The cultural dimension in the definition of Industrial Ecology

What is Industrial Ecology?

This week’s subject is a challenging one; define Industrial Ecology in a way that fits with your national culture, and make explicit what the specific national elements in your definition are.

Is this achievable? Surfing the web you will find definitions of Industrial Ecology, but many of them are similar, to say the least. Most sources do not define but describe Industrial Ecology, for example our own Industrial Ecology LeidenDelft website, which says;

The concept of Industrial Ecology

Industrial Ecology aims at a sustainable co-existence of the technosphere and the environment. The analogy between natural and technical systems and processes is a core concept. Processes in nature, where cycles are closed and waste from one process is input for another, are models for socio-technological processes.

Source; http://ie.leidendelft.nl/what-is-ie/

Now is this a typically Dutch description of Industrial Ecology? I very much doubt it. And what is the Dutch culture? Princess Maxima’s ‘tea with one cookie’ is a striking characterization of our national culture but it does not get you very far in defining Industrial Ecology, even if the tea is from organic home grown mint.

I had better turn to Geert Hofstede, who defined the drivers in our national culture in 5 dimensions, the so-called 5-D model. In his website

http://geert-hofstede.com/netherlands.html

he defines the national cultures of 75 countries in these five dimensions and offers an opportunity to compare the scores.  

I will try and define Industrial Ecology by looking at the 5 dimensions one by one, and making an attempt at translating this into the definition of Industrial Ecology. I will start with the definition found in the website of the University of Trondheim, which I believe could also cover Industrial Ecology as we know it in LeidenDelft (and which is in the format of a definition).

"Industrial ecology is the study of the flows of materials and energy in industrial and consumer activities, of the effect of these flows on the environment, and of the influence of economic, political, regulatory and social factors on the flow, use and transformation of resources. The objective of industrial ecology is to understand better how we can integrate environmental concerns into our economic activities. This integration, an ongoing process, is necessary if we are to address current and future environmental concerns."

Source; http://www.ntnu.edu/indecol/about

This is the score of the Dutch national culture in the five dimensions, with the addition of Greece and China to have a perspective. I will copy the dimensions from Hofstede’s website and translate them into the definition.

Power distance
This dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal – it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. 
Power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.

As was to be expected, the Dutch score on this dimension is low. After all we invented the fine art of poldering. The Trondheim definition is compatible with this dimension of Dutch culture. It is fairly neutral in its wording, and it takes the position that we are to address current and future environmental concerns. This is taken to be a shared responsibility or ambition of all involved. 

    

Individualism
The fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. It has to do with whether people´s self-image is defined in terms of “I” or “We”.
In Individualist societies people are supposed to look after themselves and their direct family only. In Collectivist societies people belong to ‘in groups’ that take care of them in exchange for loyalty.

The score shows that Netherlands is a relatively individualistic society. Does this conflict with the above? No. Individuals are expected to take care of themselves, all right, but this also means they cannot ‘hide’ in groups and must take their individual responsibilities. We are to integrate environmental concerns into our economic activities etcetera in an individualistic society reads as each one of us is to integrate environmental concerns into our economic activities, etc.

Masculinity / Femininity
A high score (masculine) on this dimension indicates that the society will be driven by competition, achievement and success, with success being defined by the winner / best in field – a value system that starts in school and continues throughout organisational behaviour.

A low score (feminine) on the dimension means that the dominant values in society are caring for others and quality of life. A feminine society is one where quality of life is the sign of success and standing out from the crowd is not admirable. The fundamental issue here is what motivates people, wanting to be the best (masculine) or liking what you do (feminine).

The definition of this dimension says more than the names. It shows a very 'feminine' score, which means that Dutch people (both men and women in my experience) find quality of life important, and are less competitive than people in many other countries. I think this may also be because most of us are well to do. It is much easier to do what you like or what you find important if you can make a decent living doing so. Industrial Ecology is a choice you make because you find it important that there is a balance between economic activities and environmental concerns. 

Uncertainty avoidance    
The dimension Uncertainty Avoidance has to do with the way that a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen? This ambiguity brings with it anxiety and different cultures have learnt to deal with this anxiety in different ways.  The extent to which the members of a culture feel threatened by ambiguous or unknown situations and have created beliefs and institutions that try to avoid these is reflected in the UAI score.

The Netherlands score relatively high on uncertainty avoidance. We like to make arrangements and stick to them. The worst thing politicians can be accused of is not keeping their promises and many of us still have dinner (potatoes, veggies and meat) at six o’clock. Cauliflower with satay sauce will not be appreciated by many. Now how does this translate into the definition of Industrial Ecology? Maybe it is in the study of the influences of economic, political, regulatory and social factors, so as to know what these will do and of course the ambition to address current and future environmental concerns. We like to be prepared.

Long term orientation
The long term orientation dimension is closely related to the teachings of Confucius and can be interpreted as dealing with society’s search for virtue, the extent to which a society shows a pragmatic future-oriented perspective rather than a conventional historical short-term point of view.

The Netherlands, like the other Western countries, score low on long term orientation. This means that they have a strong concern with establishing the absolute Truth, they are normative in thinking, whereas the people who are long term oriented tend to believe that the Truth depends on situation, context and time (stated by Hofstede). How does this translate into the definition? Again, it is in the final part; this integration … is necessary if we are to address current and future environmental concerns. It is stated, assumed to be obvious, that the answer to environmental concerns is to integrate them into our economic activities. (It is necessary, which is a very normative expression) But it is there more subtly as well, in if we are to address … this if is not in the case that, it includes the reader in the conviction that we are to address current and future environmental concerns, which is normative again. Now I do not mind being included in this normative wording, but that might be because I am Dutch.

The reader will not be surprised to see that the Dutch and Norwegian dimensions are very similar, as becomes clear when they are shown together.

But will the definition of Industrial Ecology be very different in universities from China, which shows very different dimension patterns? In fact, could you say where this definition is from?

	Industrial ecology is an interdisciplinary framework for designing and operating industrial systems as living systems interdependent with natural systems. It seeks to balance environmental and economic performance within emerging understanding of local and global ecological constraints. Some of its developers have called it "the science of sustainability".

It is from the universities of Stockholm and Shandong (plus several other Chinese universities). Universities from two countries which have very different scores on most of the cultural dimensions have made a single definition of Industrial Ecology. Now is this very different from the Trondheim definition? Does it show that the Chinese cultural dimensions have been taken into account as well? There are two differences I would like to highlight; the first is that in this definition there is no I or we. It defines Industrial Ecology, the industrial ecologists are invisible. In the Hofstede dimensions this could be explained by the low Chinese score on individualism. (and for the opposite, in which it is the industrial ecologists that are in the floodlights, just refer to http://www.industrial-ecology.uci.edu/). The second difference is that here Industrial Ecology is defined as a framework for designing and operating industrial systems, whereas in the Trondheim definition it is the study of …. with the objective of better understanding how … Where does this come from? I cannot explain this with the cultural dimensions attributed to China. The only guess I can make (and it is really only a theory because I do not know these universities) is that the universities who choose this definition may have the ambition to be hands on, on application. There is an industry to be designed and operated, let us get to work. I quite like that, to be honest. Maybe be it is my western world short term orientation it appeals to….