural and moral frameworks without giving priority to any of them. Moreover, the method is well founded in political theory. A taxonomy of different kinds of applications is developed, and classified according to the purpose, the content, and the type of justification. On the basis of this taxonomy an inventory of 12 recent applications is made. In terms of the purpose and content of the method the applications are rather diverse. Two conceptual obstacles for applying Rawlsian methods are identified, viz. inclusiveness and the communitarian objection that people have to become detached from their personal life. It is found that methodological questions, such as the question how to retrieve the relevant empirical data, are scarcely addressed in the literature. To advance the use of empirical approaches in general, and that of Rawlsian approaches in particular, it is important not only to use empirical data but to use methodological insights from social sciences in order to further advance the field of empirical ethics. It is recommended that stakeholders be given a more active role in the assessment and justification of these methods.

Using and Developing Role Plays in Teaching Aimed at Preparing for Social Responsibility

Doorn, N., and J.O. Kroesen. 2013. "Using and developing role plays in teaching aimed at preparing for social responsibility" Science and Engineering Ethics 19/4: 1513-1527., Dec 20, 2011

Abstract In this paper, we discuss the use of role plays in ethics education for engineering stud... more Abstract In this paper, we discuss the use of role plays in ethics education for engineering students. After presenting a rough taxonomy of different objectives, we illustrate how role plays can be used to broaden students' perspectives. We do this on the basis of our experiences with a newly developed role play about a Dutch political controversy concerning pig transport. The role play is special in that the discussion is about setting up an institutional framework for responsible action that goes beyond individual action.

Conceptualization or Assessment: One at a Time or Both

This issue was raised by Toby Williamson, questioning whether the current conceptualization of me... more This issue was raised by Toby Williamson, questioning whether the current conceptualization of mental competence as decision making ability need to be rooted in a concept of negative freedom. I fully agree with Williamson that this is not necessarily the case. He also argues—and rightly so, I think—that the conceptualization of mental competence as “mechanistic decisionmaking ability” does not necessarily reflect reality. I fully agree with Williamson and I think that there is a disparity here between the clinical ...

Mental Competence or Capacity to Form a Will: An Anthropological Approach

Abstract Because of the concern for abuse of compulsory admission and involuntary treatment, the ... more Abstract Because of the concern for abuse of compulsory admission and involuntary treatment, the question of how to assess mental competence is a topic of ongoing debate. The literature seems to focus on empirical approaches, thereby overlooking the lack of conceptual clearness. This article describes an anthropological reflection on the concept of competence. Contrary to the current approach within medical ethics, this conceptualization of competence is based on positive autonomy. In this article, the question of mental ...

Wilsbekwaamheid als levensontwerp; een antropologische benadering

DSpace, ...

Forgiveness and reconciliation in transitional justice practices

Ethical Perspectives, Jan 1, 2008

The Place of Forgivesness in Transitional Justice Practices

DSpace, ...

Vergeving en verzoening in de praktijk van transitierechtspraak

Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Empowerment in Transitional Justice

Abstract The last decades have seen a rise in the public use of notions from the forgiveness disc... more Abstract The last decades have seen a rise in the public use of notions from the forgiveness discourse. In the present paper it is examined what role forgiveness, reconciliation and empowerment can play in the practice of transitional justice. On the basis of empirical findings, it is shown that forgiveness is too high an ideal to aim at. The promotion of forgiveness can generate much resistance, and even evoke counterproductive processes.

Public forgiveness: Theoretical and practical perspectives

Understanding and Predicting Failure Modes: Failure Modes for Revetments

Failure modes and mechanisms for flood defence structures

ABSTRACT: In order to undertake a flood risk analysis, the performance of different flood defence... more ABSTRACT: In order to undertake a flood risk analysis, the performance of different flood defence structures under varying load conditions needs to be represented. This paper reports on work undertaken through the FLOODsite Project (Task 4) in bringing together available information on failure modes for a number of representative flood defence structure types, to support the development and implementation of system wide models for flood risk assessment.

Extreme values for coastal, estuarine, and riverine environments

Journal of hydraulic …, Jan 1, 2008

Ce papier analyse la sensitivité des zones côtières et fluviales en face des processus d&amp;... more Ce papier analyse la sensitivité des zones côtières et fluviales en face des processus d&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;érosion et inondation. La caractérisation des termes impulseurs et les responses associées, notamment pour des cas extrêmes est une nécessité urgente pour garer ces zones et les risques ...

Failure modes and mechanisms for flood defence structures

by D. Lesniewska, Neelke Doorn, and A. Kortenhaus

Extended Abstracts Volume (332 pages) + full paper CD-ROM (1772 pages), 2008

ABSTRACT: In order to undertake a flood risk analysis, the performance of different flood defence... more ABSTRACT: In order to undertake a flood risk analysis, the performance of different flood defence structures under varying load conditions needs to be represented. This paper reports on work undertaken through the FLOODsite Project (Task 4) in bringing together available information on failure modes for a number of representative flood defence structure types, to support the development and implementation of system wide models for flood risk assessment. The work comprised a review of structures and failure modes which ...

Wave-Focusing Surfing Reefs, a New Concept

Abstract Submerged artificial reefs have been built for many different purposes, including coasta... more

Flexible Boundary Conditions for a Boussinesq‐Type Wave Model

Numerical Modelling of Ship-Induced Water Motions–Feasibility Study

· · · Repository Hydraulic Engineering Reports. Home · About · Instructions · Disclaimer · Option... more · · · Repository Hydraulic Engineering Reports. Home · About · Instructions · Disclaimer · Options List possible classifications · publishers names · project names. Classification: Publisher: Type: Year: Numerical modelling of ship-induced water motions: feasibility study. Attachments. Q2576_a.pdf (40.3 MB). uuid:b9d225e6-2804-4fec-ac85- c510c7bd8880. Author: Verheij, HJ · Raven, HC · Doorn, N. · Borsboom, MJA. Type: report. Date: 2000-11-01. Publisher: Deltares (WL). Source: Q2576. ...

Validation of wave propagation on curvilinear grids in SWAN

$Research paper thumbnail of Diffraction in a spectral wave model$

Diffraction in a spectral wave model

Pressures By Breaking Waves on a Slope Computed With a VOF Model

To predict the stability of placed block revetments detailed information on pressures underneath ... more

Numerical Model Investigations on Coastal Structures with Shallow Foreshores: Validation of Numerical Models Based on Physical Model Tests on the Petten Sea-defence

NUMERICAL MODELING OF SHIP-INDUCED WAVE PROPAGATION

by Otto Weiler, Jacco Groeneweg, and Neelke Doorn

Coastal Engineering 2002 - Solving Coastal Conundrums - Proceedings of the 28th International Conference, 2003

A procedure is presented for the modeling of the propagation of waves induced by a sailing ship i... more

NEAR-SHORE WAVE MODELING WITH TWO COUPLED MODELS: SWAN AND TRITON

by Jacco Groeneweg and Neelke Doorn

Coastal Engineering 2004 - Proceedings of the 29th International Conference, 2005

Abstract: The design of coastal structures as well as the evaluation of their safety level depend... more Abstract: The design of coastal structures as well as the evaluation of their safety level depend on the accuracy of predicting extreme wave conditions at the toe of those structures. The spectral wave model SWAN is used for that purpose, but it is known that SWAN provides inaccurate results in very shallow areas. Alternatively the Boussinesq-type wave model Triton can be applied in these areas. In this paper the coupled SWAN-Triton model is presented as well as the validation thereof. Application of this coupled model increases ...

A Boussinesq-Type Wave Model That Conserves Both Mass and Momentum

by Jacco Groeneweg and Neelke Doorn

Coastal Engineering 2000, 2001

Estimates of uncertainties in near-shore hydraulic boundary conditions in design studies

Geophysical Research Abstracts, 2006

Accurate estimates of local wave climate properties are an important issue in the design of sea d... more Accurate estimates of local wave climate properties are an important issue in the design of sea defence structures. Due to several processes in shallow foreshores the local wave characteristics can be significantly different from those at open sea. The wave conditions at open sea are often available from measurements or in the form of predictions generated by large scale numerical wave models. These open sea wave conditions must then be translated appropriately to the near shore position of the coastal defence structure. For this ...

Numerical modelling of ship-induced water motions: Feasibility and validation study

· · · Repository Hydraulic Engineering Reports. Home · About · Instructions · Disclaimer · Option... more · · · Repository Hydraulic Engineering Reports. Home · About · Instructions · Disclaimer · Options List possible classifications · publishers names · project names. Classification: Publisher: Type: Year: Numerical modelling of ship-induced water motions: feasibility study. Attachments. Q2576_a.pdf (40.3 MB). uuid:b9d225e6-2804-4fec-ac85- c510c7bd8880. Author: Verheij, HJ · Raven, HC · Doorn, N. · Borsboom, MJA. Type: report. Date: 2000-11-01. Publisher: Deltares (WL). Source: Q2576. ...

Uncertainty Analysis of Hydraulic Boundary Conditions for the Wadden Sea

Coastal Engineering 2008 - Proceedings of the 31st International Conference, 2009

Personal Responsibility: Why It Matters

... Available now: The Ethics ofClimate Change, James Garvey War and Ethics, Nicholas Fotion Terr... more

Lotte Asveld and Sabine Roeser (eds), The Ethics of Technological Risk

Science and Engineering Ethics, Jan 1, 2009

Safeguards In a World of Ambient Intelligence; David Wright, Serge Gutwirth, Michael Friedewald, Elena Vildjiounaite, Yves Punic (Eds): Springer …

Science and engineering ethics, Jan 1, 2009

Paul Sollie and Marcus Düwell (Eds): Evaluating New Technologies. Methodological Problems for the Ethical Assessment of Technology Developments: …

Lotte Asveld and Sabine Roeser (Eds), The Ethics of Technological Risk: Earthscan, London, 2009, 320 Pp. ISBN 978-1-84407-638-3 (Book Review)

Science and engineering ethics, Jan 1, 2009

Peter G. Brown and Jeremy J. Smith (eds): Water Ethics: Foundational Readings for Students and Professionals

Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics

On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice, and Other Essays in Political Philosophy G. A. Cohen; EDITED BY Michael Otsuka Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011, xiv + 268 pp., $24.95 (paperback), $85.00 (hardcover)

Dialogue, 2011

... judgment at several points. I'm grateful to Patrick Tomlin and Juri Viehoff for their as... more

Handbook of risk theory: epistemology, decision theory, ethics and social implications of risk

Livre: Handbook of risk theory: epistemology, decision theory, ethics and social implications of ... more

Sabine Roeser, Rafaela Hillerbrand, Per Sandin, Martin Peterson (eds): Handbook of Risk Theory: Epistemology, Decision Theory, Ethics, and Social Implications of Risk

Science and Engineering Ethics, 2013

Justice for Earthlings: Essay in Political Philosophy

The Continuum Companion to Ethics

Measuring Justice: Primary Goods and Capabilities

This book brings together a team of leading theorists to address the question&amp;amp;amp;amp... more This book brings together a team of leading theorists to address the question&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;What is the right measure of justice?&amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27;Some contributors, following Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, argue that we should focus on capabilities, or what people are able to do and to be. Others, following John Rawls, argue for focussing on social primary goods, the goods which society produces and which people can use. Still others see both views as incomplete and complementary to one another. Their essays evaluate the two approaches in the light of ...

Climate Ethics: Essential Readings

3 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University's objective ... more

The Ethics of Metropolitan Growth: The Future of the Built Environment

Environmental ethics: the big questions

... 25 George Sessions Emily Brady John Granrose Frederick Ferré J. Baird Callicott Warwick... more

The ethics of climate change: Right and wrong in a warming world

The moral argument begins in chapter 2. Rather oddly, this is a review of the dominant theories o... more

Moral Dimensions: Permissibility, Meaning, Blame

Philosophical Review, 2011

IN A CLEAR AND ELEGANT STYLE, TM Scanlon reframes current philo- sophical debates as he explores ... more

Justice, Institutions, & Luck: The Site, Ground, and Scope of Equality

Climate Matters: Ethics in a Warming World

Morality and the Movies: Reading Ethics through Film

Making normativity theory practical

by Jose Carlos Cañizares-Gaztelu and Neelke Doorn

This paper offers critical metaethical groundwork for Normativity Assessment (NA). We present NA ... more This paper offers critical metaethical groundwork for Normativity Assessment (NA). We present NA as a practice that, faced with a target expression, (i) determines whether it is normative, (ii) characterizes its form of normativity and its role in normative argument, and (iii) clarifies its potential relevance for applied ethics and other fields where the target expression is regularly used. Having thus defined NA, we appraise how dominant metaethical doctrines fare in terms of their potential contribution to NA. First, we examine the similarities and divergences between non-cognitivism and realism (the main cognitivist doctrine). Then we focus on two debates these doctrines approach differently: the unity and structure of normativity, and the status of thick terms. Here, we find that non-cognitivism's narrower concept of normativity yields a stricter view on demarcation, which limits its ability to reconcile the various aims of NA. Generally, however, standard metaethical views (including realism) are shown to leave out key dimensions and varieties of normativity, as well as the crucial issue of directionality: who/what sets norms for whom/what to follow. This critical work raises the need for developing a broader concept of normativity where those neglected issues are made amenable to NA.

Efficient or Fair? Operationalizing Ethical Principles in Flood Risk Management: A Case Study on the Dutch‐German Rhine

Risk Analysis, 2020

Contestable Camera Cars: A Speculative Design Exploration of Public AI That Is Open and Responsive to Dispute

Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Engineering

The concept of community resilience explored: How to account for responsibilities?

Making normativity theory practical

This paper offers critical metaethical groundwork for Normativity Assessment (NA). We present NA ... more This paper offers critical metaethical groundwork for Normativity Assessment (NA). We present NA as a practice that, faced with a target expression, (i) determines whether it is normative, (ii) characterizes its form of normativity and its role in normative argument, and (iii) clarifies its potential relevance for applied ethics and other fields where the target expression is regularly used. Having thus defined NA, we appraise how dominant metaethical doctrines fare in terms of their potential contribution to NA. First, we examine the similarities and divergences between non-cognitivism and realism (the main cognitivist doctrine). Then we focus on two debates these doctrines approach differently: the unity and structure of normativity, and the status of thick terms. Here, we find that non-cognitivism&#39;s narrower concept of normativity yields a stricter view on demarcation, which limits its ability to reconcile the various aims of NA. Generally, however, standard metaethical views (including realism) are shown to leave out key dimensions and varieties of normativity, as well as the crucial issue of directionality: who/what sets norms for whom/what to follow. This critical work raises the need for developing a broader concept of normativity where those neglected issues are made amenable to NA.

Contestable AI by Design: Towards a Framework

Minds and Machines

As the use of AI systems continues to increase, so do concerns over their lack of fairness, legit... more As the use of AI systems continues to increase, so do concerns over their lack of fairness, legitimacy and accountability. Such harmful automated decision-making can be guarded against by ensuring AI systems are contestable by design: responsive to human intervention throughout the system lifecycle. Contestable AI by design is a small but growing field of research. However, most available knowledge requires a significant amount of translation to be applicable in practice. A proven way of conveying intermediate-level, generative design knowledge is in the form of frameworks. In this article we use qualitative-interpretative methods and visual mapping techniques to extract from the literature sociotechnical features and practices that contribute to contestable AI, and synthesize these into a design framework.

Public Forgiveness in Post-Conflict Contexts

There seems to be a pervasive trend towards public apologies, forms of national introspection and... more There seems to be a pervasive trend towards public apologies, forms of national introspection and appeals to grant forgiveness. Archbishop Tutu's motto that "there is no future without forgiveness" is well known. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission has become an important model and source of inspiration for many other countries that want to deal with their past grievances and internal conflicts. This book discusses the role of forgiveness within processes of peace building and transitional justice. Does 'forgiveness' enable a public or political use of the term? Is it possible to forgive on behalf of others, and if so, under what conditions? These conceptual questions are related to reflections on the cultural and religious contexts of expressing forgiveness. Do forgiving words promote a willingness to look ahead and prevent a relapse into conflicting views on the poisonous past? Or do they bring along aversion? Maybe the 'push' toward...

A comprehensive appraisal of responsible research and innovation: From roots to leaves

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2021

Distributing Risks: Allocation Principles for Distributing Reversible and Irreversible Losses

Ethics, Policy & Environment, 2018

Geoengineering the climate and ethical challenges: what we can learn from moral emotions and art

Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 2019

Governing crowd-based innovations: an interdisciplinary research agenda

Journal of Responsible Innovation, 2019

Informed Consent in Asymmetrical Relationships: an Investigation into Relational Factors that Influence Room for Reflection

NanoEthics, 2016

Applying Rawlsian Approaches to Resolve Ethical Issues: Inventory and Setting of a Research Agenda

Journal of Business Ethics, 2009

Failure modes and mechanisms for flood defence structures

Flood Risk Management: Research and Practice, 2008

Failure modes and mechanisms for flood defence structures

Flood Risk Management: Research and Practice, 2008

Tensions in transparent urban AI: designing a smart electric vehicle charge point

AI & SOCIETY

The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) by public actors has led to a push for more tr... more The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) by public actors has led to a push for more transparency. Previous research has conceptualized AI transparency as knowledge that empowers citizens and experts to make informed choices about the use and governance of AI. Conversely, in this paper, we critically examine if transparency-as-knowledge is an appropriate concept for a public realm where private interests intersect with democratic concerns. We conduct a practice-based design research study in which we prototype and evaluate a transparent smart electric vehicle charge point, and investigate experts’ and citizens’ understanding of AI transparency. We find that citizens experience transparency as burdensome; experts hope transparency ensures acceptance, while citizens are mostly indifferent to AI; and with absent means of control, citizens question transparency’s relevance. The tensions we identify suggest transparency cannot be reduced to a product feature, but should be seen...

Making Sense of Resilience

Sustainability

While resilience is a major concept in development, climate adaptation, and related domains, many... more While resilience is a major concept in development, climate adaptation, and related domains, many doubts remain about how to interpret this term, its relationship with closely overlapping terms, or its normativity. One major view is that, while resilience originally was a descriptive concept denoting some adaptive property of ecosystems, subsequent applications to social contexts distorted its meaning and purpose by framing it as a transformative and normative quality. This article advances an alternative philosophical account based on the scrutiny of C.S. Holling’s original work on resilience. We show that resilience had a central role among Holling’s proposals for reforming environmental science and management, and that Holling framed resilience as an ecosystem’s capacity of absorbing change and exploiting it for adapting or evolving, but also as the social ability of maintaining and opportunistically exploiting that natural capacity. Resilience therefore appears as a transformati...

Water and Justice: Towards an Ethics of Water Governance

Water is recognized to pose some very urgent questions in the near future. A significant number o... more Water is recognized to pose some very urgent questions in the near future. A significant number of people are deprived of clean drinking water and sanitation services, with an accordingly high percentage of people dying from water borne diseases. At the same time, an increasing percentage of the global population lives in areas that are at risk of flooding, partly exacerbated by climate change. Although it is increasingly recognized that adequate governance of water requires that issues of "equity" or "social justice" are taken into account, political philosophers or applied ethicists have so far not or only barely been involved in the debate on water governance. In this paper, it is argued that political philosophers or applied ethicists should become more involved in the debate on water governance. Their role can be twofold: (1) clarifying the debate; and (2) help analyzing some urgent distributive questions related to water governance. The paper is concluded w...

Artificial intelligence in the water domain: Opportunities for responsible use

Science of The Total Environment

The Role of Resilience in Engineering