Dissertation Research: Water Cultures and Technical Experts: A Socio-Technical Study of Urban Stormwater Management in the United States

这项科学与社会论文改进补助金将研究美国三个城市在过去十五年中出现的可持续雨水管理实践。城市雨水网络为研究技术网络、人类和环境之间的复杂关系提供了一个独特的机会。自20世纪80年代末以来，包括环保活动家、工程师和市政官员在内的广泛参与者已经开发了新的方法来管理特别是大都市地区的城市水流，这些方法反映了可持续性和可持续发展的概念。这些努力挑战了传统基础设施服务固有的集中式技术逻辑，并引入了分布式管理、源头控制和公民参与的战略，以降低建设和运营成本，最大限度地减少环境影响，提高城市宜居性。本研究以行动者网络理论（ANT）为理论基础，从社会技术的角度探讨可持续雨水管理活动。将ANT应用于城市社会技术网络的研究需要深入研究特定地点的政治，社会，历史和文化条件以及城市的物质方面，如气候，地质，水文和生物。ANT特别适合这项研究，因为它突出了物质，社会和技术系统之间的关系。这种方法强调技术发展的空间和背景性质，同时与城市可持续性倡导者的生态/关系视角相平行。该研究项目将包括对美国三个大都市地区的城市流域进行深入的个案研究：华盛顿的西雅图;哥伦比亚特区的华盛顿;和得克萨斯州的奥斯汀。数据来源将包括历史文件，如工程报告和市政规划、与主要行为者深入访谈所得的社会学数据以及地理信息系统分析和实地观察所得的地理数据。这些数据来源将使用定性内容分析软件与理论和技术文献进行三角测量，以研究这些地区的雨水管理如何通过可持续性和可持续管理的镜头进行重新解释。这项研究的首要目标是描述和批判城市代谢过程中固有的复杂的社会技术关系。这项研究将桥梁城市研究和科学技术研究的学科，是建立在城市基础设施网络的设计和运营的新逻辑的前提下，需要深入了解技术网络和它们的物质和社会背景之间的关系。该研究将展示STS方法在城市研究中的实用性，同时也提供额外的规范数据，以进一步发展ANT作为社会技术研究方法。最后，本研究将通过研究ANT学者和可持续发展倡导者之间的共性来补充现有的相关理论研究。在更大的层面上，这项研究将提供一个机会，评估对城市可持续性和可持续发展的不同解释。该研究将对旨在改变社会技术城市网络的活动进行批评，并详细了解转向更可持续的城市生活形式的社会和物质影响。

This Science and Society Dissertation Improvement Grant will examine the emergence of sustainable stormwater management practices in three U.S. cities in the last fifteen years. Urban stormwater networks provide a unique opportunity to study the complex relationship between technical networks, humans, and the environment. Since the late 1980s, a wide range of actors, including environmental activists, engineers, and municipal officials, has developed new approaches to managing urban water flows in particular metropolitan regions that reflect notions of sustainability and sustainable development. These efforts challenge the centralized technical logic inherent in conventional infrastructure services and introduce strategies of distributed management, source control, and citizen involvement to reduce construction and operating costs, minimize environmental impacts, and improve urban livability. This study will examine sustainable stormwater management activities from a sociotechnical perspective using Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as the theoretical foundation. Applying ANT to the study of urban socio-technical networks requires an indepth examination of site-specific political, social, historical, and cultural conditions as well as the material aspects of cities such as climate, geology, hydrology, and biology. ANT is particularly well-suited to this study because it highlights the relationships between material, social, and technical systems. The approach emphasizes space and the contextual nature of technological development while paralleling the ecological/relational perspective of urban sustainability advocates. The research project will consist of in-depth case studies of urban watersheds in three metropolitan areas in the United States: Seattle, Washington; Washington, D.C; and Austin, Texas. Data sources will include historical documents such as engineering reports and municipal plans, sociological data from in-depth interviews with key actors, and geographical data from GIS analysis and field observations. These data sources will be triangulated with theoretical and technical literature using qualitative content analysis software to study how stormwater management in these regions is being reinterpreted through the lenses of sustainability and sustainable management. The overarching goal of the study is to describe and critique the complex sociotechnical relationships inherent in urban metabolic processes. This study will bridge the disciplines of urban studies and Science & Technology Studies and is founded on the premise that new logics of design and operation for urban infrastructure networks require a deep understanding of the relationship between technical networks and their material and social contexts. The study will demonstrate the utility of an STS approach to urban studies while also providing additional normative data to further develop ANT as a sociotechnical research approach. Finally, the research will add to existing studies of relational theories by examining the commonalitiesbetween ANT scholars and sustainability advocates. At a larger level, the study will serve as an opportunity to assess different interpretations of urban sustainability and sustainable development. The research will critique activities that are aimed at changing sociotechnical urban networks and provide a detailed understanding of the social and material implications of shifting towards more sustainable forms of urban life.