Suchergebnisse

Two decades after the Brundtland Commission's Report 'Our Common Future' adopted the concept of 'sustainable development', this book explores the potential for new practices for those involved in sustainability activity. Themes addressed include the provision of a 'next generation perspective', and the provision of new milestones for policy and research. The material covered here offers varied perspectives on sustainability, and reflects the importance of interdisciplinary work in the field.

The author discusses and presents an empirical study of Danish bread production. The project aimed at investigating workers' participation in environmental management and their interpretations of the environmental aspects of their work. The empirical studies ended with a 'research workshop', a method that is organized along the principles of action research. The research workshop is an open forum or arena for network dialogues involving workers, managers, experts from different parts of the bread production chain and researchers. As individuals, all partners also take part as consumers. The action research part of the project gave promising results: new ideas for bridging every day life experiences with production experiences and for improving the quality of work life.

In Scandinavia there exists an action research tradition called critical utopian action research (CUAR). Within CUAR, criticism and utopia is a core activity in the methods used and in the research as such. The utopian concept in this tradition should be understood as a productive concept, and thus not as eyebrow-lifting fantasy. Utopian horizons are, in light of critical reflection, formulated and developed. They act as horizons indicating the direction of the work. The point of utopian notions – dreams and visions – is that they go beyond 'the existing' and become a way of working that allows us to think in concrete alternatives; in 'different futures'. It allows us to ask the question: how do we wish to live? The rationale for the work of utopia must be found in CUAR's connection to critical theory. From there, a perception that the world could be different is collected. It is only by utopian thinking that we can move the world in a different direction. Thus the notion of utopia becomes part of an ontologically basic understanding. But these different orientations must be developed and protected in a free space. In this article we will focus on the creation of free space for the utopia work.

Recent research on the social construction of technology stresses the importance of investigating the negotiation between all interests in production and reproduction. This article presents the weaknesses and strengths of the so-called theory of social shaping of technology. The authors are sceptical as to the ability of this tradition to explain the fact that workers are silent participants in negotiations. In an account of a project called 'Industry and Happiness' the authors argue that attention must be paid to workers' life situation and not only to their work experience. They further claim the need for unhindered cooperation between experts and workers, articulating perspectives and utopian ideas of democratic industrial production.