Examining Interdependencies and Constraints in Co-Creation

This paper reports on the first year of a three-year-long cocreation project with older adults. We focus our analysis on one particular workshop in which participants stopped designing and began to think about promoting the app we were co-creating. The workshop proved uniquely important for examining assumptions we had made about how and why the co-creation process would be successful. This paper concedes flaws in these assumptions and in the execution of the methodology as a way of illuminating dynamics that act on research projects in ways that are antithetical to effective co-creation. Reporting on the unexpected results of our participant engagements, we reveal new insights into the challenges in executing co-creation methodology

Biotechnological developments, socio-technical processes and materiality : the affordances and constraints of ‘social innovation'

Peer reviewedPreprin

Balancing Performance Measures When Agents Behave Competitively in an Environment With Technological Interdependencies

This paper addresses the question, what metrics should be used for performance evaluation and in particular how they should be weighted and combined in the presence of technological interdependencies when the agents exhibit variedly strong developed rivalry. We find that the principal reacts to his agents' competitive preferences through a reallocation of incentive intensity. As a consequence, depending on the underlying sort of technological interdependency, various differences in the balancing of performance measures compared to the case of purely egoistical behavior arise and changes in the agents' basic types of compensation can occur. We further show that the principal does not want both of his agents to behave equally competitively. Instead, he can only profit when the agents are asymmetrical. Then the principal wants the more productive agent to exhibit rivalry while the other ideally should behave completely egoistically

Energy transitions, sub-national government and regime flexibility : how has devolution in the United Kingdom affected renewable energy development?

We acknowledge the support of the Economic and Social Research Council for funding the research on which this paper was based (Grant Number RES-062-23-2526).Peer reviewedPostprin

Optimal modularity: A demonstration of the evolutionary advantage of modular architectures

Modularity is an important concept in evolutionary theorizing but lack of a consistent definition renders study difficult. Using the generalised NK-model of fitness landscapes, we differentiate modularity from decomposability. Modular and decomposable systems are both composed of subsystems but in the former these subsystems are connected via interface standards while in the latter subsystems are completely isolated. We derive the optimal level of modularity, which minimises the time required to globally optimise a system, both for the case of two-layered systems and for the general case of multi-layered hierarchical systems containing modules within modules. This derivation supports the hypothesis of modularity as a mechanism to increase the speed of evolution. Our formal definition clarifies the concept of modularity and provides a framework and an analytical baseline for further research.Modularity, Decomposability, Near-decomposability, Complexity, NK-model, Search, hierarchy

Balancing Performance Measures When Agents Behave Competitively in an Environment With Technological Interdependencies

This paper addresses the question, what metrics should be used for performance evaluation and in particular how they should be weighted and combined in the presence of technological interdependencies when the agents exhibit variedly strong developed rivalry. We find that the principal reacts to his agents' competitive preferences through a reallocation of incentive intensity. As a consequence, depending on the underlying sort of technological interdependency, various differences in the balancing of performance measures compared to the case of purely egoistical behavior arise and changes in the agents' basic types of compensation can occur. We further show that the principal does not want both of his agents to behave equally competitively. Instead, he can only profit when the agents are asymmetrical. Then the principal wants the more productive agent to exhibit rivalry while the other ideally should behave completely egoistically.Social Preferences; Rivalry; Technological Interdependencies; Performance Measurement; Team Composition

The use of multilayer network analysis in animal behaviour

Network analysis has driven key developments in research on animal behaviour by providing quantitative methods to study the social structures of animal groups and populations. A recent formalism, known as \emph{multilayer network analysis}, has advanced the study of multifaceted networked systems in many disciplines. It offers novel ways to study and quantify animal behaviour as connected 'layers' of interactions. In this article, we review common questions in animal behaviour that can be studied using a multilayer approach, and we link these questions to specific analyses. We outline the types of behavioural data and questions that may be suitable to study using multilayer network analysis. We detail several multilayer methods, which can provide new insights into questions about animal sociality at individual, group, population, and evolutionary levels of organisation. We give examples for how to implement multilayer methods to demonstrate how taking a multilayer approach can alter inferences about social structure and the positions of individuals within such a structure. Finally, we discuss caveats to undertaking multilayer network analysis in the study of animal social networks, and we call attention to methodological challenges for the application of these approaches. Our aim is to instigate the study of new questions about animal sociality using the new toolbox of multilayer network analysis.Comment: Thoroughly revised; title changed slightl

Limits to Modularity: A Review of the Literature and Evidence from Chip Design

This working paper has been prepared as part of the East-West Center's research project on Globalization of Knowledge Work: Why is Chip Design Moving to Asia. In this paper, Dieter assesses what we know about the limits to modularity and their impact on firm organization and industry structure. He focuses on evidence form chip design, drawing on interview on 2002 and 2003 with a sample of 60 companies and 15 research institutions that are involved in chip design in the US, Taiwan, Korea, China and Malaysia. It is summarized "stylized" propositions of the modularity literature that are well-established, as well as predictions that are controversial. In addition, important limits to modularity and relevant management responses were reviewed.

The SLIM (Social learning for the integrated management and sustainable use of water at catchment scale) Final Report

Background: SLIM stands for 'Socuak Learning for the Integrated Management and Sustainable Use of Water at Catchment Scale'. It is a multi-country research project funded by the European Commission (DG RESEARCH - 5th Framework Programme for research and technological development, 1998-2002). Its main theme is the investigation of the socio-economic aspects of the sustainable use of water. Within this theme, its main focus of interest lies in understanding the application of social learning as a conceptual framework, an operational principle, a policy instrument and a process of systemic change