Environmental Justice and Green‐Technology Adoption

This paper presents an analysis of an environmental justice (EJ) program adopted by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) as a part of its regulation to phase out a toxic chemical used by dry cleaners. SCAQMD provided financial incentives to switch early and gave establishments in EJ neighborhoods priority in applying for grants. Despite this pro‐EJ policy, available data show that dry cleaners in low‐income, predominantly minority, and EJ‐designated areas were less likely to be an early adopter of green technologies, and this finding holds even after accounting for firm and market characteristics. Dry cleaners in disadvantaged neighborhoods were also less likely to receive a grant to switch technology despite the district's effort to set aside half of the funding for applicants from EJ areas.     

The Politics of Federal Technology Policy: 1980–1988

This paper examines the politics of federal initiatives in technology during the period 1980–1988 that promote economic competitiveness. It finds that the ideological consistency of these new initiatives with the prevailing political climate, and the presence of business constituencies for technology are key to the adoption of new technology initiatives. In the absence of a strong business interest, agency politics and efforts dealing with the budget deficit dominate. Progress by new technology policy initiativesfbunders m is incremental at best. This paper also discusses the trend toward "industry-led" technology policy.     

Technology and Mechanization Today

The progress of technology, a wonderful display of human freedom, is largely about mechanization.  My purpose is to describe, both critically and appreciatively, that progress in our time.     

Analyzing Territorial and Sectorial Dimensions of Public–Private Partnerships in Science,Technology, and Innovation policies

The performance of innovation systems depends, to a great extent, on the degree of public–private collaboration they involve. Thus, innovation policies often aim to enhance this collaboration through public–private partnerships. These partnerships are a multidimensional phenomenon whose success depends on factors related to each of their dimensions. This paper proposes the use of an analytical model that reflects the multidimensional nature of public–private partnerships and analyses to what extent they are applied in a specific innovation system in order to identify the territorial and sectorial factors that act as barriers or drivers to use them. This model aims to help policy makers design appropriate public–private partnerships in each context. The case under review is the Spanish innovation system, given that this system has been suffering from a structural lack of collaboration for several decades, despite the implementation of policies aimed to foster this. Thus, if the model works, it should be able to identify key factors that influence greater or more restricted use of the different PPP formulas.     

Empowering Consumers Through Data and Smart Technology: Experimental Evidence on the Consequences of Time‐of‐Use Electricity Pricing Policies

This paper investigates the extent to which technology used to automate household responses to time‐of‐use pricing for electricity leads to higher energy savings than simply providing households with information on current prices and quantities. Using a large randomized field trial, we find that informed households with “smart” thermostats achieve impressive reductions in consumption during on‐peak periods of up to 48 percent, but also engage in substantial load shifting to off‐peak hours. We also document the extent to which household responses to time‐of‐use pricing are heterogeneous and vary significantly by demographics, weather, and across the usage distribution.     

Stem Cell Research and Technology in Iran—Window of Opportunity in the Midst of International Tension

This paper aims to explain how the key characteristics of “stem cell research” as an emerging technology facilitate the strategy of an Iranian organization, namely, “the Royan Institute” to learn by interaction and to generate knowledge. It argues that the Royan could take advantage of the window of opportunity that stem cell research and technology had temporarily opened up but its endeavors are now being hampered by unfavorable international factors and weak domestic infrastructure. The article substantiates the case by giving an objective account of networking and gatekeeping in the process of learning/innovation at the Royan and concludes by questioning the continuity of the actual learning strategy in order to sustain the Royan's knowledge production.     

Technology assessment and policy analysis

Technology assessment involves questions that are in principle beyond the capacity of science to answer. Because available data and models are ambiguous, ability to evaluate the strength and fit of evidence and the adequacy of arguments assumes paramount importance. In this sense, analysis becomes a sort of generalized jurisprudence. Moreover, the impact of a technology depends on the institutional framework within which it is used. Hence, the analyst must also pay attention to institutional constraints and to peoples' attempts to manipulate them.     

高新科技与价值创造

在高新技术迅猛发展的今天,我们一定要坚持按严格的、科学的态度来发展马克思的劳动价值论。先进的高新科技本身并不会、也不能创造出新的价值,能创造新价值的唯一源泉仍然是人的活劳动。只有能使新产品价值量大幅度降低的科学技术,才是真正的高新科技。     

Health‐Care Data Protection and Biometric Authentication Policies: Comparative Culture and Technology Acceptance in China and in the United States

A proliferation of health information technology (HIT) policies to implement dimensions of e‐health, including electronic medical records, electronic health records, personal health records, and e‐prescribing—along with expanding initiatives on mobile health in developed countries and emerging technologies—has sparked academic inquiry into the protection of privacy and data and the technology to protect privacy and data. This article examines HIT policies in the United States and in China and the use of authentication technologies to assess biometrics as privacy's friend or foe in different political frameworks with varying conceptions of privacy. An analysis of privacy in the context of health data protection, challenging relations of trust between patients and providers, the increasing perspective of health data integrity as a cyber‐security issue, and the growing rate of medical fraud and medical identity theft may yield findings of a convergence of views of privacy and biometrics unexpected of contrasting political cultures.     

陕西农业科技企业技术创新机制研究

陕西农业科技企业整体上还处于成长阶段,在技术创新意识、技术创新机制方面均存在较大缺陷,严重影响了陕西农业科技企业竞争力的提高,难以发挥其对农业和农村经济发展的辐射带动作用。促进陕西农业科技企业技术创新的发展,不仅需要企业内部优化,而且还要依赖科技体制、经济体制和其他社会体制的配套改革以及其他相关政策的规定。     

Information Technology and Its Social Dimensions

Books reviewed in this article:
Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene, Powering Up: How Public Managers Can Take Control of Information Technology
G. David Garson (ed.), Social Dimensions of Information Technology: Issues for the New Millennium
Pippa Norris, Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide     

对科学技术的几点看法

本围绕着科技精神能否独立、科学技术负效应的本质、对科学技术的态度等方面的问题对科学技术与人的关系进行了探讨，认为科学技术所引发的各种问题，从本质上说是人的世界观的问题，是社会制度的问题。     

The Technology Trap and the Role of Political and Cultural Variables: A Critical Analysis of the E‐Government Policies

More than a decade after the first introduction of the e‐government policies, early enthusiasms on its immediate benefits on the quality of democracy have undergone critical review. E‐government implementation worldwide has proved that technology alone does not necessarily provide more access and more participation. Massive technological intervention is not enough for reinventing government online. Hence, other variables should be taken into consideration. Factors concerning political culture, cognitive frames and mentality, administrative traditions, as well as the country‐specific peculiarities play a relevant role in determining if and how e‐gov initiatives can succeed or fail. In this article, it will be argued that any opportunity and push for change and actual influence on administrations, governments, and societies, prompted by the new technologies, should endure important variables of political, social, and cultural nature. The political and socio‐cultural variables then overcome the technological one and we can state that politics (still) determines (e‐)policy.