Orchestrating Without Partiture

Crisis in and around Ukraine is becoming the first show-case in multilateral diplomacy, where Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) and other technologies are deployed to produce information for the diplomatic processes of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)and to public at the same time. This has taken place in a very rapid manner without time for descent planning and through learning by doing before and in the middle of the start and development of the crisis special monitoring mission based on the consensus of 57 member states. \ This paper approaches these multi-lateral diplomacy scenes by looking at the work done through two disciplines which “orchestrate”; Social Science and Information Systems. Abbot et al. orchestration theory application into OSCE and to its “Ukraine toolbox” needs more research, in which e.g. IS literature´s socio-technical modeling methods will be helpful in order to bridge recognized gaps from practice and literature. \ Information system researchers and developers are needed in more active roles as intermediaries to complement existing principal-agent e.g. OSCE-RPAS and other ICT vendor relationships. More theoretical and empirical research is needed to make the IGOs’ orchestration to meet what ICT can offer for future crisis diplomacy. \ Keywords: Inter-governmental Organizations (IGOs), orchestration theory, Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS), multilateral diplomacy, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), information system development, Ukraine Special Monitoring Mission (SMM)

Opponents and supporters of water policy change in the Netherlands and Hungary

This paper looks at the role of individuals and the strategies that they use to bring about or oppose major policy change. Current analysis of the role that individuals or small collectives play in periods of major policy change has focussed on strategies that reinforce change and on the supporters of change. This paper adds the perspective of opponents, and asks whether they use similar strategies as those identified for supporters. Five strategies are explored: developing new ideas, building coalitions to sell ideas, using windows of opportunity, playing multiple venues and orchestrating networks. Using empirical evidence from Dutch and Hungarian water policy change, we discuss whether individuals pursued these strategies to support or oppose major policy change. Our analysis showed the significance of recognition of a new policy concept at an abstract level by responsible government actors, as well as their engagement with a credible regional coalition that can contextualise and advocate the concept regionally. The strategies of supporters were also used by opponents of water policy change. Opposition was inherent to policy change, and whether or not government actors sought to engage with opponents influenced the realisation of water policy change

Quality standards in polycentric systems : a case of shipping

This article contributes to the literature on transnational environmental governance (TEG). Polycentricity is a popular conceptual approach in TEG, but coordination in polycentric systems remains largely unexplored. We put forward a conceptual model of quality standards as a productive links between different orders of governance in polycentric systems. Existing theories distinguish between regulative, institutional, and normalizing functioning of quality standards. We develop an integrative approach highlighting the mechanisms of coordination that rely on these three functions of quality standards. The case of TEG in shipping is used to illustrate how quality standards function not only as soft rules, but also as institutionalized references and shared conventions, enabling coordination across levels and scales. The paper draws attention to the limits of regulatory standardization, outlining how practical value can be gained from emphasizing the normative work associated with promulgation of quality standards.Peer reviewe

Steering transformations under climate change

In light of the persistent failure to reduce emissions decisively, facilitate long-term resilience against climate change and account for the connectedness of climate change with other social, environmental and economic concerns, we present a conceptual framework of capacities for transformative climate governance. Transformative climate governance enables climate mitigation and adaptation while purposefully steering societies towards low-carbon, resilient and sustainable objectives. The framework provides a systematic analytical tool for understanding and supporting the already ongoing changes of the climate governance landscape towards more experimental approaches that include multi-scale, cross-sectoral and public-private collaborations. It distinguishes between different types of capacities needed to address transformation dynamics, including responding to disturbances (stewarding capacity), phasing-out drivers of path dependency (unlocking capacity), creating and embedding novelties (transformative capacity) and coordinating multi-actor processes (orchestrating capacity). Our case study of climate governance in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, demonstrates how the framework helps to map the activities by which multiple actors create new types of conditions for transformative climate governance, assess the effectiveness of the capacities and identify capacity gaps. Transformative and orchestrating capacities in Rotterdam emerged through the creation of space and informal networks for strategic and operational innovation, which also propelled new types of governance arrangements and structures. Both capacities support stewarding and unlocking by integrating and mainstreaming different goals, connecting actors to each other for the development of solutions and mediating interests. Key challenges across capacities remain because of limited mainstreaming of long-term and integrated thinking into institutional and regulatory frameworks. As the ongoing changes in climate governance open up multiple questions about actor roles, effective governance processes, legitimacy and how effective climate governance in the context of transformations can be supported, we invite future research to apply the capacities framework to explore these questions

Human-Centered Design as an Integrating Discipline

International audienceWhat is research today? Good research has to be indexed within appropriate mechanisms to be visible, considered and finally useful. These mechanisms are based on quantitative research methods and codes that are often very academic. Consequently, they impose rigorous constraints on the way results should be obtained and presented. In addition, everything people learn in academia needs to be graded. This leads to standard packaging of what should be learned and results in making people executants and not creators nor inventors. In other words, this academic standardization precludes freedom for innovation. This paper proposes Human-Centered Design (HCD) as a solution to override these limitations and roadblocks. HCD involves expertise, experience, participation, modeling and simulation, complexity analysis and qualitative research. What is education today? Education is organized in silos with little attempt to integrate individual academic disciplines. Large system integration is almost never learned in engineering schools, and Human-Systems Integration (HSI) even less. Instead, real-life problem-solving requires integration skills. What is design research? We often hear that design has nothing to do with research, and conversely. Putting design and research together, as complementary disciplines, contributes to combine creativity, rigorous demonstration and validation. This is somehow what HCD is about

Instructional design or school politics? A discussion of ‘orchestration'in TEL research.

This paper argues that the emphasis on orchestration as a metaphor for teaching in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) environments, featured in recent academic discussions, is an opportunity to broaden the scope of the inquiry into educational technology. Drawing on sociological literature and research that investigated the systemic factors that influence the uptake of information and communication technologies in formal and informal learning contexts, the paper contends that a focus on instructional design does insufficient justice to the complexities of actual technology use in classrooms and after-school programs. It is suggested, instead, that orchestration might better be used as a heuristic device to deepen our understandings of the relationships between power, bestowed on teachers or claimed by them through a number of strategies, educational technology, and teaching practices. The paper concludes that to fully understand this relationship and to support teachers, concern should be given equally to the existing political and cultural dynamics of TEL environments. Examples of orchestration as a political, cultural process are provided, illustrating how teachers appropriate technology and ‘innovative’ pedagogies to negotiate power

Metaplanning: About designing the Geodesign process

Geodesign entails complex processes involving multidisciplinary teams of professionals supporting stakeholders and communities in devising and choosing sustainable future development scenarios for their territories. The roles and the relationships among the actors may vary according to the underlying planning paradigm or style which the local normative and socio-cultural factors shape in the actual practices. Methods and tools to be used in the process phases may vary accordingly. A Geodesign study is characterised by the integrated usage of Geographic Information Science methods and tools to transform spatial data into relevant knowledge for informed design and decision-making. Thus, central to Geodesign are such issues as how to design and manage such complex processes, and how to orchestrate digital methods and tools in Geodesign support systems architectures. To address these challenges, the concept of metaplanning is proposed as an aid to the design of Geodesign processes. Expected benefits of the metaplanning exercise include better process understanding by the participants, improvements in management, and enhanced process transparency and accountability. Moreover, metaplanning may drive the integration of digital information technologies to support the Geodesign workflows.After the formalization of the concept, a Business Process Management (BPM) approach to metaplanning is proposed for its operationalization, aiming at both improving the Geodesign process and easing the creation of process-oriented 2nd generation Planning Support Systems. After a critical discussion on the possible advantages of the metaplanning approach to the design of process-oriented Geodesign workflows and support systems, issues setting the future research agenda in this domain are outlined

Orchestrating sustainable urban development: Final report of the SASUI project

Transition towards a low-carbon society needs the development of innovations, such as solutions of low-carbon everyday mobility or new techniques of collaborative urban densification. Partnerships as social innovations are pivotal in enabling these developments. Cities may take several roles in partnership arrangements. The roles can be anything from being project partners in experiments that are closely related to the jurisdiction of the local authorities to orchestrating whole innovation ecosystems. This report summarizes the findings of the two-year project that aim to serve both as useful theoretical insights and as practical solutions to the described overall challenge and to the problems of the particular cases. We have used the term ‘architecture’ in connection to successful innovation processes, and asked what social, operational and informational architectural prerequisites are needed for successful sustainable urban development. We have developed the conceptual framework further during the project to better acknowledge that there is a clear difference between cities and private sector actors as facilitators of innovation. Whereas the companies operate on the markets and may be interested in long-lasting growth coalitions with the cities, the cities are always accountable also to the people. The partnership arrangements are not of the type public-private but public-private-people. Besides the theoretical development, we have been observers and participants of urban development in our case study areas. We have three main case studies: two from Finland, one from Sweden. The intention has not been to study them in a strict comparative framework, although the cases do offer themselves for some comparisons. It is rather that insights in one case have made us look at the other cases in new ways. Many undertakings of the projects can actually be labelled action research, meaning that we have also been active (co-)producers of interventions with the purpose to make a difference, and have reflected on how the action has taken effect in the case study areas. In this report, we will first outline a general model of the urban governance system as a learning system. While doing so, we will also introduce a number of key theoretical concepts of our study. Then, in the chapters that follow, we will use this theoretical basis in our three case studies: the Otaniemi OK process, the Tammela urban infill case and the Malmö case. Finally, based on our theoretical work and case observations, we will offer some policy recommendations for the development of systemic architectures for sustainable urban innovation in the context of Finnish urban governance. Sustainability is a challenge that addresses the whole governance culture. Especially, it calls for transcending the dysfunctional and legitimacy-eroding effects of poorly managed institutional ambiguity with the idea of hybrid governance that, while nurturing innovativeness and partnerships towards sustainability, is sensitive to its own sources of legitimacy and trust

The issue of competence in transforming the Norwegian welfare sector: some implications for future e-government initiatives

In this paper we argue that e-government initiatives need to take the competence involved in producing high-quality services for citizens into account. We draw on insights from a Pilot project in a Norwegian municipal aiming at radically re-structuring the Norwegian welfare sector and show how the competence to provide high-quality services rely on the collective achievement of individuals’ knowing-in-practice when dealing with particular cases and situations. Furthermore, we show how competence in terms of ‘processes of knowing’ is intrinsically related to organization structure and existing information systems (IS). Transforming the Norwegian Welfare Sector then, involves transforming a socio-technical network of heterogeneous elements, where existing processes of knowing plays an important role. Based on this, we then discuss some implications for implementing e-government in local municipals, and in particular e-government initiatives that aim at introducing all-embracing integrated IT-solutions across organizational and geographical borders. The paper concludes by sketching some implications for future research on e-government

Fostering resistance: Acknowledging notions of power exertion and politics in design facilitation.

Design facilitation is among one of the most acclaimed approaches applied in contemporary collaborative projects. Intended as both the overarching process and the mediating act between a facilitator, typically a designer, and actors such as citizens, it has increasingly gained popularity due to the participatory, inclusive, co-creative, and empathic principles associated with it. The sudden recognition of the field of Participatory Design (PD) has nonetheless led to the use and (mis-)(over-)use of practice, causing an exponential loss of its political origin (Seravalli, 2014) if compared for example to the Scandinavian participatory movements in the ‘70s driven by political disputes regarding workplace democracy (Simonsen & Robertson, 2012). Design facilitation, among other areas of practice, has become a buzzword, rendering inevitable the adoption and adaptation of different definitions to it. This aspect, despite highlighting facilitation’s versatility, leaves room for deliberate and convenient interpretations of its meaning, use, and ethical limitations. The research focuses on acknowledging and rendering visible the otherwise often unaddressed political nature of design facilitation by making more explicit its underpinning structures and components. It focuses on critically contrasting contemporary views of design facilitation, which are typically apolitical, against revised notions that take into consideration its complex power dynamics and political implications. Delving into the interconnectedness between design, power, politics and participatory practices becomes an opportunity to explore contemporary mainstream notions within design that are worth being revisited and challenged from an alternative stance. The thesis is entirely theoretical and draws on principles of transdisciplinary research. Three lenses - critique, unpacking, and language use - are established and applied to an extensive analysis of literature belonging to design, philosophy, social studies, and political sciences. Combined with a systematic narrative approach and critical reviews, the lenses enable the spotting of misleading discourses and misuse of terminology. Said approach aims to foster a better understanding of the complexity behind the explored theoretical notions and to evaluate their current use. The thesis also takes into consideration a plurality of voices by reviewing three doctoral dissertations that address these interconnected spheres and analyzing their research processes and drawing insight from the way they clash and overlap. Finally, the conducted research aims to highlight the importance of unpacking concepts and areas of design to foster a more accountable practice and research, as opposed to merely moving on a superficial level. Resistance is explored and perceived as a way to react to a hegemonic, unbalanced, and often hierarchical model of facilitation which is often disguised as providing equally distributed agency and capacity to voice out concerns. Engaging in a critical, socially, and politically aware process allowed seeking and depicting alternatives to power imbalances such as designers deliberately resigning power, welcoming the ever-changing and unpredictable nature of human interrelations and adopting principles from prefigurative politics