Social Sustainability: A design research approach to sustainable development

While issues such as clean production and energy efficiency are still central in sustainable development discourse, attention is increasingly on patterns of consumption at multiple levels in society. This opens new opportunities and responsibilities for design research, as we shift from a focus on product lifecycles to people’s lifestyles. It also requires further understanding the ‘social sustainability’ aspects of the environment and development, including the complexity of problematics characterized by uncertainties, contradictions and controversies. In response, we propose a programmatic approach, in which a tentative assemblage of theoretical and experimental strategies frame a common ground for a collaborative and practice-led inquiry. We present a design research program based on two propositions: socio-cultural practices are the basic unit for design, and; transitions, and transition management, are the basic points of design intervention. Rather than affirming the status quo or the prevailing discourse, we argue for design research as a ‘critical practice’, in which cultural diversity, non-humans and multiple futures are considered

Low-carbon Transitions and the Reconfiguration of Urban Infrastructure

Over the past decade, a growing body of research has examined the role of cities in addressing climate change and the institutional and political challenges which they encounter. For the most part, in these accounts, the infrastructure networks, their material fabric, everyday practices and political economies, have remained unexamined. In this paper, it is argued that this is a critical omission and an approach is developed for understanding how urban responses to climate change both configure and are configured by infrastructure networks. Central to any such analysis is the conception of how and why (urban) infrastructure networks undergo change. Focusing on urban energy networks and on the case of London, the paper argues for an analysis of the ‘urban infrastructure regimes’ and ‘experiments’ through which climate change is governed. It is found that climate change experiments serve as a means through which dominant actors articulate and test new ‘low-carbon’ logics for urban infrastructure development. It is argued that experiments work by establishing new circuits, configuring actors in new sets of relations and through these means realising the potential for addressing climate change in the city. At the same time, experiments become sites of conflict, a means through which new forms of urban circulation can be confined and marginalised, leaving dominant energy regimes (relatively) intact

The Emerging Transition Design Approach

Este documento describe un enfoque emergente del Diseño para la Transición para abordar problemas “perversos o intrincados” (wicked problems: cambio climático, pérdida de biodiversidad, delincuencia, pobreza, contaminación, etc.) y catalizar transiciones sociales hacia futuros más sostenibles y deseables. Los problemas perversos son los “problemas de los sistemas” que requieren un nuevo enfoque de resolución de problemas. El marco del Diseño para la Transición, reúne un conjunto de prácticas en evolución que pueden utilizarse para (a) visualizar y “mapear” problemas complejos y sus interconexiones e interdependencias; (b) situarlos dentro de grandes contextos espacio-temporales; (c) identificar y crear puentes para los conflictos de las partes interesadas y sus líneas de apalancamiento; (d) facilitar a los interesados la creación conjunta de visiones de futuros deseables; y (e) identificar puntos de influencia para el cambio (localizaciones en donde situar las intervenciones de diseño) dentro del wicked problem y los sistemas socio-técnico-ecológicos que forman su contextoThis paper outlines an emerging Transition Design approach for addressing “wicked” problems (such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, crime, poverty, pollution, etc.) and catalyzing societal transitions toward more sustainable and desirable futures. Wicked problems are “systems problems” that require a new problem-solving approach. The Transition Design framework brings together an evolving body of practices that can be used to (a) visualize and “map” complex problems and their interconnections and interdependencies; (b) situate them within large, spatio-temporal contexts; (c) identify and bridge stakeholder conflicts and leverage alignments; (d) facilitate stakeholders in the co-creation of visions of desirable futures; and (e) identify leverage points for change (locations in which to situate design interventions) within the wicked problem and the socio-technical-ecological systems that form its context. Este trabalho descreve um enfoque emergente do Design para a Transição para abordar problemas perversos ou intrincados (wicked problems: mudança climática, perda de biodiversidade, criminalidade, contaminação, etc) e catalisar transições sociais até futuros mais sustentáveis e desejáveis. Os problemas perversos são os “problemas dos sistemas” que requerem um novo enfoque de resolução de problemas. O marco do Design para a Transição reúne um conjunto de práticas de evolução que podem ser utilizadas para: a) visualizar e mapear problemas complexos e suas interconexões e interdependências; b) situar os problemas em grandes contextos espaço - temporais; c) identificar e criar pontes para os conflitos das partes interessadas;&nbsp

Modelling economies of scale, energy use and farm size to reduce GHG: On contrasting "High-Tec"-agriculture with labour intensive farming

Questions on farm structures (such as superiority of large farms) are typically linked to economies of scale. Economies of scale are normally a matter of investments in energy consuming technologies (large machinery). In contrast there is the issue of remaining prevalence of labour intensive, small farms (meant to be inferior); but which are less energy intensive. We see a revival in theoretical and policy debates on pathways of agricultural development concerning energy use. We analyse, how one can develop an approach that includes incentives to save energy and produce less GHG, and develop a framework of coexistence of farm types.Green house gas emission, farm structure, policy modelling, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management,

Ecology out of Bounds: Environmental Humanities Scholarship for Multi-Species and Transdisciplinary Contexts

This dissertation argues that the critical, political and ethical resources shaping popular and scholarly forms of Anglo-North American environmentalism lack the theoretical and imaginative tools to address the challenges of the Anthropocene (that is, the notion that the human species, enabled by a globally expansive petro-industrial apparatus, has become a dominant geological force). Unsettling notions of progress, agency, nature and the individual in novel ways, the Anthropocene changes the way humanists understand what it means to be human and what environmentalists have understood nature to be. As a result, I argue that the anthropogenic landscapes of the Anthropocene challenge writers, theorists, storytellers, artists, scientists and activists to open different kinds of intellectual and imaginative space. Therefore, drawing on feminist science and technology studies, multi-species anthropology and posthumanism, this dissertation contributes to the emerging field of the Environmental Humanities by contextualizing forms of environmental mediation responsive to Anthropocene environments. Making a mess of strict disciplinary and species divisions, my work addresses the way that different kinds of knowledge practice show up in and make a difference in the way bodies and multi-species assemblages materialize and function. Moreover, I distinguish my contribution to environmental thought by avoiding knowledge practices predicated on into the wild narratives and return to nature tropes. Problematically, these kinds of narratives are at risk of advocating masculine imaginaries of control and conquest, and moral superiority complexes about self-sufficiency that delimit boundaries between the natural and the unnatural, the pure from artificial, and thus close off knowledge making work from play, experimentation, wonder and curiosity. More than a question of accurately representing what the Anthropocene is or is not, my research amounts to a pragmatic challenge about how to craft theoretical and textual practices that foster anthropo(de)centric, multi-species and transdisciplinary media, publics and futures

Integrating knowledge from social and natural sciences for biodiversity management: The asymmetric information trap

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Measuring resilience in the context of conflict-related sexual violence:A novel application of the Adult Resilience Measure (ARM)

There is a rich body of research addressing the issues of conflict-related sexual violence, and a similar wealth of scholarship focused on resilience. To date, however, these literatures have rarely engaged with each other. This article developed from an ongoing research project that seeks to address this gap, by exploring how victims-/survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in three highly diverse settings – Bosnia-Herzegovina, Colombia and Uganda – demonstrate resilience. This research is the first to apply the Adult Resilience Measure (ARM), a 28-item scale that seeks to measure protective resources across individual, relational, and contextual subscales, to the context of conflict-related sexual violence. A total of 449 female and male participants in the three aforementioned countries completed the ARM (in the framework of the study questionnaire) as part of this research. This article presents some of the results of the analyses. Specifically, we first sought to establish through Confirmatory Factor Analysis whether the ARM was actually measuring the same construct in all three countries, by confirming the invariance (or otherwise) of the factor structure. The second aim was to explore how different resources function and cluster in different cultural contexts, to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the different protective factors in the lives of study participants. We generated different factor structures for BiH, Colombia, and Uganda respectively, suggesting that a single factor structure does not sufficiently capture the diverse groupings of protective factors linked to the particularities of each country, including the dynamics of the conflicts themselves. Ultimately, we use the findings to underscore the need for policy approaches that move away from a deficit model and give greater attention to strengthening and investing in the (often overlooked) protective resources that victims-/survivors may already have in their everyday lives

Social marketing's consumer myopia: Applying a behavioural ecological model to address wicked problems

Purpose – Addressing calls for broadening social marketing thinking beyond “individualistic” parameters, this paper aims to describe a behavioural ecological systems (BEM) approach to enhance understanding of social markets. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual framework – the BEM – is presented and discussed within a context of alcohol social change. Findings – The BEM emphasises the relational nature of behaviour change, where individuals are embedded in an ecological system that involves the performances of behaviour and social change within historical, social, cultural, physical and environmental settings. Layers of influence on actors are characterised as macro (distant, large in scale), exo (external, remote from individuals), meso (between the individual and environments) and micro (the individual within their social setting). The BEM can be applied to guide social marketers towards creating solutions that focus on collaboration amongst market actors rather than among consumers. Practical implications – The BEM contributes to a broader holistic view of social ecologies and behaviour change; emphasises the need for social marketers to embrace systems thinking; and recognises that relationships between actors at multiple layers in social change markets are interactive, collaborative and embedded in dynamic social contexts. Importantly, a behavioural ecological systems approach enables social marketers to develop coherent, integrated and multi-dimensional social change programmes. Originality/value – The underlying premise of the BEM brings forward relational logic as the foundation for future social marketing theory and practice. Taking this approach to social market change focuses strategy on the intangible aspects of social offerings, inclusive of the interactions and processes of value creation (and/or destruction) within a social marketing system to facilitate collaboration and interaction across a network of actors so as to overcome barriers and identify solutions to social problems

The long and winding road: Routine creation and replication in multi-site organizations

Prior research on organizational routines in the ‘capabilities’ literature has either studied how new routines are created during an exploratory process of variation and selection or how existing routines are replicated during a phase of exploitation. Few studies have analyzed the life cycle of new routine creation and replication as an integrated process. In an in-depth case study of England’s Highways Agency, this paper shows that the creation and replication of a new routine across multiple sites involves four sequential steps: envisioning, experimenting, entrenching and enacting. We contribute to the capabilities research in two ways: first, by showing how different organizational levels, capabilities and logics (cognitive and behavioural) shape the development of new routines; and second, by identifying how distinct evolutionary cycles of variation and selective retention occur during each step in the process. In contrast with prior research on replication as an exact copy of a template or existing routine, our study focuses on the replication of an entirely new routine (based on novel principles) that is adapted to fit local operational conditions during its large-scale replication across multiple sites. We draw upon insights from adjacent ‘practice research’ and suggest how capabilities and practice studies may complement each other in future research on the evolution of routines