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Technology costs and deployment rates, represented in experience curves, are typically seen as the main factors in the global clean energy transition from fossil fuels towards low-carbon energy sources. We argue that politics is the hidden dimension of technology experience curves, as it affects both costs and deployment. We draw from empirical analyses of diverse North American and European cases to describe patterns of political conflict surrounding clean energy adoption across a variety of technologies. Our analysis highlights that different political logics shape costs and deployment at different stages along the experience curve. The political institutions and conditions that nurture new technologies into economic winners are not always the same conditions that let incumbent technologies become economic losers. Thus, as the scale of technology adoption moves from niches towards systems, new political coalitions are necessary to push complementary system-wide technology. Since the cost curve is integrated globally, different countries can contribute to different steps in the transition as a function of their individual comparative political advantages.

In this two-part feature, Dr Matthew Terrell provides a brief introduction to a new initiative that was launched by Justis in 2017: the inaugural Law and Technology International Writing Competition. This was a competition aimed at attracting students to write a 1,000 word piece in the style of a blog entry. The winner was Róisín Costello from Trinity College Dublin and her article, entitled ‘The Tortoise and the Hare? Due Process and Unconstitutionally Obtained Evidence in the Digital Age’, follows this introduction.

Falls are common events with serious consequences for older people. With an ageing population and increasing health-care costs, information and communication technologies (ICT) will have a potential role in future health-care delivery. However, research on technology acceptance in health care for older people is limited and its application to falls prevention is unknown. The aims of this study were to explore and describe the perceptions of community-dwelling Australian and Irish older people about their current use of technology, and the potential use of technology for falls prevention. Qualitative data were collected from three focus groups conducted in and around Limerick in Ireland, and three in the Sydney area, Australia. A total of 35 older people participated. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Four themes emerged from the data: (a) perceptions of vulnerability to falls, (b) preferences for exercise interventions, (c) participation in and ownership of technology, and (d) perceptions about applications of technology for falls prevention. As the use of technology is an instrumental activity of daily living, health professionals need to assess the capacity of older people to adopt these technologies, and provide falls prevention interventions to accommodate the technology skills of older people. Some participants were reluctant to embrace technology and barriers to the effective use of technology to assist in preventing falls may conflict with future health service trends.

Hospitalized older adults are at high risk of falling. The HELPER system is a ceiling-mounted fall detection system that sends an alert to a smartphone when a fall is detected. This article describes the performance of the HELPER system, which was pilot tested in a geriatric mental health hospital. The system’s accuracy in detecting falls was measured against the hospital records documenting falls. Following the pilot test, nurses were interviewed regarding their perceptions of this technology. In this study, the HELPER system missed one documented fall but detected four falls that were not documented. Although sensitivity (.80) of the system was high, numerous false alarms brought down positive predictive value (.01). Interviews with nurses provided valuable insights based on the operation of the technology in a real environment; these and other lessons learned will be particularly valuable to engineers developing this and other health and social care technologies.

The problem of armed crime in late twentieth-century Nigeria was closely connected to the events of the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970). Legal records from the secessionist Republic of Biafra reveal how violent crime emerged as part of the military confrontation between Biafra and Nigeria. The wide availability of firearms, the Biafran state’s diminishing ability to enforce the law, and the gradual collapse of Biafra’s economy under the pressure of a Nigerian blockade made Biafran soldiers and civilians reliant on their weapons to obtain food and fuel, make claims to property, and settle disputes with one another. Criminal legal records illustrate how military technologies shape interactions and relationships in the places where they are deployed, and how those dynamics can endure after the war comes to an end. This speaks to larger theoretical questions about the symbolic and functional meanings of guns during and after wartime.

The deep subsurface of other planetary bodies is of special interest for robotic and human exploration. The subsurface provides access to planetary interior processes, thus yielding insights into planetary formation and evolution. On Mars, the subsurface might harbour the most habitable conditions. In the context of human exploration, the subsurface can provide refugia for habitation from extreme surface conditions. We describe the fifth Mine Analogue Research (MINAR 5) programme at 1 km depth in the Boulby Mine, UK in collaboration with Spaceward Bound NASA and the Kalam Centre, India, to test instruments and methods for the robotic and human exploration of deep environments on the Moon and Mars. The geological context in Permian evaporites provides an analogue to evaporitic materials on other planetary bodies such as Mars. A wide range of sample acquisition instruments (NASA drills, Small Planetary Impulse Tool (SPLIT) robotic hammer, universal sampling bags), analytical instruments (Raman spectroscopy, Close-Up Imager, Minion DNA sequencing technology, methane stable isotope analysis, biomolecule and metabolic life detection instruments) and environmental monitoring equipment (passive air particle sampler, particle detectors and environmental monitoring equipment) was deployed in an integrated campaign. Investigations included studying the geochemical signatures of chloride and sulphate evaporitic minerals, testing methods for life detection and planetary protection around human-tended operations, and investigations on the radiation environment of the deep subsurface. The MINAR analogue activity occurs in an active mine, showing how the development of space exploration technology can be used to contribute to addressing immediate Earth-based challenges. During the campaign, in collaboration with European Space Agency (ESA), MINAR was used for astronaut familiarization with future exploration tools and techniques. The campaign was used to develop primary and secondary school and primary to secondary transition curriculum materials on-site during the campaign which was focused on a classroom extra vehicular activity simulation.

Since the commodity boom of the early 2000s, the visibility of ‘artisanal’ or ‘small-scale’ mining has grown in media coverage and development policies focused on Africa. This article argues that the regulatory category of ‘artisanal’ mining in Africa originated during the colonial period as ‘customary mining’. I build this case through a regional case study of mining policies in the colonial federation of French West Africa, where a single decree accorded African subjects ‘customary rights’ to seasonally mine gold and rock salt in restricted areas. By contrast, colonial citizens, mostly Europeans, accessed stable mining titles. Customary mining rights never codified actual African mining ‘customs’, as colonial officials argued. Rather, this law marked the boundary between the technological status of French subjects and citizens. Core elements of this colonial legal framework have been incorporated into postcolonial policies governing the rights of citizens to mineral resources in Africa.

This article explores the relationship between Angolan guerrilla broadcasts and their effects on the Portuguese counterinsurgency project in their war to hold on to their African colonies. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA's Angola Combatente) and National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA's Voz de Angola Livre) broadcasts allowed these movements to maintain a sonic presence in the Angolan territory from exile and to engage in a war of the airwaves with the Portuguese colonial state with whom they were fighting a ground war. First and foremost, it analyzes the effects of these rebel broadcasts on listeners, be they state or non-state actors. A reading of the archives of the state secret police and military exposes the nervousness and weakness of the colonial state even as it was winning the war.

This paper examines revolutionary changes in the federal procurement regime that have taken place over roughly the past thirty-five years. The procurement process has long been formalized, but contractors were dispersed across the country and tended to furnish tangible goods in singular and discrete transactions. As a result of technology, global competition and security threats, ideological shifts, and fiscal changes, procurement spending exploded after 9/11 and today the regime forms “information communities” in which private companies exert both political and economic influence and supply staffing and information to the federal government within a continuous and seamless relationship where lines demarcating responsibilities and personnel are blurred.

Histories of twentieth-century surgery have focused on surgical ‘firsts’ – dramatic tales of revolutionary procedures. The history of tonsillectomy is less glamorous, but more widespread, representing the experience and understanding of medicine for hundreds of children, parents and surgeons daily. At the start of the twentieth century, tonsillectomy was routine – performed on at least 80 000 schoolchildren each year in Britain. However, by the 1980s, public and professional discourse condemned the operation as a ‘dangerous fad’. This profound shift in the medical, political and social position of tonsillectomy rested upon several factors: changes in the organisation of medical institutions and national health care; changes in medical technologies and the criteria by which they are judged; the political, cultural and economic context of Britain; and the social role of the patient. Tonsillectomy was not a mere passive subject of external influences, but became a potent concept in medical, political, and social discourse. Therefore, it reciprocally influenced these discourses and subsequently the development of twentieth-century British medicine. These complex interactions between ‘medical’ and ‘non-medical’ spheres question the possibility of demarcating what is internal from what is external to medicine.

The drive to deliver services addressing loneliness in older people by telephone and online makes it increasingly relevant to consider how the mode of communication affects the way people interact with services and the capacity of services to meet their needs. This paper is based on the qualitative strand of a larger mixed-methods study of a national phoneline tackling loneliness in older people in the United Kingdom. The research comprised thematic analysis of four focus groups with staff and 42 semi-structured interviews with callers. It explored the associations between telephone-delivery, how individuals used the services and how the services were able to respond. To understand these associations, it was useful to identify some constituent characteristics of telephone communication in this context: namely its availability, reach and non-visual nature. This enabled various insights and comparison with other communication media. For example, the availability of the services attracted people seeking frequent emotional support but this presented challenges to staff. More positively, the ability of the services to connect disparate individuals enabled them to form different kinds of satisfying relationships. The evolution of mixed communication forms, such as internet-based voice communication and smartphone-based visual communication, makes analysis at the level of a technology's characteristics useful. Such a cross-cutting perspective can inform both the design of interventions and assessment of their suitability for different manifestations of loneliness.

In recent years, satellite imagery, previously restricted to the defence and intelligence communities, has been made available to a range of non-state actors as well. Non-governmental organisations, journalists, and celebrities such as George Clooney now use remote sensing data like digital Sherlock Holmeses to investigate and reveal human rights abuses, political violence, environmental destruction, and eco-crimes from a distance. It is often said that the increasing availability and applicability of remote sensing technologies has contributed to the rise of what can be called ‘satellite-based activism’ empowering non-state groups to challenge state practices of seeing and showing. In this article we argue that NGO activism is not challenging the sovereign gaze of the state but, on the contrary, actually reinforcing it. We will bolster our arguments in this regard in two prominent fields of non-governmental remote sensing: human rights and environmental governance.

Socially assistive robots have successfully been trialed in residential care facilities (RCFs) for older adults. These robots may have potential for younger adults (i.e. under 65 years old) who also live in RCFs. However, it is important to investigate staff acceptability and ease-of-use of these robots. This pilot study used the Technology Acceptance Model to investigate how staff working in a specialized RCF for younger adults accept Betty, a socially assistive robot who was introduced in the facility for 12 weeks. Twenty-four staff completed pre-questionnaires, reporting that they thought Betty would have the ability to engage and entertain the residents they cared for. While there were only eight staff who completed the post-questionnaires, there were significant improvements compared to the pre-questionnaire results in areas such as residents enjoying the contact and activities. Impacting on ease-of use were technical difficulties. Although this study had limitations and could be improved by a better response rate and investigating the residents’ acceptability of Betty, this study is one of the first to report that this novel technology may have much potential for engaging adults in RCFs.

The rate of technological change is quickly outpacing today's methods for understanding how new advancements are applied within industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology. To further complicate matters, specific attempts to explain observed differences or measurement equivalence across devices are often atheoretical or fail to explain why a technology should (or should not) affect the measured construct. As a typical example, understanding how technology influences construct measurement in personnel testing and assessment is critical for explaining or predicting other practical issues such as accessibility, security, and scoring. Therefore, theory development is needed to guide research hypotheses, manage expectations, and address these issues at this intersection of technology and I-O psychology. This article is an extension of a Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) 2016 panel session, which (re)introduces conceptual frameworks that can help explain how and why measurement equivalence or nonequivalence is observed in the context of selection and assessment. We outline three potential conceptual frameworks as candidates for further research, evaluation, and application, and argue for a similar conceptual approach for explaining how technology may influence other psychological phenomena.