5.1 Technological choice

Test cases

• Your company, Cogentrix, proposes a cogeneration plant that uses coal to produce electricity and steam both of which it sells to make money. Because western Puerto Rico lacks electricity generating capacity and because the steam by-product can be sold to nearby tuna canning plants, your company finds the Mayagüez area particularly attractive. But there are rumors that different local constituencies oppose this project because of concerns about the environmental impact of coal use and industrialization. Prepare a STS analysis of the Mayagüez area. Can you identify any potential value mismatches between this system and the cogeneration plant your company is planning? How can these mismatches be mitigated or eliminated?
• Your company, Southern Gold Resources, wants to mine different regions in central Puerto Rico for copper and gold. But you know that twenty years earlier, two proposals by two international mining companies were turned down by the Puerto Rican government due to strong local opposition. Carry out a socio-technical system that concentrates on the financial, social, and environmental impact of a smaller scale mining project. How would you address the opposition to the older mining proposals should they also arise in relation to yours? What does your STS analysis tell you about social and ethical impacts, financial potential, and possible grass roots opposition? Are profitable mining operations compatible with the community and environmental values? What is your recommendation based on your STS analysis?
• Windmar, a company that manufactures and operates windmills for electricity generation has proposed to build a windmill farm adjacent to the Bosque Seco de Guanica. They have encountered considerable local opposition which stems from three concerns: (1) Given that Windmar is a private business, can it be trusted to carry out its project as proposed? Can any private business be trusted to “keep its word.” (2) Will locating the windmill farm so close to the Bosque Seco de Guanica have a harmful impact on the fragile ecosystem and its non-human inhabitants? (3) Why were public hearings on the project held so far away from the very communities who would most likely suffer its impacts? Windmill technology has traditionally been considered one of the cleanest ways to generate electricity. But this doesn’t mean that it represents a harm-free technology. How can windmills harm the environment? How can their construction and operation harm the communities in which they are housed? Carry out a socio-technical system analysis to understand and clarify this opposition. Can the concerns of local stakeholders be integrated with a profitable, privately owned and operated windmill farm? How should the windmill project be modified to improve the chances of its being implemented?
• Assume that the Puerto Rico government has decided to give a laptop computer to every public school student. What would happen? What would be the benefits? What would be the harms? Construct a socio-technical analysis of the Puerto Rico public school system and study the impact of the laptop project on this system. Are there any mismatches between the values embedded in laptops technology and this STS? Would the laptop project be feasible? (What constraints are likely to make integration difficult?) Would it be necessary to redesign laptop computers to make this technology more responsive to the special needs of children? What changes or adjustments would need to be made in the Puerto Rico public school STS?