Responsible Choice of Technology by Dr. William J. Frey

Aprovecho Stoves Case for Waste for Life Human Capabilities

Row 1, Col 1 This non-profit organization tests and distributes efficient and clean wood-burning stoves to developing Nations. What is Aprovecho?

1,2 “A not-for-profit organization that works to promote sustainable, mutually negotiated programs of work.” What is Waste for Life or WFL?

1,3 Being able to live to the end of a human life of normal length; not dying prematurely, or before one’s life is so reduced as to be not worth living. What is the Capability of Life?

1,4 “Being able to form a conception of the good and to engage in critical reflection about the planning of one’s life. (This entails protection for the liberty of conscience and religious observance.)” What is the Human Capability of Practical Reasoning?

2,1 Lorena, Institutional, and Rocket. What the names of three stoves that have been tested and adopted by Aprovecho?

2,2 This hot press developed by WFL (Waste for Life) may be too complicated and sophisticated for primitive STSs but too simple for STSs in highly developed nations. What is an Appropriate Technology (in relation to a particular STS)?

2,3 Being able to have good health, including reproductive health; to be adequately nourished; to have adequate shelter. What is the Human Capability of Bodily Health?

2,4 “Being able to live with and toward others, to recognize and show concern for other human beings, to engage in various forms of social interaction; to be able to imagine the situation of another.” What is the Human Capability of Affiliation?

3,1 “Reduces fuel use by more than 50% Reduces black carbon by more than 60%. Reduces childhood pneumonia by more than 30% Affordable ($10 retail or less) Cooks love it Gets funded” What are criteria for good wood-burning stoves outlined by Dean Still of Aprovecho?

3,2 The hot press used by Waste for Life is simple, decentralized, and not de-skilling What are three criteria of an appropriate technology?

3,3 “Being able to move freely from place to place; to be secure against violent assault, including sexual assault and domestic violence; having opportunities for sexual satisfaction and for choice in matters of reproduction.” What is the Human Capability of Bodily Integrity?

3,4 “Being able to live with concern for and in relation to animals, plants, and the world of nature.” What is the Human Capability of Other Species?

4,1 While it is possible to build a stove that carries out technical criteria like efficient and clean burning, users frequently make demands that require undoing these technical accomplishments in trade offs. What is the problem of “design drift.?”

4,2 This particular structure accounts largely for the different instantiation or realization of the hot press in Lesotho, Africa and Buenos Aires, Argentina. What a socio-technical system (STS)?

4,3 “Being able to use the senses, to imagine, think, and reason—to do these things in a “truly human” way, a way informed and cultivated by an adequate education, including, but by no means limited to, literacy and basic mathematical and scientific training.” What is the Human Capability of Sense, Imagination, and Thought?

3,4 “Being able to laugh, to play, to enjoy recreational activities.” What is the Human Capability of Play?

5,1 Well designed stoves serve as “conversion factors” that convert this capability into a functioning or realization. What is the capability of “bodily health”?

5,2 Emphasizing the hot press’s potential to employ the cartoneros positions this technology as a conversion factor that realizes this capability. What is the capability, control over one’s environment?

5,3 “Being able to have attachments to things and people outside ourselves; to love those who love and care for us, to grieve at their absence; in general, to love, to grieve, to experience longing, gratitude, and justified anger. Not having one’s emotional development blighted by fear and anxiety.” What is the Human Capability of Emotion?

5,4 “Being able to participate effectively in political choices that govern one’s life; having the right of political participation, protections of free speech and association.” What is the Human Capability of Control over one’s environment ?

Practical Reasoning and the Amish Practical reasoning is important to the Amish and they choose technology on the basis of the impact it would have on this capability, especially functionings seen in terms of religious expression and community held values

Affiliation Continued “(Protecting this capability means protecting institutions that constitute and nourish such forms of affiliation, and also protecting the freedom of assembly and political speech.) Having the social bases of self-respect and non- humiliation; being able to be treated as a dignified being whose worth is equal to that of others. This entails provisions of non-discrimination on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, caste, religion, national origin.”

Continuation of Sense, Imagination and Thought “Being able to use imagination and thought in connection with experiencing and producing works and events of one’s own choice, religious, literary, musical, and so forth. Being able to use one’s mind in ways protected by guarantees of freedom of expression with respect to both political and aristocratic speech, and freedom of religious experience. Being able to have pleasurable experiences and to avoid non- beneficial pain.”

Continuation of Emotion “(Supporting this capability means supporting forms of human association that can be shown to be crucial in their development.)”

Continuation of Control “Being able to hold property (both land and movable goods), and having property rights on an equal basis with others; having the right to seek employment on an equal basis with others; having the freedom from unwarranted search and seizure. In work being able to work as a human being, exercising practical reason and entering into meaningful relationships of mutual recognition with other workers.”

Sources on Values and Capabilities Brincat and Wike, Morality and the Professional Life: Values at Work, Prentice-Hall, 2000, 141. See also, Victoria S. Wike, “Professional Engineering Ethical Behavior: A Values-based Approach,” Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition. Martha Nussbaunm. Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions. Cambridge University Press: Capability list quoted. Burkhard Bilger, (2009). “Annals of Invention: Hearth Surgery—The quest for a stove that can save the world,” The New Worker, December 21 & 28, C. Baillie, E. Feinblatt, T. Thamae, & E. Berrington, (2010), Needs and Feasibility: AGuide for Engineers in Community Projects—The Case of Waste for Life, Morgan & Claypool Press.