Gender differences in the evaluation of a risky technology

Research has been done on the gender differences in the evaluation of nanotechnology by Dutch TU Delft students. The research was executed using a questionnaire which was designed to examine if there are gender differences in the judgement of nanotechnology and if so, which variables play a significant role in this causal relations. Based on the...

The Development of the Biogas Industry in South Africa: Strategic Niche Management in an African institutional context

In recent years, the renewable energy sector of South Africa has seen significant growth, but the biogas industry has been lagging behind. In this research, barriers and opportunities for the South African biogas industry have been studied while taking into account the institutional context that is created by informal networks. The research...

'The heat transition: identifying critical transition factors

Using Aristotle’s theory of friendship to classify online friendships: A critical counterview

In a special issue of “Ethics and Information Technology” (September 2012), various philosophers have discussed the notion of online friendship. The preferred framework of analysis was Aristotle’s theory of friendship: it was argued that online friendships face many obstacles that hinder them from ever reaching the highest form of Aristotelian...

Towards an Energy Transition with the help of Local Energy Initiatives?, A Q Methodology Research to find different factors on the role of LEI's in the Energy Transition

Digitization of the Payment Value Added Services in the Netherlands

The digital age we are currently living in, with its exciting innovations in the Information and Communication technology field, has opened up new business models, created new services and opportunities for companies and their consumers. One industry reflecting very well this digital transformation is the payment and banking industry: consumers...

An exploratory study in the concerns for information privacy: Finding a trend, factors of influence and spheres of informational justice

In this research a quantitative metaanalysis was conducted on the Concern For Information Privacy construct (CFIP) and its dimensions to find a trend. This study concluded that on a global scale, people’s concerns for unauthorized secondary use and improper access of their personal information have increased, and that for a general/student...

The dynamics in the societal debate on Shale gas in The Netherlands

An increasing number of studies show that societal debates might be the constraining factor for implementing new energy initiatives. Environmental awareness in The Netherlands is growing and society and politicians gradually change their stance on the necessity of oil and gas. This study is aimed at understanding the dynamics behind the...

Capability Maturity Model of Corporate Social responsibility

The development of a CSR capability maturity model to assess an organization's CSR performance, based on the actions and expectations that are given by the ISO26000 guideline. The research includes a study to view CSR as an organizational innovation, which has been established theoretically and validated through interviews. The development of...

Taking a Capability Approach to Technology and Its Design: A Philosophical Exploration

What people are realistically able to do and be in their lives, their capabilities, are of central moral importance according to the capability approach (CA) of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. Examples are the capabilities to be healthy or to be part of a community. The CA has become an influential normative framework for reflecting on justice,...

Moral responsibility in R&D networks: A procedural approach to distributing responsibilities

The introduction of new technologies can be accompanied by risks and unforeseen side-effects, often with high impact. If no-one is responsible for addressing these risks and side-effects, the implementation of technologies might result in harmful consequences for society. It is therefore desirable that the prevention of these negative aspects of...

Functional Decomposition: On Rationality and Incommensurability in Engineering

The concept of technical function is a key concept to describe technical artifacts and artifacts-to-be-designed. Engineers often give such descriptions in terms of functional decomposition models, which represent relationships between functions and sets of other (sub) functions. Despite the importance of the concept of function there is no...

Nuclear Power and Justice between Generations. A Moral Analysis of Fuel Cycles

When we produce nuclear power we are depleting a non-renewable resource (uranium) that will eventually not be available to future generations. Furthermore the ensuing nuclear waste needs to be isolated from the biosphere for long periods of time to come. This gives rise to the problem of justice to posterity or intergenerational justice....

Designing for Moral Identity in Information Technology

Pragmatic Concerns and Images of the World

I defend a pragmatist reinterpretation of Sellars’s famous manifestscientific distinction. I claim that in order to do justice to this important distinction we must first recognize, despite what philosophers—including, arguably, Sellars—often make of it, that the distinction does not draw an epistemological or metaphysical boundary between...

Agents of responsibility: Freelance web developers in web applications development

Much of the literature on responsibility in the IT field addresses the responsibilities of members of the IT profession. In this paper, we investigate to what extent the responsibilities associated with computing practitioners apply to freelance web developers. The relevant moral question is not “can freelancers be considered as professionals?”,...

Moral Responsibility for Environmental Problems: Individual or Institutional?

The actions performed by individuals, as consumers and citizens, have aggregate negative consequences for the environment. The question asked in this paper is to what extent it is reasonable to hold individuals and institutions responsible for environmental problems. A distinction is made between backward-looking and forward-looking...

Predication and extensionalization

In his 2000 book Logical Properties Colin McGinn argues that predicates denote properties rather than sets or individuals. I support the thesis, but show that it is vulnerable to a type-incongruity objection, if properties are (modelled as) functions, unless a device for extensionalizing properties is added. Alternatively, properties may be...