Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability [Hardcover]

Aidan Davison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2001

Argues that sustainability requires more than technological efficiency.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This transdisciplinary inquiry presents a new way of thinking about sustainability and technology that takes us beyond the now familiar preoccupation with ecoefficiency, and toward the essentially contested moral question of what most nourishes our ability to care for our world. In contrast to the technical rationality that asks of the technological world we have built, "Is it efficient?", the author proposes that we ask, "Is it sustaining?" Beginning with debates in environmental policy and politics, he draws on recent philosophical interest in ecology, technology, and moral experience to argue that the challenge of sustainability is that of undermining those traditions that present technology as neutral tools promising to liberate humanity. The work of Langdon Winner, Albert Borgmann, Charles Taylor, Martin Heidegger, David Abrams, and others is discussed. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Aidan Davison is Lecturer in cultural studies of sustainability at Murdoch University in Western Australia. He has degrees in biochemistry/microbiology and science and technology policy. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 281 pages
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791449793
• ISBN-13: 978-0791449790
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,540,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A hard look at sustainability, June 11, 2002

By 

Peter McMahon - See all my reviews

This review is from: Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability (Paperback)

Sustainability is a very important idea. It is perhaps the most signifiicant response to our emergent environmental crisis yet. But the term is in danger of becoming so broad in meaning that it stops having any real meaning at all, and this is why this new book is so relevant. Davison reviews the short history of sustainability, and the genesis of the key ideas. He takes a hard look at what is happening to the concept, and in particular how it is being coopted by the same people who brought us the problems in the first place. In doing this he directly confronts the ambiguous role of technology, which he sees as one way in which we create our world. He analyses key ideas, and is so lucid in this endeavour that even Heidegger begins to make sense. But more interestingly, Davison tries to determne what meaningful sustainability is, and how the idea can be translated into a personal experience as well as a cultural concept.
This is intellectually a very challenging and pointed work, but it is also very human and immediate. Davison has attempted in this book the rare thing of reintegrating hard science, philosophy, and day to day life. In my view, he succeeds in his set task.
Oh, and he can write, too.