Participatory online environmental education at the Open University UK

The role of education in helping our societies put sustainability into practice is crucial. The motivation, awareness and empowerment, necessary for citizens to understand the concept and take part in its operationalisation, ought to emerge from environmental education, since we might encounter some difficulty when trying to teach, or impose these notions in a theoretical way. In developing environmental courses, we therefore ought to progressively replace pedagogical approaches based on (relatively 'authoritarian') transfers of information with more interactive and collaborative learning processes: citizens' participation can start with the creation of communities of learners. This paper describes the construction of two web courses: a first level teaching module on environmental systems and a third level interdisciplinary environmental course, both developed at the Open University, specialised in distance and open learning. The themes of the course include participatory processes in decision-making, the perception and representation of environmental systems, alternative leadership, biodiversity, climate change and integrated water management, environmental action and governance. The concepts focused on include sustainability, complexity, uncertainty, globalisation and 'systemic problem solving'. In both courses, the overall pedagogical process is based on the notion of environmental governance. This means that the web has been chosen as a learning platform, because - it provides various types of up to date information as well as archives, - it allows various types of users to communicate between different countries, and also - it encourages collaborative and interactive learning. This paper describes the experience of the author in creating web environmental courses at the Open University. Components of the courses such as interactive activities are discussed, as well as the pedagogical focus progressively shifted towards more participatory processes of learning

Marketing management capability:the construct and its dimensions: an examination of managers’ and entrepreneurs’ perceptions in a retail setting

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the relationship between corporate cultural/intangible assets and marketing capabilities by examining managers’ and entrepreneurs’ perceptions in a retail setting.Design/methodology/approach: Nineteen face-to-face interviews were conducted with UK small and medium sized enterprise (SMEs) managers and entrepreneurs to identify six sub-capabilities that form marketing capability. The authors further validated the relationship between marketing sub-capabilities and its antecedent tangible and intangible assets. The qualitative approach used provided a deeper insight into the motivations, perceptions and associations of the stakeholders behind these intangible concepts, and their relationships with their customers.Findings: The research identified that there is a strong relationship between tangible and intangible assets, their components and the following capabilities: corporate/brand identity management, market sensing, customer relationship, social media/communication, design/innovation management and performance management. In addition, companies need to understand clearly what tangible and intangible assets comprise these capabilities. Where performance management is one of the key internal capabilities, companies must highlight the importance of strong cultural assets that substantially contribute to a company’s performance.Originality/value: Previous work on dynamic capability analysis is too generic, predominantly relating to the manufacturing sector, and/or focussing on using a single case study example. This study extends the concept of marketing capability in a retail setting by identifying six sub-capabilities and describing the relationship of each with tangible and intangible assets. Through extensive qualitative analysis, the authors provide evidence that by fully exploiting their embedded culture and other intangible components, companies can more favourably engage with their customers to attain a sustainable competitive advantage.</p

In pursuit of rigour and accountability in participatory design

The field of Participatory Design (PD) has greatly diversified and we see a broad spectrum of approaches and methodologies emerging. However, to foster its role in designing future interactive technologies, a discussion about accountability and rigour across this spectrum is needed. Rejecting the traditional, positivistic framework, we take inspiration from related fields such as Design Research and Action Research to develop interpretations of these concepts that are rooted in PD׳s own belief system. We argue that unlike in other fields, accountability and rigour are nuanced concepts that are delivered through debate, critique and reflection. A key prerequisite for having such debates is the availability of a language that allows designers, researchers and practitioners to construct solid arguments about the appropriateness of their stances, choices and judgements. To this end, we propose a “tool-to-think-with” that provides such a language by guiding designers, researchers and practitioners through a process of systematic reflection and critical analysis. The tool proposes four lenses to critically reflect on the nature of a PD effort: epistemology, values, stakeholders and outcomes. In a subsequent step, the coherence between the revealed features is analysed and shows whether they pull the project in the same direction or work against each other. Regardless of the flavour of PD, we argue that this coherence of features indicates the level of internal rigour of PD work and that the process of reflection and analysis provides the language to argue for it. We envision our tool to be useful at all stages of PD work: in the planning phase, as part of a reflective practice during the work, and as a means to construct knowledge and advance the field after the fact. We ground our theoretical discussions in a specific PD experience, the ECHOES project, to motivate the tool and to illustrate its workings

Nature like setting. Cultural ecosystem services and disservices of French urban green spaces

International audienceSociety has a growing interest for urban nature. The decision-makers have to take this concern into account but they need to know the fallouts of nature for their municipalities, their citizens and the tourists. It was the purpose of our research programs, which were funded by the French region Centre-Val de Loire. How urban nature is perceived by users? What kind of nature is more appreciated? How explain the increasing interest for urban nature? What users research in green spaces? The study was conducted in six green spaces, which belong to different categories (forest and semi-natural, ornamental and allotment gardens) and are located in the six main cities of the region Centre-Val de Loire. 321 users were interviewed from a semi-supervised manner. To complete this study, 12 green spaces managers (elected representatives, heads and technicians) were questioned on the representation of nature by urban-dwellers. To put the results into perspective, we also analyzed tourists’ point of view in the Center Parcs site, which is located in the same region and can be assimilated to urban space, with its cottages, facilities and shops. Here, the study considered an innovative method, basing on 2.118 comments posted by customers on a sharing website (TripAdvisor). The first conclusion is that nature is unanimously appreciated and sought-after, according to the accounts of green spaces users as well as Net surfers. But the green spaces managers moderate this idea. City-dwellers complain to them about nature: it has also disservices (pollen, weeds). If we analyze further the point of view of green spaces users, considering the perspective offered by Center Parcs customers, we can observe that French citizen appreciated only one kind of nature, the managed one. Moreover, this nature appears only like a setting. Indeed, users come first in nature spaces for peace and quiet, before coming for the closeness with nature

Bridging the Sustainability Leadership Chasm: A Case Study of the Sustainability Advantage Program of the NSW Government, Australia

Business operations worldwide have significantly impacted the environment, prompting organisations to consider how to align strategy and conduct to advance sustainability targets. Collaboration is critical for sustainability progress, thus organisations are becoming interested in the practices of supply chain partners. To incorporate sustainability across networks, leadership is critical in coordinating activities. Although the effectiveness of leadership for sustainability is widely discussed, there is a lack of empirical field studies on how organisations can develop this leadership capability. This research-in-progress paper presents preliminary findings from an industry level case study of a Government-run initiative. This initiative provides a platform for organisations to collaborate and access resources that supports the development of sustainability leadership capabilities. Preliminary analysis provides insight on the dynamic capabilities organisations must develop to influence its supply chain partners, the technologies used to progress sustainability initiatives and the role that the Government has in promoting collaboration and leadership. Implications to both research and practice, and future work are discussed in conclusion

Marketing management capability: the construct, and its dimensions: an examination of managers' and entrepreneurs' perceptions in a retail setting

Purpose – This paper explores the relationship between corporate cultural/intangible assets and marketing capabilities by examining entrepreneurs’ and manager perceptions in a retail setting. Design/methodology/approach – Nineteen face-to-face interviews were conducted with UK Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (SMEs) managers and entrepreneurs to identify six sub-capabilities that form the marketing capability. We further validated the relationship between marketing sub-capabilities and its antecedent tangible and intangible assets. The qualitative approach employed provided a deeper insight into the motivations, perceptions and association of the stakeholders behind these intangible concepts, and their relationships with their customers. Findings – The research identified that there is a strong relationship between tangible and intangible assets, their components, and the following capabilities: corporate/brand identity management, market-sensing, customer relationship, social media/communication, design/innovation management, and performance management. In addition, companies need to clearly understand what tangible and intangible assets comprise these capabilities. Where performance management is one of the key internal capabilities, companies must underscore the importance of strong cultural assets that substantially contribute to a company’s performance. Originality/value – Previous work on dynamic capability analysis is too generic, predominantly relating to the manufacturing sector, and/or focussing on using a single case study example. This study extends the concept of marketing capability in a retail setting by identifying six sub-capabilities and describing the relationship of each with tangible and intangible assets. Through extensive qualitative analysis, we provide evidence that by fully exploiting their embedded culture and other intangible components, companies ca

A conceptual model of mindful organizing for effective safety and crisis management. The role of organizational culture

The Covid-19 pandemic has involved nations world-wide in the necessity to manage and control the spread of infection, and challenged organizations to efectively counteract an unchartered medical crisis while preserving the safety of workers. While the pandemic and geopolitical turmoil caused by the war in Ukraine are recent examples of complex environments that require efective safety and crisis management, organizations may generally need to fnd ways to deal with the unexpected and reliably perform in the face of fuctuations. Mindful organizing (MO) is defned as the collective capability to detect discriminatory details about emerging issues and act swiftly in response to these details, thus allowing members to anticipate, and recover from, any errors or unexpected events that arise. Organizational culture refers to the mindset shared among members which orients their actions and thus qualifes as a relevant contextual factor that determines whether the specifc forms of perceiving and acting entailed by MO may emerge in an organization. The present paper aimed to propose a conceptual model linking organizational culture, MO and organizational outcomes (i.e., safety, reliability, crisis management), and delineate arguments to address the match/mismatch between MO and culture types. Specifcally, it is proposed that organizational culture determines the way an organization develops MO and the subsequent ability to handle unexpected events which might jeopardize organizational efectiveness and safety. Our contribution bridges the still disparate felds of MO and organizational culture, and provides scholars and practitioners with a complexity- and uncertainty-sensitive integrative framework in order to intervene on organizational outcomes

An overview of participatory research and learning processes and their relevance to watershed management and development

This paper outlines general concepts of participatory research and learning; the relevance of participatory approaches to natural resources management and watershed management in particular; elements of good practice for participatory research and learning in the context of gendered, adaptive watershed management; and considerations for proposal development and review

The new role of citizens as co-creators of socio-digital innovations and urban development: A case-study of participation and co-creation in the smart city development of Barcelona.

Die vorliegende Masterarbeit untersucht aktuelle Trends in der Stadtplanung und Design, um zu analysieren, wie Bürger an der Mitgestaltung von Smart Cities beteiligt werden können. Ziel ist es, ein ganzheitliches Verständnis der neueren Konzepte und Methoden von Co-Design und Co-creation zu entwickeln und diese mit den etablierteren Forschungsfeldern der Bürgerbeteiligung und Koproduktion zu vergleichen. Koproduktion und Co-Creation können als verbesserte Partizipation oder Partnerschaft in Bezug auf die Partizipationsleiter verstanden werden, da beide Konzepte Beziehungen auf Augenhöhe zwischen Bürger und Stadtverwaltung voraussetzen. In ähnlicher Weise gesteht Co-Design, Designern und Usern die gleichen Rechte und Möglichkeiten im Gestaltungsprozess zu. Es wird eine ganzheitliche Definition des Co-Creation-Prozesses dargelegt, die Erkenntnisse aus Co-Design, Co-Produktion und Partizipation beinhaltet und Co-Creation als einen Prozess versteht, der aus Initiation, Design und Produktion besteht. Die Smart City als sich rasch entwickelndes Forschungsfeld, Definitionen und Charakteristika sowie populäre imaginäre und dominante Diskurse werden vorgestellt. Um die Rolle des Bürgers zur Smart City zu verstehen, werden die unterschiedlichen Verständnisse von Smart Governance erläutert und Aspekte von Open Data, Big Data und Big Data Analytics sowie die Rolle von Bürgern und Gefahren der Smart City diskutiert. In der Fallstudie zur Bürgerbeteiligung werden Methoden und Werkzeuge zur Förderung der Mitgestaltung einer Smart City anhand Partizipationsleiter von (Arnstein 1969) diskutiert und analysiert. Die Smart City Entwicklung in Barcelona wird vor dem Hintergrund der gemeinschaftlichen Entwicklung sozialer Innovationen in Smart Cities analysiert. Die Fallstudie verweist auf Mängel im Hinblick auf Bürgerbeteiligung an der Entscheidungsfindung und an der Verlagerung von Machtverhältnissen in der Entwicklung der Smart City Barcelona, die dafür aber mit neuen Werkzeugen und Technologien für partizipative Stadtentwicklung experimentiert und sich zu einem alternativen Smart City Modell entwickelt. Die wichtigsten Ergebnisse sind abschließend im Methodenkatalog zusammengefasst, der Methoden und Tools aus Theorie und Fallstudie aufgreift um zu dem Verständnis beizutragen, wie Smart Cities gemeinsam gestaltet werden können.This thesis studies current trends in planning and design studies to analyse how citizens can participate in the co-creation of smart cities. It aims at developing a holistic understanding of the new concepts and methods of co-creation, and co-design and compares those with the more established research fields of citizen participation and co-production. Co-production and co-creation can be understood as instances of enhanced participation or as a partnership in participation, as both concepts require equal relationships among citizens and the city administration. Similarly, co-design requires designers and users to share the same rights and possibilities in the design process. A holistic definition of the co-creation process is provided that incorporates insights from co-design, co-production and participation and defines co-creation as a process consisting of initiation, design and production. The smart city as emerging research field, definitions and characteristics, as well as popular imaginary and dominant discourses, are presented. To grasp the role of the citizen in the smart city, the different understandings of smart governance are explained and aspects of to open data, big data and big data analytics, as well as the role of citizens and perils of the smart city are discussed. In the case-study of citizen participation methods and tools fostering the co-creation of a smart city are discussed and analysed with the introduced participation framework, which is based on the ladder of participation (Arnstein 1969). The smart city development in Barcelona is analysed against the backdrop of co-creating social innovations in smart cities. There might be a lack of citizen participation in decision-making and shifting power relations in the city, which experiments nonetheless with new tools and technologies for the participatory environment experiments with new formats and technologies for economic and urban development and evolves to become an alternative model of the smart city. The main findings are included in the toolbox based on methods and tools from theory and the case-study contributing to the knowledge of how to co-create of smart cities