| 1. |
- Abebe, Henok Girma, 1988-, et al.
(författare)
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Arguments against Vision Zero: A Literature Review
- 2022. - 1
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Ingår i: The Vision Zero Handbook. - Switzerland : Springer Nature. ; , s. 107-149
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite Vision Zero’s moral appeal and its expansion throughout the world, it has been criticized on different grounds. This chapter is based on an extensive literature search for criticism of Vision Zero, using the bibliographic databases Philosopher’s Index, Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Phil Papers, and by following the references in the collected documents. Even if the primary emphasis was on Vision Zero in road traffic, our search also included documents criticizing Vision Zero policies in other safety areas, such as public health, the construction and mining industries, and workplaces in general. Based on the findings, we identify and systematically characterize and classify the major arguments that have been put forward against Vision Zero. The most important arguments against Vision Zero can be divided into three major categories: moral arguments, arguments concerning the (goalsetting) rationality of Vision Zero, and arguments aimed at the practical implementation of the goals. We also assess the arguments. Of the thirteen identified main arguments, six were found to be useful for a constructive discussion on safety improvements.
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| 2. |
- Abebe, Henok Girma, 1988-
(författare)
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Ethical Issues in the Adoption and Implementation of Vision Zero Policies in Road Safety
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this doctoral thesis is to analyze ethical issues in the adoption and implementation of Vision Zero policies. The first article analyses criticisms against Vision Zero goals and measures promoted to reach them. We identify and assess “moral”, “operational”, and “rationality-based” arguments against Vision Zero. In total, thirteen different criticisms are analyzed. The second article seeks to reconcile the two major decision-making principles in road safety work, i.e., Cost Benefit Analysis and Vision Zero, which are often viewed as incompatible. We argue that the two principles can be compatible if the implementation of Vision Zero accepts temporal compromises intended to promote efficient allocation of resources, and the results of Cost Benefit Analysis are viewed not as optimal and satisfactory as long as fatal and serious injuries continue occurring. The third article uses Vision Zero as a normative framework to explore and analyze road safety work in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The ensuing analysis shows that there are significant differences between Addis Ababa road safety policies and Vision Zero in terms of how road safety problems are understood and in their responsibility ascriptions for improving road safety problems. It is argued that enhancing road safety in the city requires promoting a broader view of the causes and remedies of road safety problems. Moreover, given the magnitude and severity of road safety problems in the city, it is vital to emphasize the moral responsibility of actors responsible for the design and operation of the road system, and entities that procure and own large number of vehicles. The fourth article analyses equity and social justice considerations in Vision Zero efforts in New York City (NYC). Moreover, this study seeks to understand and assess how the city accounts for equity and social justice implications of road safety work. The result of the study shows that equity and social justice considerations played important roles in the initial adoption of Vision Zero policy in the city. Nonetheless, the study also shows that the adoption and implementation process gave rise to important equity and social justice issues which are primarily related to the method of prioritization used in road safety work in the city, equity and fairness in the distribution of life saving interventions, the socioeconomic impacts of road safety strategies, and the nature of community engagement in policy design and implementation. The findings of this study, among others, point to a need for Vision Zero practitioners to give due considerations to equity and social justice implications of Vision Zero policies and strategies. The fifth article analyzes the nature and moral acceptability of risk impositions from car driving in a low-income country context. It is shown that car driving involves an unfair and morally problematic risk imposition in which some stakeholders, namely those who decide on the nature of the risk in the road system and benefit the most from car driving, impose a significant risk of harm on others, who neither benefit from the risk imposition nor have decision-making role related to the risks they are exposed to. It is argued that addressing moral problems arising from the unfair risk imposition necessitates the promotion, on the part of beneficiaries and decision makers, of certain types of moral obligations related to the nature and magnitude of road crash risks. Importantly, those who benefit the most from car driving, and actors who decide on the risk level in the road system, have the moral obligation to implement effective risk reducing measures that protect those unfairly risk exposed, obligations to know more about road crash risks, obligations to compensate victims, obligations to communicate with the risk exposed and incorporate their concerns in policy making, and obligations to bring about attitudinal change.
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| 3. |
- Abebe, Henok Girma, 1988-
(författare)
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The Rationality and Moral Acceptability of Vision Zero Goal and Its Interventions
- 2021
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This licentiate thesis discusses moral issues associated with road safety work, with a particular emphasis on the Vision Zero (VZ) goal and its interventions. The licentiate thesis contains three articles and an introduction that briefly discusses issues and arguments presented in the articles.The first article, identifies, systematically categorizes and evaluates arguments against VZ. Moral, operational, and rationality related criticisms against the adoption and implementation of VZ are identified and discussed. The second article in this thesis seeks to reconcile the methods of Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) and VZ in road safety decision making. CBA has been and still is a major decision making tool in road transport and traffic safety work. However, proponents of VZ question the use of CBA in road safety and transport decision making on methodological and ethical grounds. In this paper, we locate the philosophical roots of the conflicting views promoted by proponents of CBA and VZ. Then we try to identify ways through which the two methods can be made compatible.The third and final paper uses VZ as a normative framework to explore and analyse the Addis Ababa road safety work. The aim of the paper is twofold. First, the paper seeks to examine how road safety problems are actually understood by those responsible for road safety at the local level. To this end, government policy documents, reports and other relevant sources where consulted to identify how road safety problems are framed, who is assigned responsibility for addressing road safety problems and through what interventions. Second, the paper aims to examine road safety work in the city from a normative point of view, i.e., what is the best, or most adequate, way of framing the problem, and who should be given the responsibility for addressing the problem and by what measures. It is argued that enhancing road safety in the city requires adopting a broader view of causes of road safety problems, and emphasizing the responsibility of actors that shape the design and operation of the traffic system and the safety of its components.
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| 4. |
- Baard, Patrik, 1981-
(författare)
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Cautiously utopian goals : Philosophical analyses of climate change objectives and sustainability targets
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis, the framework within which long-term goals are set and subsequently achieved or approached is analyzed. Sustainable development and climate change are areas in which goals have tobe set despite uncertainties. The analysis is divided into the normative motivations for setting such goals, what forms of goals could be set given the empirical and normative uncertainties, and how tomanage doubts regarding achievability or values after a goal has been set.Paper I discusses a set of questions that moral theories intended to guide goal-setting should respond to. It is often claimed that existent normative theories provide only modest guidance regarding climate change, and consequently have to be revised or supplemented. Two such suggested revisions or supplements are analyzed in order to determine whether they provide such guidance.Paper II applies the deep ecological framework to survey the extent to which it can be utilized to discuss issues concerning the management of climate change. It is suggested that the deep ecological framework can provide guidance by establishing a normative framework and an analysis of how the overarching values and principles can be specified to be relevant for actions.Paper III is focused on normative political theory, and explicates the two dimensions of empirical and normative uncertainty. By applying recent discussions in normative political theory on ideal/non-ideal theory, political realism, and the relation between normative demands and empirical constraints,strategies for managing the proposed goals are suggested.Paper IV suggests a form of goal that incorporates uncertainties. Cautious utopias allow greater uncertainty than realistic goals (goals that are known to be achievable or approachable, and desirable),but not to the same extent as utopian goals (goals wherein it is highly uncertain whether the goal can actually be achieved). Such goals have a performance-enhancing function. A definition and quality criteria for such goals are proposed.Paper V considers whether a goal that is becoming all the more unlikely to be achievable should be reconsidered. The paper focuses on the two degrees Celsius target, and asks whether it could still be a sensible goal to aspire to. By applying the principle that ‘ought’ implies ‘can’, the role of such obligations is investigated.Paper VI surveys how to treat circumstances in which an already set goal should be reconsidered and possibly revised, and what would evoke doubt in the belief upon which those goals have been set.Two situations are analyzed: (i) a problematic or surprising event occurs, upsetting confidence in one’s relevant beliefs, or (ii) respectable but dissenting views are voiced concerning one’s means and/or values. It is suggested that the validity of doubt has to be considered, in addition to the level in a goal-means hierarchy towards which doubt is raised.
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| 5. |
- Baard, Patrik, 1981-
(författare)
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Sustainable Goals : Feasible Paths to Desirable Long-Term Futures
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The general aim of this licentiate thesis is to analyze the framework in which long-term goals are set and subsequently achieved. It is often claimed that goals should be realistic, meaning that they should be adjusted to known abilities. This thesis will argue that this might be very difficult in areas related to sustainable development and climate change adaptation, and that goals that are, to an acceptable degree, unrealistic, can have important functions.Essay I discusses long-term goal setting. When there is a great temporal discrepancy between the point in time of setting and achieving a goal, many uncertainties have to be considered. The surrounding world and the agent’s abilities and values might change. This is an ontological uncertainty. We often form beliefs regarding how abilities and values might change, but this belief is always uncertain. This is an epistemological uncertainty. A form of goal called cautiously utopian goals is proposed, which incorporate such uncertainties, but enables goal setting with long time-frames.Essay II discusses the issue of goals intended to reduce great risks. We cannot expect an agent to do something that lies beyond this agent’s abilities, as exemplified in the principle ‘ought implies can’. Adjusting goals to what we currently, with a high degree of certainty know could be done is difficult. If not including an estimation of how abilities can change, important performance-enhancing functions of goals might be lost. It is argued that very ambitious goals should be set. This is partly due to the great magnitude and likelihood of unwanted consequences and partly due to the difficulty of delineating what lies in agents’ capacity to manage complex risks.Essay III discusses a decision-facilitating tool Sustainability Analysis to be used by Swedish municipal planners. One sub-part of the tool, Goal Conflict Analysis, can be used to identify how the consequences of a planned adaptation measure will affect other long-term municipal goals. Identified goal conflicts can then be used in order to determine whether the conflicts are acceptable, or whether a different adaptation measure should be worked out. The paper discusses a workshop in a Swedish municipality in which the tool has been tested.
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| 6. |
- Björnberg, Karin Edvardsson, et al.
(författare)
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Preface
- 2022
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Ingår i: The Vision Zero Handbook: Theory, Technology and Management for a Zero Casualty Policy. - Cham : Springer International Publishing. ; , s. v-vi
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Globally, about 1.3 million people die every year in road traffic crashes and about 50 million are injured. For long, the death toll on roads was considered to be a necessary price that we have to pay for our mobility and development. But beginning in the late 1990s, an alternative approach to road safety has become more and more influential. The Vision Zero movement declares that every severe crash in road traffic is an avoidable failure and that no other goal is satisfactory than zero fatalities and serious injuries. This is by no means a new idea. Similar views have been expressed in many other areas of safety management. Safety work based on the idea that every accident is one too much can be found in workplace safety, fire safety, aviation, suicide prevention, patient safety, infection control, and many other areas. Zero goals are also gaining traction in environmental protection and sustainable development work. Terms such as zero waste, zero emissions, zero carbon, and zero poverty have become increasingly important in climate and environmental policies. Detractors claim that Vision Zero is too stringent and therefore also unrealistic. But practical experience has shown again and again that the Vision Zero approach can efficiently reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries. Of course, it is not enough to set up Vision Zero as a goal. Its effects materialize when it is systematically applied, and every serious accident is treated as a failure that must not be repeated. This handbook is the first comprehensive collection of knowledge and experience of Vision Zero. Its contributing authors are experts from all around the world, representing a wide range of academic disciplines and an equally wide range of specializations in practical safety management.
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| 7. |
- Edvardsson Björnberg, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Climate and environmental science denial : A review of the scientific literature published in 1990-2015
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 167, s. 229-241
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Denial of scientific findings is neither a new nor an unexplored phenomenon. In the area of environmental science and policy though, the research on denial has not been systematically summarized and analyzed. This article reviews 161 scientific articles on environmental and climate science denial published in peer reviewed international journals in the last 25 years and aims to both identify research gaps and enable learning on the phenomenon. Such knowledge is needed for the increasingly important task to provide effective response to science denial, in order to put an end to its influence on environmental policy making. The review, which is based on articles found in the databases Web of Science, Scopus and Philosopher's Index, shows that denial by far is most studied in relation to climate change, with a focus on Anglo-American countries, where this form of denial is most common. Other environmental issues and other geographical areas have received much less scientific attention. While the actors behind climate science denial, their various motives and the characteristics of their operations have been thoroughly described, more comparative research between issues and countries is needed in order to draw reliable conclusions about the factors explaining the peculiarities of denial. This may in turn lay the ground for developing and actually testing the effectiveness and efficiency of strategies to counter environmental science denial. Irrespective of the ambitions of environmental goals, science-based policies are always preferable. The scientific community therefore needs to increase its efforts to dismantle false claims and to disclose the schemes of denialists.
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| 8. |
- Edvardsson Björnberg, Karin, Docent, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Consistent risk regulation? Differences in the European regulation of food crops
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Risk Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1366-9877 .- 1466-4461. ; 22:12, s. 1561-1570
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the EU legal system, there is a large difference between the procedures and requirements for the introduction of crops that are classified as genetically modified (GM) and crops not so classified. In order to investigate whether this regulatory divide is compatible with real risks two cases of GM crops and two cases of non-GM crops are scrutinized. It is concluded that the regulatory divide cannot be justified from the viewpoint of risk assessment, since the GM/non-GM dichotomy is not an accurate indicator of either health risk or environmental risk. Much better such indicators are available and should form the basis of a legislation aimed at preventing the introduction of crops that are harmful for human health or the environment. If the legislator has other reasons to regulate GM crops differently than conventional crops, then those reasons should be stated in the legislation and determine the types of measures that it prescribes.
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| 9. |
- Edvardsson Björnberg, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Five areas of value judgement in local adaptation to climate change
- 2012
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Ingår i: Local Government Studies. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0300-3930 .- 1743-9388. ; 37:6, s. 671-687
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Climate change has generated several new theoretical and policy challenges, many of which concern how local communities ought to adapt to a warmer climate. This paper identifies and analyses a number of value judgements that come to the fore as local authorities adapt to climate change. Five categories of judgements are discussed: evaluation (how should the consequences of adaptation be evaluated?), timing (when should adaptive action be taken?), distribution (how should the benefits and burdens of adaptation be distributed?), procedures (who should be involved in adaptation decision making?), and goal conflicts (how should goal conflicts in adaptation be dealt with?). For each category, further research is needed to assist decision making at the local level.
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| 10. |
- Edvardsson Björnberg, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Förord
- 2006
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Ingår i: Vägar till ett effektivt miljöarbete. - Umeå : Boréa Bokförlag. - 9189140478
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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