Nancy Tuana | Penn State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Nancy Tuana

Routledge eBooks, Feb 17, 2015

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 12, 2023

Racial Climates, Ecological Indifference offers a powerful intervention to the field of climate j... more Racial Climates, Ecological Indifference offers a powerful intervention to the field of climate justice scholarship by addressing a neglected aspect of the field of climate justice, namely systemic racisms. Building on the work of Black feminist theorists, the work develops an ecointersectional approach designed to reveal the depth and complexities of racial climates overlooked even in the environmental justice literature. The book’s conception of ecological indifference underscores the disposition of seeing the environment as a resource for human consumption and enjoyment, a resource that is usable, fungible, disposable, and without intrinsic worth or standing. The many examples in the book offer new insights demonstrating that systemic racisms emerge out of and give rise to environmental degradation; that is, they are often mutually constitutive. The ecointersectional analyses provided throughout the book reveal that ecological indifference and climate injustice are two sides of the same coin. Three distinctive but interrelated domains in which the intersections between systemic racisms and ecological indifference are manifest are identified: (1) differential distribution of harms/benefits due to systemic racisms, (2) racist institutions and practices fueling or causing environmental degradation, and (3) the basic social structures that generate environmental degradation being the same ones that generate systemic oppression of certain groups of people. One of the aims of Racial Climates, Ecological Indifference is to underscore that any effort to protect the environment must also be a fight against systemic racisms and other forms of systemic inequity.

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 12, 2023

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 12, 2023

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 12, 2023

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 12, 2023

Climatic Change, 2022

Convergence research is driven by specific and compelling problems and requires deep integration ... more Convergence research is driven by specific and compelling problems and requires deep integration across disciplines. The potential of convergence research is widely recognized, but questions remain about how to design, facilitate, and assess such research. Here we analyze a seven-year, twelve-million-dollar convergence project on sustainable climate risk management to answer two questions. First, what is the impact of a project-level emphasis on the values that motivate and tie convergence research to the compelling problems? Second, how does participation in convergence projects shape the research of postdoctoral scholars who are still in the process of establishing themselves professionally? We use an interview-based approach to characterize what the project specifically enabled in each participant's research. We find that (a) the project pushed participants' research into better alignment with the motivating concept of convergence research and that this effect was stronger for postdoctoral scholars than for more senior faculty. (b) Postdocs' self-assessed understanding of key project themes, however, appears unconnected to metrics of project participation, raising questions about training and integration. Regarding values, (c) the project enabled heightened attention to values in the research of a large minority of participants. (d) Participants strongly believe in the importance of explicitly reflecting on values that motivate and pervade scientific research, but they question their own understanding of how to put value-focused science into practice. This mismatch of perceived importance with poor understanding highlights an unmet need in the practice of convergence science.

Oxford University Press eBooks, Sep 2, 2009

This article traces public debates about sexual practices that have found their way into recent p... more This article traces public debates about sexual practices that have found their way into recent philosophical and other academic publications. It examines the ideals and standards some ethicists have proposed for guiding our sexual lives, even those lived away from the public spotlight. Many debates about sex concern sexual practices that transgress long-standing sexual mores, practices such as extramarital sex, same-sex sex, and paid sex. Debates about transgressive sexual acts often focus on whether the traditional social barriers against them are rationally defensible. Other debates about sex concern sexual practices that involve harm, coercion, or social subordination, such as rape, pornography, harassment, and ‘unsafe’ sex.

Managing climate risks often requires making hard decisions. While decision analysis can help, ma... more Managing climate risks often requires making hard decisions. While decision analysis can help, many analyses narrowly view what matters to people concerning decision outcomes. For instance, government policies may require projects to pass a cost-benefit analysis in which only easily monetized objectives are considered-incorporating a richer view of people's values means understanding those values and how they intersect with the problem formulations that drive outcomes. Here, we demonstrate an approach for assessing how values influence mental models. We used a case study of household flood adaptation decisions in riverine communities in Pennsylvania, USA. The approach included co-developing a shared mental model with local and academic experts. This mental model then guided interviews with 16 residents. The mental model analysis reveals the diverse values that participants consider when making mitigation decisions. Translating these values into objectives for decision analyses can help decisionmakers (i) navigate more relevant tradeoffs and synergies between objectives and (ii) respond to risks in ways that are more consistent with their priorities.

This white paper provides an overview of priorities related to community resilience to flooding t... more This white paper provides an overview of priorities related to community resilience to flooding that emerged during a 27 September 2019 meeting with local, regional and state representatives in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. The document compiles workshop details, participants and a summary of discussions and outcomes. It does not, however, attempt to provide a comprehensive listing of every topic raised by participants. In addition, this workshop was held before the advent of covid-19; the impacts of this pandemic are not addressed in this document.

The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 2021

Critical Philosophy of Race, 2020

Climate risks are growing. Research is increasingly important to inform the design of strategies ... more Climate risks are growing. Research is increasingly important to inform the design of strategies to manage these risks. But the relevance of many research studies to real- world decisions can be limited due to misalignment of values. There is no value-neutral strategy assessment, and the values assumed (often implicitly) within research need not align with those of stakeholders and decision makers—leading to inappropriate policy advice. Transdisciplinary projects need frameworks and guidance to integrate values into research assessing potential responses to climate risks. Here we describe and demonstrate a qualitative conceptual tool—the values-informed mental model (ViMM)— for visualizing the intersection of stakeholder values and coupled natural-human system dynamics. We define a visual language for ViMMs, describe accompanying practices and workflows, and present an illustrative example. ViMMs are useful for integrating inputs from diverse collaborators to support the design of r...

Routledge eBooks, Feb 17, 2015

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 12, 2023

Racial Climates, Ecological Indifference offers a powerful intervention to the field of climate j... more Racial Climates, Ecological Indifference offers a powerful intervention to the field of climate justice scholarship by addressing a neglected aspect of the field of climate justice, namely systemic racisms. Building on the work of Black feminist theorists, the work develops an ecointersectional approach designed to reveal the depth and complexities of racial climates overlooked even in the environmental justice literature. The book’s conception of ecological indifference underscores the disposition of seeing the environment as a resource for human consumption and enjoyment, a resource that is usable, fungible, disposable, and without intrinsic worth or standing. The many examples in the book offer new insights demonstrating that systemic racisms emerge out of and give rise to environmental degradation; that is, they are often mutually constitutive. The ecointersectional analyses provided throughout the book reveal that ecological indifference and climate injustice are two sides of the same coin. Three distinctive but interrelated domains in which the intersections between systemic racisms and ecological indifference are manifest are identified: (1) differential distribution of harms/benefits due to systemic racisms, (2) racist institutions and practices fueling or causing environmental degradation, and (3) the basic social structures that generate environmental degradation being the same ones that generate systemic oppression of certain groups of people. One of the aims of Racial Climates, Ecological Indifference is to underscore that any effort to protect the environment must also be a fight against systemic racisms and other forms of systemic inequity.

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 12, 2023

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 12, 2023

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 12, 2023

Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 12, 2023

Climatic Change, 2022

Convergence research is driven by specific and compelling problems and requires deep integration ... more Convergence research is driven by specific and compelling problems and requires deep integration across disciplines. The potential of convergence research is widely recognized, but questions remain about how to design, facilitate, and assess such research. Here we analyze a seven-year, twelve-million-dollar convergence project on sustainable climate risk management to answer two questions. First, what is the impact of a project-level emphasis on the values that motivate and tie convergence research to the compelling problems? Second, how does participation in convergence projects shape the research of postdoctoral scholars who are still in the process of establishing themselves professionally? We use an interview-based approach to characterize what the project specifically enabled in each participant's research. We find that (a) the project pushed participants' research into better alignment with the motivating concept of convergence research and that this effect was stronger for postdoctoral scholars than for more senior faculty. (b) Postdocs' self-assessed understanding of key project themes, however, appears unconnected to metrics of project participation, raising questions about training and integration. Regarding values, (c) the project enabled heightened attention to values in the research of a large minority of participants. (d) Participants strongly believe in the importance of explicitly reflecting on values that motivate and pervade scientific research, but they question their own understanding of how to put value-focused science into practice. This mismatch of perceived importance with poor understanding highlights an unmet need in the practice of convergence science.

Oxford University Press eBooks, Sep 2, 2009

This article traces public debates about sexual practices that have found their way into recent p... more This article traces public debates about sexual practices that have found their way into recent philosophical and other academic publications. It examines the ideals and standards some ethicists have proposed for guiding our sexual lives, even those lived away from the public spotlight. Many debates about sex concern sexual practices that transgress long-standing sexual mores, practices such as extramarital sex, same-sex sex, and paid sex. Debates about transgressive sexual acts often focus on whether the traditional social barriers against them are rationally defensible. Other debates about sex concern sexual practices that involve harm, coercion, or social subordination, such as rape, pornography, harassment, and ‘unsafe’ sex.

Managing climate risks often requires making hard decisions. While decision analysis can help, ma... more Managing climate risks often requires making hard decisions. While decision analysis can help, many analyses narrowly view what matters to people concerning decision outcomes. For instance, government policies may require projects to pass a cost-benefit analysis in which only easily monetized objectives are considered-incorporating a richer view of people's values means understanding those values and how they intersect with the problem formulations that drive outcomes. Here, we demonstrate an approach for assessing how values influence mental models. We used a case study of household flood adaptation decisions in riverine communities in Pennsylvania, USA. The approach included co-developing a shared mental model with local and academic experts. This mental model then guided interviews with 16 residents. The mental model analysis reveals the diverse values that participants consider when making mitigation decisions. Translating these values into objectives for decision analyses can help decisionmakers (i) navigate more relevant tradeoffs and synergies between objectives and (ii) respond to risks in ways that are more consistent with their priorities.

This white paper provides an overview of priorities related to community resilience to flooding t... more This white paper provides an overview of priorities related to community resilience to flooding that emerged during a 27 September 2019 meeting with local, regional and state representatives in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. The document compiles workshop details, participants and a summary of discussions and outcomes. It does not, however, attempt to provide a comprehensive listing of every topic raised by participants. In addition, this workshop was held before the advent of covid-19; the impacts of this pandemic are not addressed in this document.

The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 2021

Critical Philosophy of Race, 2020

Climate risks are growing. Research is increasingly important to inform the design of strategies ... more Climate risks are growing. Research is increasingly important to inform the design of strategies to manage these risks. But the relevance of many research studies to real- world decisions can be limited due to misalignment of values. There is no value-neutral strategy assessment, and the values assumed (often implicitly) within research need not align with those of stakeholders and decision makers—leading to inappropriate policy advice. Transdisciplinary projects need frameworks and guidance to integrate values into research assessing potential responses to climate risks. Here we describe and demonstrate a qualitative conceptual tool—the values-informed mental model (ViMM)— for visualizing the intersection of stakeholder values and coupled natural-human system dynamics. We define a visual language for ViMMs, describe accompanying practices and workflows, and present an illustrative example. ViMMs are useful for integrating inputs from diverse collaborators to support the design of r...

Abstract Concerns about the risks of unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions are growing. At the sam... more Abstract Concerns about the risks of unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions are growing. At the same time, confidence is declining that international policy agreements will succeed in considerably lowering anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Perhaps as a result, various geoengineering solutions are gaining attention and credibility as a way to manage climate change. Serious consideration is currently being given to proposals to cool the planet through solar-radiation management (SRM).

Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, 2020