François Diaz Maurin provided a doctoral dissertation in 2013 from the Ph.D. Program in Environmental Science and Technology Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), in Spain on an the energetics of human societies (the approach), and the use of nuclear energy to make electricity (the issue). First, in relation with theoretical aspects, it provides alternative procedures based on a new formulation of energetics to generate effective analysis of the energetics of human societies. Second, in relation with practical application, it performs an integrated assessment of nuclear power based on an alternative representation of the “nuclear energy system” aimed at guaranteeing the quality of the assessment of nuclear power both on descriptive and normative sides. By doing so, the present work intends to improve the quality of the scientific discussions over energy-supply issues, and at the same time, to better understand the systemic problems associated with the large-scale deployment of nuclear power.
In recent years the revived interest from the scientific community over energy-supply issues was turned into a desperate search for alternative energy sources. Yet, performing the critical appraisal of the potentiality of alternative energy sources to power modern societies requires first handling the systemic problems of conventional energy analysis once and for all.
First, dealing with the energy transformations of living systems such as human societies requires adopting a ‘complex systems thinking’ approach due to the unavoidable co-existence of multiple relevant dimensions and multiple relevant scales. This “technical incommensurability” on the descriptive side implies abandoning the use of the excessive simplifications of reductionism consisting in protocols generating numbers based on the adoption of one scale and one dimension at the time.
Second, when deliberating over sustainability issues there is an obvious existence of different social actors – different potential story tellers – expressing non-equivalent
but legitimate perceptions of the same issue based on their values, beliefs and goals. This problem of “social incommensurability” on the normative side is particularly
evident when considering the case of nuclear power in the discussion over alternative energy sources. In fact, one easily finds contrasting – and even opposite –
perceptions over the viability and desirability of this technology, a fact which is at the origin of its systemic controversy. This situation reflects the impossibility to generate
a shared perception between social actors over the use of this technology as a viable and desirable alternative energy source. The case of nuclear power provides a very
good example why alternative energy sources cannot be taken as desirable and viable “by default”. In fact, this dissertation indicates that we can only deliberate
about the viability and desirability of alternative energy sources by means of “participatory integrated assessment”, which forces revisiting the role of the scientist
when using science for governance.
Managed & Built by I2M Consulting, LLC | © 2010-
