Greetings from the Australian National University where
Professor Jessica M. Smith is speaking on "
Sociotechnical research for global futures: Thinking with energy, materials, and mining". Professor Smith brings unique experience to the topic having been at a mining an anthropologist from a mining university (the drinks afterwards are sponsored by Rio Tinto). She has worked on bringing social issues to a very technical field. One lesson was that miners who embraced environmental issues can improve the mining process as well as meet social expectations. I see some of this with teams of computer students. L Some assume they just need to work the technical stuff but are surprised this doesn't make their real human clients happy.
