Uniformity vs pluralism: an ontological basis of conflict

The article considers the phenomena of unified and plural rationality, and hence the possibility or its absence to unify experience, culture, politics, economics, etc. To illustrate the problem, it is suggested to consider the differences between the modern and postmodern eras. It is attempted to deduce the ontological basis of cultural differences and the dynamics of knowledge development in general. Author of the article reflects upon contemporary challenges related to the instability of the state of knowledge, and propose possible solutions of modern social and philosophical problems on the basis of phenomenology.

Societal Drivers of Food and Water Systems 1

Food chains interact with the vast, complex, and tangled webs of material flows —nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, water, energy—circling the globe. Cities and households are where those material flows interact with the greatest intensity. At every point within these webs and chains, technologies enable them to function: from bullock-drawn ploughs, to mobile phones, to container ships, to wastewater treatment plants. Drawing on the theory of plural rationality, we show how the production and consumption of food and water in households and societies can be understood as occurring according to four institutionally induced styles: four basic ways of understanding the world and acting within it; four ways of living with one another and with nature. That there are four is due to the theory of plural rationality at the core of this chapter.

Societal Drivers of Food and Water Systems 2

The theory of plural rationality has a fourfold typology: four styles in which households and societies consume food and water; four basic ways of understanding the world and acting in it; four ways of living with one another and with nature; and, as now argued, four contending schools of engineering thought. Our argument is illustrated with two case studies: one where water is the core resource, as in irrigation for rural agricultural production in Nepal; the other where what has been entrained in the water as a result of the urban metabolism—the nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon nutrient resources—is key, here to the prospect of achieving a circular urban economy (in cities such as London).