Evaluating memetics : A case of competing perspectives at an SME.

Memetics, which posits a cultural replicator similar to the gene in biology, has been proposed as a theory with which to study cultural phenomena such as organisations. However, much of the theory of memetics has been developed without empirical testing. Consequently, its application to organisations and its operationalisation in empirical studies tends to make assumptions about the nature of putative memes. The purpose of this project is to design a study to test the fundamental tenets of meme theory in an organisational setting. To do so the study poses research questions relating to the possibility of identifying units of culture and investigates whether such units can be seen to replicate. The questions posed require the development of an 'extra-memetic' method which avoids the pitfalls of previous studies by rejecting the operationalisation of memes as part of its design. By considering complexity theory a narrative approach, grounded in a realist philosophy, is selected as the basis of an extra-memetic method. To accommodate the various technical terms used in the literature a glossary is included. Subsequently, an analysis based on first, structural narrative units and second, narrative evaluation is developed in the context of a case study organisation. The narrative approach enables the generic use of the underlying rationale of the genetic theory which underpins the proposal of the meme but without resorting to genetic analogy. In particular, the concept of the optimon is adopted. By comparing competing perspectives at the case study organisation, the study finds that it is possible to identify 'optimon' units of culture similar to the optimon genes which are described in Mendelian heredity. However, the notion of replication in culture, similar to that of DNA, is not supported. The original contribution to knowledge is constituted by a critical evaluation of the extant memetic theory, an approach to identifying units of culture which might aid the application of genetic metaphor or discourse theory and a new methodological approach to investigating the meme. In particular, one unit of culture, the 'proof, is identified and through the use of a punnett square model its credibility as a replicator is critically evaluated. The limitations of a single case study are recognised and summarised. However, in addition to the contribution to meme theory, the project points towards possible avenues for further research which are related to critical realism, discourse analysis and action research in organisations

Two Minutes to Midnight, the Agency of Hydrogen in an Art of the Anthropocene

This research project is an artistic investigation into the element hydrogen and its agency in the context of an art of the Anthropocene and ecological emergency. A series of installation artworks utilise hydrogen made from water as a locally produced renewable energy for artistic agency and spectator participation. Concurrently, I address the praxis and theory of interdisciplinary art practice across the areas of science, technology, and utility. The studio practice produced a series of artworks titled Life-Systems that adopt the process of water-electrolysis to create hydrogen, achieved with the scientific input of the Electrochemical Innovation Laboratory at UCL. The resulting art installations test scenarios of utility within an artistic framework by finding everyday uses for hydrogen as an energy carrier and fuel. Oxygen, the waste gas of water electrolysis may be collected and repurposed. Other artworks in the series aim towards an ecology or mutuality of interdependent technologies that engage with the water-food-energy nexus, investigating plant-food and clean water production. They aim to support one another technically whilst theoretically questioning the politics and structures of reliance upon non-sustainable resources at a time of ecological crisis. The recently accepted view of the Anthropocene epoch as a geological event caused by human impact on earth systems, augments a shift in our relationship with our planet. My research aims to engage with and contribute to the emerging field of ontological and epistemological Anthropocene discourses by examining the roles of art, utopian narratives, and technology in this epoch. This approach also concerns the nature of interdisciplinary research, social practice, and its relations with art pedagogy. I theorise strategies to navigate the territory that connects art and science, focusing on the paradoxical relationship of art objects and utility, aiming to contribute to knowledge and understanding in this area

Seeing the City Digitally

This book explores what's happening to ways of seeing urban spaces in the contemporary moment, when so many of the technologies through which cities are visualised are digital. Cities have always been pictured, in many media and for many different purposes. This edited collection explores how that picturing is changing in an era of digital visual culture. Analogue visual technologies like film cameras were understood as creating some sort of a trace of the real city. Digital visual technologies, in contrast, harvest and process digital data to create images that are constantly refreshed, modified and circulated. Each of the chapters in this volume examines a different example of this processual visuality is reconfiguring the spatial and temporal organisation of urban life

Animating the Ethical Demand:Exploring user dispositions in industry innovation cases through animation-based sketching

This paper addresses the challenge of attaining ethical user stances during the design process of products and services and proposes animation-based sketching as a design method, which supports elaborating and examining different ethical stances towards the user. The discussion is qualified by an empirical study of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in a Triple Helix constellation. Using a three-week long innovation workshop, UCrAc, involving 16 Danish companies and organisations and 142 students as empirical data, we discuss how animation-based sketching can explore not yet existing user dispositions, as well as create an incentive for ethical conduct in development and innovation processes. The ethical fulcrum evolves around Løgstrup's Ethical Demand and his notion of spontaneous life manifestations. From this, three ethical stances are developed; apathy, sympathy and empathy. By exploring both apathetic and sympathetic views, the ethical reflections are more nuanced as a result of actually seeing the user experience simulated through different user dispositions. Exploring the three ethical stances by visualising real use cases with the technologies simulated as already being implemented makes the life manifestations of the users in context visible. We present and discuss how animation-based sketching can support the elaboration and examination of different ethical stances towards the user in the product and service development process. Finally we present a framework for creating narrative representations of emerging technology use cases, which invite to reflection upon the ethics of the user experience.</jats:p

Seeing the City Digitally

This book explores what's happening to ways of seeing urban spaces in the contemporary moment, when so many of the technologies through which cities are visualised are digital. Cities have always been pictured, in many media and for many different purposes. This edited collection explores how that picturing is changing in an era of digital visual culture. Analogue visual technologies like film cameras were understood as creating some sort of a trace of the real city. Digital visual technologies, in contrast, harvest and process digital data to create images that are constantly refreshed, modified and circulated. Each of the chapters in this volume examines a different example of this processual visuality is reconfiguring the spatial and temporal organisation of urban life

Management, Technology and Learning for Individuals, Organisations and Society in Turbulent Environments

This book presents the collection of fifty papers which were presented in the Second International Conference on BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY 2011 - Management, Technology and Learning for Individuals, Organisations and Society in Turbulent Environments , held in Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal, from 22ndto 24thof June, 2011.The main motive of the meeting was growing awareness of the importance of the sustainability issue. This importance had emerged from the growing uncertainty of the market behaviour that leads to the characterization of the market, i.e. environment, as turbulent. Actually, the characterization of the environment as uncertain and turbulent reflects the fact that the traditional technocratic and/or socio-technical approaches cannot effectively and efficiently lead with the present situation. In other words, the rise of the sustainability issue means the quest for new instruments to deal with uncertainty and/or turbulence. The sustainability issue has a complex nature and solutions are sought in a wide range of domains and instruments to achieve and manage it. The domains range from environmental sustainability (referring to natural environment) through organisational and business sustainability towards social sustainability. Concerning the instruments for sustainability, they range from traditional engineering and management methodologies towards “soft” instruments such as knowledge, learning, and creativity. The papers in this book address virtually whole sustainability problems space in a greater or lesser extent. However, although the uncertainty and/or turbulence, or in other words the dynamic properties, come from coupling of management, technology, learning, individuals, organisations and society, meaning that everything is at the same time effect and cause, we wanted to put the emphasis on business with the intention to address primarily companies and their businesses. Due to this reason, the main title of the book is “Business Sustainability 2.0” but with the approach of coupling Management, Technology and Learning for individuals, organisations and society in Turbulent Environments. Also, the notation“2.0” is to promote the publication as a step further from our previous publication – “Business Sustainability I” – as would be for a new version of software. Concerning the Second International Conference on BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY, its particularity was that it had served primarily as a learning environment in which the papers published in this book were the ground for further individual and collective growth in understanding and perception of sustainability and capacity for building new instruments for business sustainability. In that respect, the methodology of the conference work was basically dialogical, meaning promoting dialog on the papers, but also including formal paper presentations. In this way, the conference presented a rich space for satisfying different authors’ and participants’ needs. Additionally, promoting the widest and global learning environment and participation, in accordance with the Conference's assumed mission to promote Proactive Generative Collaborative Learning, the Conference Organisation shares/puts open to the community the papers presented in this book, as well as the papers presented on the previous Conference(s). These papers can be accessed from the conference webpage (http://labve.dps.uminho.pt/bs11). In these terms, this book could also be understood as a complementary instrument to the Conference authors’ and participants’, but also to the wider readerships’ interested in the sustainability issues. The book brought together 107 authors from 11 countries, namely from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Serbia, Switzerland, and United States of America. The authors “ranged” from senior and renowned scientists to young researchers providing a rich and learning environment. At the end, the editors hope, and would like, that this book to be useful, meeting the expectation of the authors and wider readership and serving for enhancing the individual and collective learning, and to incentive further scientific development and creation of new papers. Also, the editors would use this opportunity to announce the intention to continue with new editions of the conference and subsequent editions of accompanying books on the subject of BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY, the third of which is planned for year 2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio