Knowledge co-production for decision-making in human-natural systems under uncertainty

Decision-making under uncertainty is important for managing human-natural systems in a changing world. A major source of uncertainty is linked to the multi-actor settings of decisions with poorly understood values, complex relationships, and conflicting management approaches. Despite general agreement across disciplines on co-producing knowledge for viable and inclusive outcomes in a multi-actor context, there is still limited conceptual clarity and no systematic understanding on what co-production means in decision-making under uncertainty and how it can be approached. Here, we use content analysis and clustering to systematically analyse 50 decision-making cases with multiple time and spatial scales across 26 countries and in 9 different sectors in the last decade to serve two aims. The first is to synthesise the key recurring strategies that underpin high quality decision co-production across many cases of diverse features. The second is to identify important deficits and opportunities to leverage existing strategies towards flourishing co-production in support of decision-making. We find that four general strategies emerge centred around: promoting innovation for robust and equitable decisions; broadening the span of co-production across interacting systems; fostering social learning and inclusive participation; and improving pathways to impact. Additionally, five key areas that should be addressed to improve decision co-production are identified in relation to: participation diversity; collaborative action; power relationships; governance inclusivity; and transformative change. Characterising the emergent strategies and their key areas for improvement can help guide future works towards more pluralistic and integrated science and practice

Public libraries engaging communities through technology and innovation : Insights from the Library Living Lab

Public libraries have proven for centuries to be infrastructures both stable enough as reference centers for access to knowledge yet plastic enough to respond to the social changes of the communities they serve. In these present times of transformation, during which digitalization and the intensive use of technologies are modifying the way in which knowledge is produced, public libraries are facing new and disruptive challenges. The emergence of certain innovation ecosystems within libraries, which place the community at the center of cocreation and codesign processes between different agents, has transformed some public libraries into encountering spaces. The Library Living Lab, in the Miquel Batllori Public Library of Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona, Spain), is an expression of this systemic change. The following paper is a case study based on that sociotechnical infrastructure and analyzes, through two singular examples, how digital technologies can be drivers of social transformation when citizen engagement is placed at the center of innovation processes. The case study also provides insights into how public libraries may become key agents in fostering and strengthening social cohesion through situated, collective, and technology-based innovation practice

TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN WATER USE. OPERATIONALIZATION OF A RESPONSIBLE GOVERNANCE BASED IN RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH AND INNOVATION (ANTICIPATION AND INCLUSIVENESS)

The management of sustainability in water resources has underscored the critical importance of determining appropriate decision-making processes and establishing effective governance structures. Gaining comprehensive insights into the decision-making mechanisms and actors involved is pivotal for tackling present as well as prospective issues related to water efficiently. This research evaluates the interplay among water scarcity, responsible technologies for water use, and systems of governance for sustainability amid swift technological progress. Furthermore, it delves into the congruity of said endeavors with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), other sustainability water frameworks and the social and political ecosystem. In this context, the active engagement and participation of societal actors, and not only stakeholders, assume a pivotal role as it significantly impacts the decision-making processes and molds the results of sustainability initiatives. An innovative approach to the concepts of responsibility and sustainability is predicated on the quality of the relationship between the network of societal actors as a key point. This work underscores the importance of establishing strong and comprehensive relationships to address the challenges concerning water management and promote the adoption of sustainable approaches, in co-creation, not only of knowledge but the epistemic subject in the process. This work sheds light on the interrelated domains of water management, sustainability, and regulation. A novel proposal is presented via a simulation exercise and use the socio-technical framework for the purpose of fostering responsible water use. The comprehension and use of responsible technology and innovation in the realm of water u management will be enhanced through the technique of operationalizing open anticipatory governance and executing a simulated experiment. By using a digital deliberation space and establishing a systematic approach towards technology assessment and sustainability, using the relational quality of the network of actors as the key element for co-production of knowledge, science and technology, the present study has produced and materialized an innovative framework.Na sustentabilidade da gestão da água reveste-se de especial importância determinar processos de tomada de decisão adequados e estabelecer estruturas de governação eficazes. Obter uma visão abrangente sobre os mecanismos de tomada de decisão e os atores envolvidos é fundamental para abordar questões presentes e futuras relacionadas ao uso eficiente da água. Este trabalho procura conhecer a interação entre gestão de água, tecnologias responsáveis pelo uso da água e sistemas de governança para a sustentabilidade. Adicionalmente, pretende conhecer a relação com os Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), outros programas de sustentabilidade, bem como com o ecossistema social e político. Neste contexto, o envolvimento e a participação ativa dos atores sociais, e não apenas de stakeholders, assume um papel fundamental, uma vez que, não só, impactam significativamente os processos de tomada de decisão, mas, também, moldam os resultados das iniciativas de sustentabilidade. Nesta nova aproximação ao conceito de responsabilidade e sustentabilidade encontra-se a qualidade da relação entre a rede de atores sociais como ponto-chave. Sublinha-se a importância de estabelecer uma qualidade relacional enriquecida e abrangente para enfrentar de forma mais estruturada os desafios relativos à gestão da água de forma eficiente e promover a adoção de abordagens sustentáveis. Com este trabalho, procura-se aprofundar os domínios inter-relacionados da gestão da água, sustentabilidade e regulamentação. É elaborada uma proposta de simulação, utilizando uma perspetiva sociotécnica com o objetivo de capacitar a co-constituição como sujeitos e a compreensão e utilização de tecnologia responsável e inovação no âmbito da gestão do uso da água utilizando operacionalização da governação antecipatória aberta. O presente estudo materializa seu carácter de inovação ao utilizar um espaço de deliberação digital e ao estabelecer uma abordagem sistemática para a avaliação da tecnologia e sustentabilidade, usando a qualidade relacional da rede de atores como elemento-chave para a coprodução de conhecimento, ciência e tecnologia e co-constituição do próprio sujeito no processo de deliberação

Designing a Thrifty Approach for SME Business Continuity: Practices for Transparency of the Design Process

Business continuity (BC) management is an organizational approach to preparing information systems (IS) for incidents, but such approaches are uncommon among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Past research has indicated a gap in approaches that are designed for SMEs since BC management approaches tend to originate from larger organizations and SMEs lack the resources to implement them. To fill this gap, and to respond to a practical need by an IT consultancy company, we employed design science research (DSR) to develop a BC approach for SMEs coined as the thrifty BC management approach. Jointly with the company’s practitioners, we developed a set of meta-requirements for BC approaches for SMEs anchored in prior BC literature, practitioners’ practical expertise, and the theories of collective mindfulness and sociotechnical systems. We evaluated our thrifty BC management approach with multiple SMEs. These evaluations suggest that the designed approach mostly meets the defined meta-requirements. Moreover, the evaluations offered ample opportunities for learning. The design process, unfolding in a real-world setting, was precarious, rife with contingencies and ad hoc decisions. To render the design process transparent, we adapted four writing conventions from the confessional research genre familiar to ethnographic research but novel to DSR. We offer a threefold contribution. First, we contribute to SMEs’ BC with meta-requirements and their instantiation in a new BC approach (artifact); second, we contribute with four practices of confessional writing for transparency of DSR research; and third, we contribute with reflections on our theoretical learning from throughout the design process

Role of Knowledge Networks and Boundary Organizations in Coproduction: A Short History of a Decision Support Tool and Model for Adapting Multiuse Reservoir and Water-Energy Governance to Climate Change in California

Climate adaptation relies on theoretical frameworks of coproduced science and knowledge networks to produce acceptable outcomes for politically contentious resources. As adaptation moves from theory to implementation, there is a need for positive case studies to use as benchmarks. Building from literature on actionable science this paper presents one such positive case—the development of a hydropower and reservoir decision-support tool. The focus of this history is on the multiple phases of interaction (and noninteraction) between researchers and a semidefined community of stakeholders. The lessons presented from the Integrated Forecast and Reservoir Management (INFORM) system project stress that collaborations between managers and researchers were crucial to the success of the project by building knowledge networks, which could outlast formal processes, and by incorporating policy preferences of end users into the model. The history also provides examples of how even successful collaborative projects do not always follow the usual expectations for coproduced science and shows that, even when those guidelines are followed, external circumstances can threaten the adoption of research products. Ultimately, this paper argues for the importance of building strong knowledge networks alongside more formal processes—like those in boundary organizations—for effective collaborative engagement

Innovation Policy Roadmapping for the Future Finnish Smart City Digital Twins : Towards Finland National Digital Twin Programme

Smart City Digital Twins (SCDTs) emerge as a transforming concept with the ability to redefine the future of cities in the fast-paced evolving landscape of urban development. This qualitative futures research explores thoroughly into the complex interaction of socio-technical dynamics in the Finnish setting, investigating the several ways SCDTs might revolutionise urban spaces and create resilience. By utilizing Innovation Policy Roadmapping (IPRM) method for the first time on SCDTs, it reveals the diverse capacities of SCDTs across domains such as urban planning, scenario developing, What-IF analysis, and public involvement through a rigorous examination of academic literature and multi-level analysis of expert interviews. The research emphasises the critical role of policymakers and sectoral actors in building an environment that allows Finnish SCDTs to survive in the face of technological improvements. Furthermore, it emphasises the convergence of SCDTs and Futures Studies approaches, giving a visionary path to adaptable and forward-thinking urban futures. The contributions of this study extend beyond the scope of Finnish SCDTs, giving inspiration for sustainable smart city transformations, potential foundational insights towards Finland National Digital Twin Programme and paving the way for the incorporation of futures studies methodologies and digital twins to mitigate uncertainties and create resilient urban futures. Longitudinal impact assessments, real-time citizen-centric foresight applications via SCDT, and the investigation of SCDTs' role in disaster mitigation and social well-being are among the identified future research directions, providing a comprehensive roadmap for leveraging SCDTs as transformative tools for building sustainable urban futures

Developing a Framework for Stigmergic Human Collaboration with Technology Tools: Cases in Emergency Response

Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), particularly social media and geographic information systems (GIS), have become a transformational force in emergency response. Social media enables ad hoc collaboration, providing timely, useful information dissemination and sharing, and helping to overcome limitations of time and place. Geographic information systems increase the level of situation awareness, serving geospatial data using interactive maps, animations, and computer generated imagery derived from sophisticated global remote sensing systems. Digital workspaces bring these technologies together and contribute to meeting ad hoc and formal emergency response challenges through their affordances of situation awareness and mass collaboration. Distributed ICTs that enable ad hoc emergency response via digital workspaces have arguably made traditional top-down system deployments less relevant in certain situations, including emergency response (Merrill, 2009; Heylighen, 2007a, b). Heylighen (2014, 2007a, b) theorizes that human cognitive stigmergy explains some self-organizing characteristics of ad hoc systems. Elliott (2007) identifies cognitive stigmergy as a factor in mass collaborations supported by digital workspaces. Stigmergy, a term from biology, refers to the phenomenon of self-organizing systems with agents that coordinate via perceived changes in the environment rather than direct communication. In the present research, ad hoc emergency response is examined through the lens of human cognitive stigmergy. The basic assertion is that ICTs and stigmergy together make possible highly effective ad hoc collaborations in circumstances where more typical collaborative methods break down. The research is organized into three essays: an in-depth analysis of the development and deployment of the Ushahidi emergency response software platform, a comparison of the emergency response ICTs used for emergency response during Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and a process model developed from the case studies and relevant academic literature is described