This dissertation is a study of groundwork in Engaged Science, Technology, and Society (STS) research. Engaged STS scholars reframe STS knowledge and move it beyond the traditional scope and boundaries of the field. They use various methods such as critical participation, making and doing, situated interventions, and experimentation to critically engage with their fields of study. These scholars have evaluated their work within the context of the disciplinary outsider, described their use of high-level pragmatic frameworks, and used the arts to bring critical social issues to the public eye. Yet, when I decided to use STS engagement methods to bring visibility to the lesser-known communities in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Virginia Tech, I found a lack of work documenting the groundwork and experience of engagement. I could not locate groundwork regarding negotiation, designing the most appropriate intervention, collaboration strategies, or confronting my fears and doubts about being in the field. Therefore, in this dissertation, I identify and examine my engagement experience in three interventions within the ECE department to bring visibility to the groundwork of STS engagement. The limited-series podcast Engineering Visibility was a platform to bring visibility to the less dominant communities in the ECE department. Highlighting the experiences of women in engineering, the first-generation student, inclusion and diversity, and the non-traditional student fostered a shared identity and sense of belonging within the ECE department. On the ground, this project examined the need to protect participants' visibility through invisibility. Interventionist Protectivity conceptualizes how I combined trust, accountability, and social awareness to protect my participants' from social scrutiny. The second project was a seminar titled "Expand Your ECE Career." The seminar exposed students to a "broader range of careers" by challenging the traditional ideas of success. The seminar featured four ECE alumni with successful careers in law, finance, and fashion entrepreneurship. Additionally, this intervention pointed out the inadequacies of traditional forms of project assessment. I describe how I measured intervention success through other assessment methods such as "assessment per mobility." The last project was a data-driven white paper that translated the care work of the undergraduate academic career advisors and framed it to be understood by the ECE faculty. The care work done by the academic advisors was underappreciated in its connection to undergraduate student success. On the ground, I discussed the importance of identifying the advisors and the faculty's social construction to create an intervention that translated the advisors' work to be valued by the faculty. Lastly, I conclude with a discussion summarizing the overall lessons learned from the three interventions and discussing my experience of engagement. My engaged STS experience is discussed through my framing of the concept of self-confrontation and the work of avoiding the term of STS being deemed as useful. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation is a study of groundwork in engaged Science, Technology, and Society (STS) research. Recent advances such as critical participation, making and doing, and situated intervention are reframing boundaries between knowledge and action in STS, offering scholars new approaches for improving scientific and technological communities. When I attempted to utilize these theories and methods in a culture change project, however, I found a lack of scholarship documenting the experience of engagement. How does one design the most appropriate intervention? What strategies are required to collaborate and negotiate? How do engaged scholars confront their fears and doubts in their communities and concerning the knowledge they bring back to STS? These groundwork questions confront both novice and seasoned STS scholars and are crucial to successful engaged scholarship, but they rarely are documented and analyzed. Utilizing a matters-of-care framework and self-reflective methods, I describe how and why I sought to change the culture of a large engineering department by making visible unseen and sometimes under-appreciated stakeholders. To do so, I created three interventions: a limited-series podcast to showcase the diversity of experiences in the department, an alternative-career seminar to redefine what counted as success in engineering, and a data-driven white paper to showcase the indispensable care work of academic advisors. I analyzed these projects' construction, application, and outcomes to highlight the complexities and significance of groundwork for STS engagement.

Providing support for the agricultural development of small farmers is the main goal of the project Agriculture in Guatemala: Technology, Education and Commercialization (AGTEC). To accomplish this, it is necessary, to identify the characteristics and needs of participants, as well as their environmental, social, and farming conditions. Through this study, two case studies were conducted to identify and analyze the context of small farmers of the region. This research study used qualitative and participative methods, such as interviews, focus groups, and observation, to gather data about the participants' thoughts and opinions concerning their situations. The case study systemically gathered information about the conditions and needs of small farmers to provide a better understanding of the people and their interactions within the farm systems. This needs assessment showed how the farmers' decisions about adoption are related to their interactions on their farms. Therefore, this study analyzed the system, as a whole, to identify priorities among different critical components that will provide optimum results for beneficiaries. These priorities will allow the identification of appropriate technologies that will satisfy the needs of small farmers according to their local, cultural, and economic conditions. The appropriate technologies need to be diffused among the farmers for adoption. Rogers observed that technologies that are diffused by opinion leaders are adopted by their peers. Thus, the second case study analyzed the social networks and their leaders to observe their potential to support the diffusion process of technologies. The study revealed the presence of diverse social networks, one provided by the political structure, others based on organized groups of farmers and other informal networks formed by independent farmers. Data also showed that opinion leaders have desired roles and characteristics among their networks. Therefore diffusion of innovations through formal and non-formal leaders represents a promising strategy as they are recognized and respected by peers. The diffusion of innovations through opinion leaders promotes the active participation of local members, validates the innovations, and sustains adoption over time. Therefore, the analysis of the social networks and selection of opinion leaders supports the diffusion process of the AGTEC project in Chimaltenango, Guatemala.

Development, environmental sustainability, agriculture and livelihoods are dimensions that are often considered antagonistic. By thinking at the landscape level however, innovative opportunities arise for simultaneity as these entities manifest spatially and require communication across disciplines. Trans-frontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) embrace this thinking. These are large areas that cut across two or more international boundaries, include within them at least one Protected Area (PA) and other multiple resource use areas, including human dwellings and cultivated areas. Similarly, ecoagriculture is an innovative approach to land use management as it seeks to spatially synergise agriculture, livelihoods and biodiversity conservation across space and requires an awareness of landscape-level issues by land users, a condition which is not necessarily met. Such landscape thinking stems from the fact that if a piece of land is subject to rigorous conservation, it will fail if the surrounding areas are degraded. Additionally, it has been shown that agriculture often benefits from the nearby presence of natural areas for ecosystem services such as pollination, pest management, and erosion control. As such, multifunctional landscape mosaics together with small scale farmers, not large scale monocultures, are the key to global food security, as the former more effectively links agricultural intensification to hunger reduction. In order to ascertain an integrated understanding of the landscape concept, necessary for the formalisation of ecoagriculture, this study assessed the landscape perceptions and understandings held by local people residing within a TFCA. We employed participatory methods within the Mathenjwa Tribal Area (MTA), an area falling within the Lubombo TFCA and identified as holding ecoagriculture potential. Results revealed that local people perceive landscape as a function of subsistence utility. Local people perceive land-use multifunctionality, necessary for the formalisation of ecoagriculture, but at a smaller scale than expected depending on both social and biophysical interpretations. Landscape scale projects should incorporate local landscape understandings. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / MA / Unrestricted

The Barrage informal settlement (BIS) is a peri-urban community of about 300 people resident on private land close to the banks of the Vaal River in Gauteng South Africa. The study focuses on the living and sanitation conditions in which people find themselves. Measured against the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) BIS and its residents clearly are far from meeting MDG 7 target 7 C. For the purposes of this study the researcher investigated ecological sanitation (EcoSan) as an alternative solution for the current local sanitation conundrum. Residents either use the veld or a dysfunctional pit system. The data used for the project was generated both in a qualitative and quantitative mode. Semi-structured interviews were randomly conducted. Participants were requested and subsequently assisted in completing a questionnaire. There were also several focus group discussions for gathering relevant data. The researcher tried to form an impression of the perceptions of community members in terms on the type of sanitation system they wished to use. Community members actively engaged in strategies aimed to find out how they perceive sanitation, potable water supply and matters of hygiene. The findings revealed dissatisfaction regarding to current conditions in BIS. Residents are uncertain because the land on which they reside on does not belong to them. This, in turn, creates uncertainty and feelings of insecurity, about the relevance of a potential water-based sanitation system. At the same time members of the community indicated they had no interest in a dry toilet system. Neither are they keen on the use of community ablution blocks (CABs) as alternative. Residents showed no willingness and are also not prepared to pay for sanitation because they cannot afford it. The dilemma is that residents are at the mercy of Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) and the private owners of the land on which they reside. Where do we find the solution to all of the issues? Participatory deliberation strategies were used to determine which system of sanitation local residents preferred. They clearly came out in favour of the Water Bank concept as a feasible sanitation system option. However, as a result of the unfulfilled promises of Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) and landowners the community remains in a state of uncertainty about the permanence of the BIS.

The Barrage informal settlement (BIS) is a peri-urban community of about 300 people resident on private land close to the banks of the Vaal River in Gauteng South Africa. The study focuses on the living and sanitation conditions in which people find themselves. Measured against the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) BIS and its residents clearly are far from meeting MDG 7 target 7 C. For the purposes of this study the researcher investigated ecological sanitation (EcoSan) as an alternative solution for the current local sanitation conundrum. Residents either use the veld or a dysfunctional pit system. The data used for the project was generated both in a qualitative and quantitative mode. Semi-structured interviews were randomly conducted. Participants were requested and subsequently assisted in completing a questionnaire. There were also several focus group discussions for gathering relevant data. The researcher tried to form an impression of the perceptions of community members in terms on the type of sanitation system they wished to use. Community members actively engaged in strategies aimed to find out how they perceive sanitation, potable water supply and matters of hygiene. The findings revealed dissatisfaction regarding to current conditions in BIS. Residents are uncertain because the land on which they reside on does not belong to them. This, in turn, creates uncertainty and feelings of insecurity, about the relevance of a potential water-based sanitation system. At the same time members of the community indicated they had no interest in a dry toilet system. Neither are they keen on the use of community ablution blocks (CABs) as alternative. Residents showed no willingness and are also not prepared to pay for sanitation because they cannot afford it. The dilemma is that residents are at the mercy of Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) and the private owners of the land on which they reside. Where do we find the solution to all of the issues? Participatory deliberation strategies were used to determine which system of sanitation local residents preferred. They clearly came out in favour of the Water Bank concept as a feasible sanitation system option. However, as a result of the unfulfilled promises of Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) and landowners the community remains in a state of uncertainty about the permanence of the BIS.

En Tunisie centrale, l'intensification agricole de l’agriculture irriguée engendre des impacts environnementaux locaux et régionaux liés à une consommation accrue en intrants et ressources, dont l’eau et le sol. En faveur d'une agriculture plus durable et pour éclairer les politiques publiques de développement agricole, il est nécessaire d’évaluer les impacts des pratiques agricoles et d’aménagement de conservation des eaux et des sols (ACES), et ceci à l’échelle d’un territoire. La question est ainsi de savoir comment mettre en oeuvre une démarche d'évaluation environnementale dans un contexte 1) de rareté de données fiables y compris statistiques, et de complexité des pratiques agricoles, 2) de proéminence des questions socioéconomiques sur les préoccupations environnementales 3) de méconnaissance de la perception des acteurs locaux sur ces questions et donc de difficulté à identifier des indicateurs pertinents (sur le plan scientifique et des acteurs) et mobilisables. Nous proposons une démarche innovante de conception et mise en oeuvre d’une approche participative regroupant différents types d’acteurs, pour leur permettre d’appréhender mutuellement leurs logiques et leurs perceptions des impacts des pratiques agricoles et des ACES. Cette démarche est conçue pour produire de l’information de qualité en valorisant les savoirs locaux, partager et prendre en compte les perceptions des différents acteurs, et enfin construire des consensus pour contribuer à l’élaboration de politiques d’ACES plus efficaces. Elle a été structurée en deux grandes étapes : la conception en communauté de pratique articulée à un diagnostic rapide participatif systémique et la mise en oeuvre d’ateliers participatifs. L’évaluation a mobilisé un double dispositif comprenant des observateurs extérieurs et une enquête de satisfaction auprès des participants. Elle s’appuie sur une grille d’évaluation de cette démarche, de ses produits et des effets induits à court terme. Le partage et la prise en compte des informations et des données collectées, mais aussi des expertises et perceptions des différents acteurs, a permis de produire des informations jugées satisfaisantes ou très satisfaisantes par la totalité des participants. Cela a nourri les connaissances de la quasi-totalité des acteurs et a contribué à une dynamique constructive d’apprentissage collectif. Notre démarche a nettement contribué à l’évolution des perceptions et à une plus forte compréhension mutuelle des agents de l’administration et des agriculteurs. Un tableau de bord regroupant les indicateurs mobilisés par chaque acteur a été discuté et a permis de mettre en évidence convergences et différences dans leurs grilles d’analyse. La structuration progressive et adaptative de la démarche, les choix des acteurs, des lieux de réalisation des ateliers et le recours à un animateur neutre ont été des facteurs très importants pour l’engagement et la mobilisation des acteurs, en particulier au niveau central, dans cet espace opérationnel de concertation sur les enjeux territoriaux, les pratiques agricoles et les ACES. Ce travail démontre l’intérêt de l’intégration de l’ingénierie de la concertation et de l’évaluation environnementale au sein d’une même démarche et sa faisabilité dans un contexte difficile pour la mise en oeuvre de politiques d’ACES. / IIn central Tunisia, the agricultural intensification of irrigated agriculture generates local and regional environmental impacts, linked to an increased consumption of inputs and resources, including water and soil. In favor of a more sustainable agriculture and in order to inform public policies of agricultural development, it is necessary to assess the impacts of agricultural practices and water and soil conservation planning (WSCP), and this at the territory scale. The question is how to implement an environmental assessment approach in a context of 1) scarcity of reliable data including statistics, and complexity of farming practices, 2) prominence of socio-economic issues over environmental concerns 3) lack of knowledge of the perception of local actors on these issues and therefore of difficulty in identifying relevant indicators (scientific and of the stakeholders) and mobilizable. We propose an innovative approach to design and implement a participative approach involving different types of actors, to enable them to get more insights into each other's logic and perceptions of the impacts of agricultural practices and WSCP. This approach is designed to produce quality information by valuing local knowledge, share and take into account the perceptions of different stakeholders, and finally, build a consensus to contribute to the development of more effective WSCP policies. This approach has been structured in two main stages: the design of a community of practices articulated to a participatory systemic rapid diagnosis and the implementation of participatory workshops. The evaluation mobilized a dual mechanism including external observers and a satisfaction survey among participants. The survey is based on an evaluation grid of this approach, its outcomes and its short term induced effect. Sharing and taking into account the information and data collected, as well as the expertise and perceptions of the various stakeholders, has made possible to produce information deemed satisfactory or very satisfactory by all the participants. This nourished the knowledge of almost all the stakeholders and contributed to a constructive dynamic of collective learning. Our approach has contributed significantly to the evolution of perceptions and to a stronger mutual understanding between government officials and farmers. A dashboard grouping the indicators mobilized by each stakeholder was discussed and allowed to highlight convergences and differences in their analysis grids. The gradual and adaptive structuring of the approach, the choices of the stakeholders, the venues for the workshops and the use of a neutral facilitator were very important factors for the commitment and the mobilization of the stakeholders, in particular at the central scale, in this operational space for consultation on territorial issues, agricultural practices and WSCP. This work demonstrates the interest of integrating the engineering of consultation and environmental assessment within one approach and its feasibility in a difficult context for the ACES policies implementation.

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le champ de la sécurité des organisations. Son objet concerne le développement d’une culture de sécurité, avec comme postulat le fait que la sécurité se fait avec la participation des travailleurs de tous niveaux hiérarchiques de l’organisation. Une recherche fondée sur ce principe a été conduite au sein de deux entreprises de distribution d’énergie en France. Comme beaucoup d’autres, ces entreprises sont axées sur une culture managériale de la sécurité où la sur-procéduralisation, le contrôle des « mauvais comportements » et les sanctions prennent le pas sur le travail réel. Comme conséquence, on constate le développement du « silence organisationnel », les travailleurs étant conduits à ne plus remonter les difficultés ou contradictions vécues sur le terrain, ou à remonter des situations à faible impact. Le retour d’expérience se trouve donc affaibli, voire inefficace. Pour gérer le silence organisationnel et ses conséquences, cette recherche a expérimenté des espaces de débat sur le travail réel entre salariés relevant de différents échelons de l’entreprise. Dès que certaines conditions sont respectées, ces espaces peuvent apporter de nombreuses contributions pour les personnes concernées et pour l’organisation locale. Pour qu’ils soient durables, il faut que ses membres disposent d’un certain pouvoir d’agir pour régler certaines des situations débattues localement, et qu’ils puissent communiquer avec d’autres espaces lorsque les ressources locales s’avèrent insuffisantes. Ainsi, les espaces de débat ne doivent pas être isolés au sein des échelons hiérarchiques, mais doivent être interconnectés en vue de définir le pouvoir d’agir et l’autonomie de chacun d’entre eux. Cette réflexion met en lumière le principe de subsidiarité, qui nous enseigne que chaque situation doit être traitée au niveau pertinent le plus bas de l’organisation. Cette thèse défend donc l’idée que pour traiter le silence organisationnel et développer une culture de sécurité, il est nécessaire de développer le « débat structuré sur le travail » – ou des espaces de débat organisés par le principe de subsidiarité – dans différents échelons de l’entreprise. Quelles sont les contributions réelles du débat structuré sur le travail ? Et ses conditions de mise en place ? Autant de questions auxquelles cette thèse tente de répondre par la construction de dispositifs de débat au sein de l’organisation et par une analyse fine du contenu des ces débats. Les résultats remettent en cause la vision classique de la sécurité basée sur des analyses centrées uniquement sur les situations conflictuelles passées, pour mettre en lumière l’articulation entre l’expérience passée, le débat actuel et les situations futures probables. L’approche mise en oeuvre au cours de ces 3 années a permis de développer une organisation plus résiliente, c’est-à-dire une organisation capable de maintenir un état stable en dépit des perturbations inhérentes à tout système de travail. Cette recherche nous invite à repenser la manière de manager les organisations actuelles. Même si le point de départ de la recherche concernait des questions de sécurité, le développement du débat structuré sur le travail a permis dans le même temps de traiter des questions de santé des travailleurs, de qualité du travail et de performance du système. / This thesis concerns the safety of work organizations. Its purpose is the development of a safety culture, with the postulate that safety must be done with the participation of workers of all levels of the organization. A research based on this principle was conducted in two companies of energy distribution in France. Like many others, these companies are focused on a managerial safety culture where over-proceduralization, control of "bad behavior" and sanctions prevail over the real work. As a consequence, we notice the development of the "organizational silence", workers being led not to report difficulties or contradictions experienced on the field, or to report low-impact situations. Experience feedback is thus weakened or ineffective.To manage this organizational silence and its consequences, this research experimented work debate spaces between workers belonging to different levels of the company. When certain conditions are met, these spaces may have many benefits for the concerned persons and for the local organization. In order to be sustainable, it is necessary that its members have some power to act to manage some of the situations discussed locally, and that they can communicate with other spaces when local resources are insufficient. Thus, work debate spaces should not be isolated in hierarchical levels, but must be interconnected to define the power to act and autonomy of each. This highlights the principle of subsidiarity, which teaches us that each situation should be managed at the lowest appropriate level of the organization. This thesis argues that to manage organizational silence and develop a safety culture, it is necessary to develop a "structured work debate" - or debate spaces organized according to the principle of subsidiarity - in different levels of the company. What are the effective contributions of structured work debate? And its conditions of implementation? These are questions that this thesis attempts to answer by the construction of debate devices within the organization and the detailed analysis of the content of the discussions. The results question the classic view of safety based on analyzes focused only on past situations of conflict, to highlight the link between past experience, the current debate and the likely future situations. The approach implemented during these three years led to develop a more resilient organization, i.e. an organization able of maintaining a stable functioning despite the disturbances inherent to any system of work. This research invites us to rethink the way of managing current organizations. Although the starting point of the research concerned safety issues, the development of a structured work debate allowed at the same time to deal with issues of workers' health, quality of work and performance of the system.

The complexity of the sustainability challenge calls for participatory processes to support the large-scale collaboration across sectors and disciplines that is needed. Besides tools and methodologies to design these processes, the inner world of sustainability practitioners facilitating them is a key element for their success. This thesis focuses on the role of self- awareness for sustainability practitioners based on their stories of having to adapt their process design, their personal practices and advice they give. Using semi-structured interviews with facilitators who use Theory U and/or Art of Hosting methodologies to facilitate participatory processes for sustainable development, we found that self-awareness supports sustainability practitioners in practical terms on the spot, in their leadership development and in the effectiveness of their work. Moreover, through self-awareness, they recognize the importance of diversity and trust, essential elements for the adaptive capacity of the group. This recognition could contribute to more successful processes and outcomes, making practitioners' work and contribution to addressing the sustainability challenge more effective. The potential analogy between inner worlds and healthy social systems poses an interesting angle for further research. Is there such a thing as an inner dimension of sustainability? How does self-awareness relate to that?

This dissertation explores the plight of vulnerable poor households in Sinazongwe district of Zambia. It determines nature of their vulnerability and identifies commonly used coping strategies. It also identifies different types of livelihood strategies and assets available and accessed by vulnerable poor households to create sustainable livelihoods. Study design used qualitative and participatory paradigms, involving variety of data collection techniques and tools such as key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The study identified several factors impacting on vulnerable poor households, their response strategies and perceived potential sustainable livelihoods. Drought and flash floods destroyed livelihoods of poor households from which they often failed to recover. Vulnerable poor households possessed fewer assets and less diversified sources of income and often lacked back up resources in times of hardship. Livestock rearing, fishing and irrigation-supported gardening were identified as possible sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable poor households in Sinazongwe, to recover and become resilient. / Sociology / M.A. (Development Studies)

This dissertation explores the plight of vulnerable poor households in Sinazongwe district of Zambia. It determines nature of their vulnerability and identifies commonly used coping strategies. It also identifies different types of livelihood strategies and assets available and accessed by vulnerable poor households to create sustainable livelihoods. Study design used qualitative and participatory paradigms, involving variety of data collection techniques and tools such as key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The study identified several factors impacting on vulnerable poor households, their response strategies and perceived potential sustainable livelihoods. Drought and flash floods destroyed livelihoods of poor households from which they often failed to recover. Vulnerable poor households possessed fewer assets and less diversified sources of income and often lacked back up resources in times of hardship. Livestock rearing, fishing and irrigation-supported gardening were identified as possible sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable poor households in Sinazongwe, to recover and become resilient. / Sociology / M.A. (Development Studies)