STEM-SE Educ8n

This page provides perspectives, pedagogical suggestions & resources about relationships among fields of science, technology, engineering & mathematics (STEM) and societies and environments (STEM-SE). As depicted at right/below, such relationships ‘may’ be biased (e.g., politically). Often, educators focus on controversies; e.g., socioscientific issues (SSI). Because controversy can promote doubts and confusion, though, STEPWISE focuses on apparent harms to wellbeing of individuals, societies and/or environments (WISE). With foci on possible harms, students and others may be motivated to develop and implement actions to overcome them – possibly leading to improvements to global social justice and environmental vitality.

As discussed above, it seems very important to teach students several cases of apparent personal, social & environmental harms that appear to result from influences of pro-capitalist dispositifs on fields of S&T/STEM and much else. The brief descriptions of such harms below are meant to give educators some ideas in this regard. Most apparent harms are controversial and perhaps exaggerated – like that depicted in the video at right/below. Some general indicators, like at WorldOMeter, may help.

As climate activist Greta Thunberg has repeatedly advised (e.g., The Guardian), based on IPCC reports, humanity is facing existential crises – with only about a decade (see CC Clock) to address devastating and irreversible temperature increases. A group of prominent climate scientists also have published dire warnings to humanity about this and there are concerns about possible ‘carbon bombs.’ It appears – e.g., according to Naomi Klein – this emergence is largely due to persistence of pro-capitalist entities’ continuing promotion – especially through government & transnational influences – of petroleum extraction & combustion, while apparently knowing years ago about potential climate disasters (also see here). Some suggestions for actions are provided here. Also see: Climate Investigations Center, which has leaked petroleum company files revealing their knowledge and actions to continue extraction and sales of petroleum (see Petroleum Papers).

Natural and manufactured drugs, such as ASA (for pain & inflammation) and methotrexate (for cancer), have been very helpful to individuals & societies. As indicated in the video at right, although some drugs (e.g., opioids) have been useful for treating severe pain, aggressive promotion by pharmaceutical companies (among other factors), often with government legal sanctioning, have expanded uses of such drugs so that many people have been harmed or died. Although it may seem obvious to blame drug companies, there are concerns that causes of unhealthy drug uses are more societal – perhaps stimulated largely by capitalist ideologies.

Cigarette smoking has a long history (e.g., 2000 years ago), often for religious and cultural reasons, but it took a long time before scientists were able to gain strong evidence of its many harmful health effects. The video at right/below and the CDC summary here outline some of the many serious problems. Unfortunately, cancer rates are still increasing and, moreover, are especially problematic in poorer countries. Many people who would like to stop smoking have turned to vaping, but that, too, is not safe (e.g., here). Clearly, because of addictive effects of nicotine in them, it is very difficult to quit cigarette and vaping. Some suggestion for help with this are available, such as here for quitting vaping.

As described by George Monbiot in the video at right/below, much of our farming practices are extremely harmful to the planet – and, likely, fairness to many individuals (e.g., migrant workers). Although there are numerous technological solutions, as with most so-called ‘techno-fixes,’ they must be made more popular through laws, regulations, etc. of governments and – crucially – transnational groups, like The World Trade Organization. They also need to become accepted by large populations through, for example, media campaigns and public education. To learn more about this issue, you might read books like George Monbiot’s Regenesis. Also see this summary.

Among leading causes of sickness & death in many societies are ailments like cancer, cardiovascular diseases & diabetes – and, to a great extent, they are caused by government legal support for companies – with few owning most ‘brands’ – to manufacture unhealthy foods & beverages. In addition to perhaps obvious problems with fast foods, processed foods (often in central rows of supermarkets) often are harmful. At the same time, there is much justifiable concern that people in poorer communities and countries have inadequate access to healthy food (i.e., food security). Analyses of food sources & availability can be found via the Nutrition Action Health Letter. Also see the youth action group, Bite Back.

Although mainly in technologically ‘developed’ regions (e.g., G20 nations), electronic devices (e.g., computers, cell phones, televisions, etc.) use many minerals mined in poorer regions of the world. Some of these, such as tin, tungston & tantalum, though, are mined in regions where armed militia abuse miners, their families and others to maximize profits. Big companies, like Apple™ & Google™, apparently use such ‘conflict minerals,’ despite knowing about related abuses. Problems like these are tracked and opposed through organizations like Global Witness.

The air we need to breathe often is not safe! Indeed, according to the World Health Organization, about 7 million people around the world die from air-borne pollutants every year (also see Air Quality Life Index). Much of this comes from burning of fossil fuels which, as you might expect based on comments above, companies – with assistance from government laws – continue to encourage, rather than switching to renewable energy forms. Air pollution is worse, unfortunately, as air temperatures increase – which, again, is tied to government-company supported fossil fuel consumption.

Many of us choose to frequently purchase new clothes to maintain our status as part of a dominant, mainstream, group. This can be highly problematic if the clothes are part of a ‘fast fashion’ movement; that is, frequent cycles of purchasing & disposal of relatively inexpensive clothes that are associated with numerous social & environmental costs – such as poor labour conditions, uses of toxic pesticides, deforestation and massive additions to landfills. One of the most basic clothing items in such regards are ‘T-shirts,’ as depicted in the video at right/below.

Petroleum may often be thought of as a fuel and as the major source of climate disruption. But, it also has affected individuals, societies and environments through its conversion into plastics. There are several kinds of plastics that can be made into myriad products that people find very helpful – something that has been promoted for many decades. However, there are numerous harms linked to plastics – largely for those that are not biodegradable. In some – still very ubiquitous – cases, they are or can be degraded into micro-fibres found in common commodities and in myriad organisms’ bodies. But, of course, incredible masses of plastic refuse (e.g., as Nurdles) are routinely deposited in most of our environments – and, infamously, have accumulated in large ocean patches, forming ecosystems called ‘the plastisphere.’ As the video at right/below suggests, though, companies like Coca Cola long ago knew that switching from re-usable glass bottles to plastic ones would be devasating.

Many of us spend much of our spare time being entertained through different forms of popular media (e.g., in television, movies, phone gaming, etc.). These can be informative and stress-reducing. However, to a great extent, many of these represent – as described in the video at right – types of propaganda by powerful individuals (e.g., financiers) and groups (e.g., corporations). Much such manipulation is accomplished by subliminal aspects of media. To a great extent, such manipulation encourages consumerism, but also particular political views. Particularly vulnerable are children, who are increasing targets of powerful advertisers. Teaching resources about misinformation are provided here.

Although products and services generated, in part, by fields of science & technology have been beneficial in many ways, there are growing concerns that living & non-living things are being increasingly connected to form the Internet of Things – which, in turn, appears driven by surveillance capitalism, as stated here. As Dr. Shoshana Zuboff suggests in the video at right, companies mine user data from smart phones, social media, automobiles, fitness tracking devices, (increasingly) living things, etc., etc. to, in a sense, learn about us and engage in behaviour modification processes for profit. Such privacy invasions and manipulation appear, moreover, to be increasing a result of increased online work, etc. due to CoViD-19.

In putative democracies, with less reliance on military and police, elite and leaders usually need public supports for their perspectives and practices. Such supports can be difficult to obtain, however, in light of citizens’ negative experiences of harms like precarious work, climate disasters and rising food prices. To perhaps distract citizens’ from awareness of or concerns about such harms, though, elite and leaders can – and often have – use(d) public disorientations and fears to further implement neoliberal capitalist policies & practices like: promotion of continuous growth; tax cuts (especially for elite); de-regulation of industries & commerce; reduced social spending (e.g., for health care); disempowering trade unions; and much more. Such disaster capitalism (Klein, 2007) has been known to exploit ‘natural’ (e.g., earthquakes) and ‘anthropogenic’ (e.g., stock market crashes). While it is debatable about the extent to which the CoViD-19 pandemic is a ‘natural’ or ‘human-made’ disaster, it appears to serve as an excellent recent example of disaster capitalism.

As suggested in the video at right/below, surveillance has massively increased with development of spyware like Pegasus – which can be inserted over networks onto Apple and Android smartphones. Once installed, the software can capture existing information – such as photos and text messages – and turn on apps like audio and video recording to further capture information. Much of the software has been purchased by governments wanting to learn much about opposition – such as from pro-democracy activists – so they can suppress dissent. More about this can be learned about such oppressive spying via an article in here and here.

Before many manufactured products, particularly those containing potentially-toxic chemicals, are sold to humans, they may be tested on animals. But, as shown in the video at right, often such testing is very cruel – treating other living things as expendable commodities. Organizations, like PETA & HSI investigate such cruelty and attempt to stop animal testing. However, often companies persist – with profit often their motive.

Most nations use currencies backed by central government regulations and market forces that determine their value. Cryptocurrencies, however, are typically not issued by a central governing authority, instead they rely on multiple networked computers to create a decentralized record system to monitor and anonymously regulate transactions – a distributed ledger. Due to lack of government oversight, cryptocurrencies have been implicated in a number of crimes like pyramid and “pump and dump” schemes that have defrauded speculators millions of dollars. Centralized oversight creates a paper trail when moving large sums of money, the anonymous nature of crypto has made it a facilitator of drug trades, human trafficking and money laundering. Massive environmental costs of cryptocurrencies should not be understated, as the energy costs of producing many of them is ever increasing.

We live in a world of increasing authoritarianism – and corresponding decline in liberal democracies. Arguably, such shifts away from more caring and environmentally vital societies seems to be a result of hegemonic influence of neoliberalism since about 1970. Although this is a contentious term/concept, I suggest that it is – simply – facilitated capitalism; e.g., active engagement of governments, transnational groups like the WTO, free-market think tanks, and others, to maximize opportunities for private profit. One such technique – not exclusive to neoliberal states – is militarism. The video at right/below from DoubleDown News, speaks well to this.

As emphasized by Karl Marx, in their perpetual search for private profit, capitalists work intensely to minimize their costs. Besides using less expensive – often inferior – materials and more efficient technologies, for example, they have typically worked to reduce labour costs. With help from neoliberal capitalism, job losses (e.g., via offshoring) and, recently, increasing precarity (the ‘gig’ economy) seemed to have greatly increased private profits – at expense of social justice (e.g., poverty). Some suggest this is a new, ‘modern,’ form of slavery – a phenomenon that now is being intensely tracked and about which we can explore regarding our lifestyles.

Harms like those above (and many more) are mostly not new. They have persisted for many decades. Severn Suzuki, age 12 in 1992, expressed (in the video at right/below) great frustration about such lack of positive change. Now, about 30 years later, many or most of these problems – like climate disruption, species losses, habitat destruction, myriad forms of pollution, etc. – continue, with no apparent end in sight. It certainly makes you ask why they persist. Her prescient speech seems to carry an important answer: greed. And, as she suggested, (sociopolitical) actions, rather than just words, are necessary.

A major way that pro-capitalist dispositifs influence S&T/STEM fields and many other actants is to sanitize their activities & effects through promotion of cycles of consumption and disposal of commodities that are like Trojan horses (e.g., GE Salmon); that is, projecting positive, perhaps ‘spectacular,’ semiotic (symbolic) messages – leading consumers to enthusiastically & unquestioningly purchase them (often repeatedly). As depicted in the video at right/below, for example, engineered salmon may be ideally depicted in reductionist (punctualized) ways as abundant & ecologically-friendly food supplies, depictions that may distract consumers from awareness of networks involving harmful actants like parasitic sea lice and exclusionary patents.

Much about STSE relationships can be taught in terms of actor-network theory (ANT), an ontological conception assuming that all natural & engineered living, nonliving & symbolic (semiotic) entities (actants) are reciprocally integrated into a vast network. Particularly important are dispositifs; i.e., groups of actants that generally co-support common causes. Of great concern are pro-capitalist dispositifs, with cooperation among actants – as illustrated here – like: corporations, STEM fields, banks, currencies, etc. Often, such dispositifs are punctualized; i.e., made to appear less complex (even ‘singular’). Like a Trojan horse, objects – such as genetically-engineered salmon, personal care products & cell phones in the video at right – can appear positive on the ‘surface,’ often in normalized ways, which can distract consumers from awareness of problematic network connections.