La viabilidad de las sociedades cooperativas desde la perspectiva anarquista-cibernética: una revisión sistemática del campo y las oportunidades de investigación

Introduction: This article is part of an ongoing research project that started in 2022 and investigates the viability of cooperative associations from an anarchist-cybernetics perspective at the Universidad del Valle, Department of Administrative Sciences. Problem: Management Cybernetics and anarchism are fields with significant coincidences regarding organisational theory. From the point of view of anarchism, voluntary organisation is a form of exercising individual freedom, while in cybernetics, autonomy is the desirable state of organisation. Objective: The article aims to identify the current state of academic development in the field of anarchist-cybernetics, specifically around the concepts of “autogestión”, “self-management” and “self-control”. Methodology: The article proposes a systematic literature review of the last 10 years in nine academic databases. Results: The field presents research on radical political groups but lacks research on voluntary organisations such as cooperatives. The predominant research methods used are qualitative for empirical research, and non-empirical research is relevant in this field. Latin America and the developing economies are interesting fields for future development. Case studies and the historical method are relevant for the study of anarchy, and Beer´s VSM is the most used tool for cybernetics in this field. Conclusion: The field appears to be of great interest for various multi-decade old journals. Originality: This is one of the few research projects to link the organisational side of anarchism and management cybernetics. Anarchist-cybernetics is a novel subject after almost 60 years of not having any academic publications. Limitations: As a novel subject, not many publications fit the requirements for the review.Introducción: este artículo hace parte de una investigación en curso que estudia la viabilidad de las cooperativas desde la cibernética y su identidad política. Problema: la cibernética de gestión y el anarquismo son campos con coincidencias significativas en cuanto a la teoría organizacional. Desde el anarquismo, la organización voluntaria propende por la libertad individual, mientras que, en cibernética, la autonomía es la forma de lograrla. Objetivo: identificar el estado académico actual en el campo de la cibernética- anarquista, específicamente, entorno a los conceptos de “autogestión” y “autocontrol”. Metodología: revisión sistemática de la literatura, de los últimos 10 años usando 9 bases de datos académicas. Resultados: el campo ha investigado sobre grupos políticos radicales, pero carece de investigación en organización espontánea y en organizaciones voluntarias como cooperativas. predominan los métodos cualitativos para la investigación empírica, y la investigación no empírica es relevante. Las economías latinoamericanas y en desarrollo son interesantes para el desarrollo futuro. Los estudios de caso y el método histórico son relevantes para lo estudiado en anarquía y el VSM de Beer es el más utilizado para la cibernética. Conclusión: El campo es de gran interés para varias revistas académicas. Originalidad: esta es la primera investigación en el lado organizativo del anarquismo y la cibernética de gestión. La cibernética anarquista es un tema novedoso después de casi 60 años de no tener ninguna publicación académica. Limitaciones: no hay muchas publicaciones que se ajusten a los requisitos para la revisión de la literatura

Exploratory analysis of a systemic approach to study supply chain integration potential in the UK offshore wind industry

Emphasis has been placed on supply chain management (SCM) and supply chain integration (SCI) within the offshore wind (OSW) industry in the United Kingdom (UK). The UK government has shown an interest in developing a technologically advanced, skilful, and competitive domestic supply chain with the potential to support future OSW developments around the UK coast. The need to develop a more cost-effective and collaborative OSW supply chain has introduced the concept of SCI into discussions of the OSW industry. Notwithstanding the importance of SCM and SCI in the UK OSW industry, and despite the widespread use of these terms within the industry, little has been done to explain these concepts in relation to the context of OSW. The purpose of this thesis is to address this limitation by providing more detailed description of the OSW supply chain from a theoretical standpoint by empirically exploring SCI in the OSW industry to build a greater understanding of the nature and potential of SCI in the OSW. This research focuses on the development and construction phases of ‘fixed bottom’ OSW farms in the UK. Based on the existing SCM and project-based SCM literature, this thesis provides discussion of the OSW supply chain. The thesis also explores the literature on SCI and systems thinking to form a foundation for an empirical study of SCI in the OSW industry. It applies a systems thinking approach called the Viable System Model (VSM) to qualitatively explore the nature and potential of SCI in the OSW supply chain. This research draws upon Espinosa and Walker’s (2017) suggested ‘methodology to support self-transformation’ as a guideline for the application of the VSM, and conducts interviews with representatives of the OSW supply chain for the collection of primary data. The thesis proposes two SCI strategies based on the VSM; the ‘viable SCI strategy’ and the ‘strategic cluster integration strategy’, which demonstrate the potential of SCI within the OSW industry, including what improvements could be made to facilitate the performance of the whole supply chain. The research findings provide insights into the current nature of SCI within the OSW industry, ultimately suggesting that SCI is largely dependent upon the different approaches taken by OSW project developers when managing supply chains. In addition, this research identifies several facilitating and inhibiting factors of SCI. This thesis contributes to the existing body of knowledge by introducing a VSM inspired framework for the analysis of SCI within project-based environments. Furthermore, it proposes SCI strategies to show how OSW supply chains can be integrated and what improvements could be achieved as a result