Control versus Complexity: Approaches to the Carbon Dioxide Problem at IIASA

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

In the 1970s and 1980s the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) hosted several research projects, workshops and conferences in order to discuss the implications of rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere. A number of distinguished scholars, some of whom later became prominent protagonists within the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and sustainability communities more generally, participated in these debates. Since those at IIASA did not engage in obviously related fields such as geophysics or climatology, there is a need to explain how, and via which contexts the issue entered the institute’s agenda. This article examines this historical context and contrasts two competing paradigms that emerged at IIASA in order to assess and respond to the carbon dioxide question: The first approach was related to the organisation’s research projects on the future of energy systems, which drew on physics, engineering, economics and applied system dynamical modeling; the second approach drew earlier research into ecological management and complex dynamical systems theory, and argued for the use of multiple methods to assess the carbon dioxide question. The first approach invoked ideas of techno-economical control mechanisms, the second resulted in a more embedded framing of climate change as one of a larger complex of issues relating to sustainable development. Based on resources from IIASA’s research repositories and institutional archive, this study retraces these competing discourse framings and outlines the specific research and modeling strategies, policies, and cultural and technological imaginaries related to them.
Original languageEnglish
JournalBerichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Volume40
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)140-159
Number of pages20
ISSN0170-6233
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 06.2017

Bibliographical note

Special Issue: Trading Zones of Climate Change

DOI

Recently viewed

Activities

  1. Preliminary selection of experimental techniques in Subtask D
  2. The Value Knowledge Grid - a new way of diagnosing the Culturally Non-Copyables: Building Blocks for Diagnostics
  3. Closing Session: Summary Notes
  4. International Conference on Methods and Models in Automation an Robotics - MMAR 2016
  5. Everything flows – identification and characterization of coherent patterns
  6. Teaching the machine how to assess grammar skills. Modelling verb-tense exercise characteristics as a basis for an adaptive E-learning system
  7. A Framework for Text Analytics in Online Interventions
  8. Deterministic and Stochastic Models for Rota Scheduling in Public Bus Transport
  9. Performing Contracts: BDSM, Performance Art and Aesthetics of Complexity
  10. The semantics of transformation: conceptual work based on Freirean methodology.
  11. On the relational structure of two tests measuring general pedagogical knowledge
  12. Employer Longevity Readiness Index Workshop: Session 2: How do you build a longevity readiness Index?
  13. Bridges or blocks: How objects cross or enact boundaries in interorganizational teams
  14. Explaining the learning progress in mathematics of retained students and low-achieving students
  15. Dynamical systems methods in fluid mechanics
  16. Intelligent software system for replacing a force sensor in the case of clearance measurement
  17. Identifying Conservation Priorities in the face of future development: applying development by design in the mongolian gobi
  18. The Irish English discourse marker sure at the semantics/pragmatics interface
  19. A Lyapunov based PI controller with an anti-windup scheme for a purification process of potable water

Publications

  1. Selecting and Adapting Methods for Analysis and Design in Value-Sensitive Digital Social Innovation Projects: Toward Design Principles
  2. Convolutional Neural Networks
  3. Integrating the underlying structure of stochasticity into community ecology
  4. Cognitive load and instructionally supported learning with provided and learner-generated visualizations
  5. Globally asymptotic output feedback tracking of robot manipulators with actuator constraints
  6. Constructions and Reconstructions. The Architectural Image between Rendering and Photography
  7. Is too much help an obstacle? Effects of interactivity and cognitive style on learning with dynamic versus non-dynamic visualizations with narrative explanations
  8. Soft Optimal Computing Methods to Identify Surface Roughness in Manufacturing Using a Monotonic Regressor
  9. A Review of the Application of Machine Learning and Data Mining Approaches in Continuum Materials Mechanics
  10. Analysis And Comparison Of Dispatching RuleBased Scheduling In Dual-Resource Constrained Shop-Floor Scenarios
  11. A simple nonlinear PD control for faster and high-precision positioning of servomechanisms with actuator saturation
  12. How does Enterprise Architecture support the Design and Realization of Data-Driven Business Models?
  13. Faulty Process Detection Using Machine Learning Techniques
  14. A Lean Convolutional Neural Network for Vehicle Classification
  15. Sensitivity to complexity - an important prerequisite of problem solving mathematics teaching
  16. A reference architecture for the integration of EMIS and ERP-Systems
  17. Supporting the Development and Implementation of a Digitalization Strategy in SMEs through a Lightweight Architecture-based Method
  18. Positioning Improvement for a Laser Scanning System using cSORPD control
  19. Generating Energy Optimal Powertrain Force Trajectories with Dynamic Constraints
  20. FaST: A linear time stack trace alignment heuristic for crash report deduplication
  21. What does it mean to be sensitive for the complexity of (problem oriented) teaching?
  22. TARGET SETTING FOR OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS - STUDY CASE -
  23. Mapping interest rate projections using neural networks under cointegration
  24. Users’ handedness and performance when controlling integrated input devices
  25. Supporting discourse in a synchronous learning environment
  26. A Column Generation Approach for Bus Driver Rostering Problems