High-Tech Urban Agriculture in Amsterdam : An Actor Network Analysis

The agriculture and horticulture sector in the Netherlands is one of the most productive in the world. Although the sector is one of the most advanced and intense agricultural production systems worldwide, it faces challenges, such as climate change and environmental and social unsustainability of industrial production. To overcome these challenges, alternative food production initiatives have emerged, especially in large cities such as Amsterdam. Some initiatives involve producing food in the urban environment, supported by new technologies and practices, so-called high-tech urban agriculture (HTUA). These initiatives make cultivation of plants inside and on top of buildings possible and increase green spaces in urban areas. The emerging agricultural technologies are creating new business environments that are shape d by technology developers (e.g., suppliers of horticultural light emitting diodes (LED) and control environment systems) and developers of alternative food production practices (e.g., HTUA start-ups). However, research shows that the uptake of these technological innovations in urban planning processes is problematic. Therefore, this research analyzes the barriers that local government planners and HTUA developers are facing in the embedding of HTUA in urban planning processes, using the city of Amsterdam as a case study. This study draws on actor-network theory (ANT) to analyze the interactions between planners, technologies, technology developers and developers of alternative food production practices. Several concepts of ANT are integrated into a multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions (MLP) to create a new theoretical framework that can explain how interactions between technologies and planning actors transform the incumbent social\u2013technical regime. The configuration of interactions between social and material entities in technology development and adoption processes in Amsterdam is analyzed through the lens of this theoretical framework. The data in this study were gathered by tracing actors and their connections by using ethnographic research methods. In the course of the integration of new technologies into urban planning practices, gaps between technologies, technology developers, and planning actors have been identified. The results of this study show a lacking connection between planning actors and technology developers, although planning actors do interact with developers of alternative food production practices. These interactions are influenced by agency of artefacts such as visualizations of the future projects. The paper concludes that for the utilization of emerging technologies for sustainability transition of cities, the existing gap between technology developers and planning actors needs to be bridged through the integration of technology development visions in urban agendas and planning processe

Modelling Sociotechnical Change in IS with a Quantitative Longitudinal Approach: The PPR Method.

The following article suggests a critical realistic framework, which aims at modeling sociotechnical change linked to end-users' IT appropriation: the "archetypal approach". The basic situations it includes (the "sociotechnical archetypes"), and the possible appropriative trajectories that combine them, together with three propositions linked to the model, are developed. They are illustrated by means of a case study describing the implementation of an e-learning system within a French university. The paper then presents an instrumentation of the theoretical framework, based on a quantitative longitudinal approach: the Process Patterns Recognition (PPR) method. This one draws mainly on Doty, Glick and Huber (1993, 1994) who propose to evaluate the distance between organizational archetypes and empirical configurations by means of Euclidean distance calculus. The adaptation consists in evaluating the distance between appropriative trajectories (embodied by series of theoretically specified vectors) and empirical processes linked to the implementation of computerized tools in organizations. The PPR method is then applied to the same organizational setting as the one related to the case study. It validates the relevance of this type of a research strategy, which makes it possible to model sociotechnical dynamics related to end-users' IT appropriations.Technology-organization interaction; sociotechnical process modelling; Process Patterns Recognition; critical realism; Structuration; methodology of research; longitudinal methods; e-learning;

Adapting structuration theory to understand the role of reflexivity: Problematization, clinical audit and information systems

This paper is an exploratory account of the further development and application of a hybrid framework, StructurANTion, that is based on Structuration Theory and Actor Network Theory (ANT). The use of social theories in general and their use in information systems (IS) research in particular is explored leading to the use of the framework to examine the concept of what are termed humanchine networks in the context of clinical audit, within a healthcare Primary Care Trust (PCT). A particular focus is on the manner in which information systems-based reflexivity contributes to both entrenching a networks’ structurated order as well as contributing to its emancipatory change. The case study compares clinic-centric and patientcentric audit and seeks to further extend the understanding of the role of information and information systems within structurated humanchine activity systems. Conclusions indicate that the use of more socially informed IS methods and approaches can incorporate more emancipatory ideals and lead to greater adoption and usage of more relevant and useful clinical information systems and practices

We are bitter, but we are better off: Case study of the implementation of an electronic health record system into a mental health hospital in England

In contrast to the acute hospital sector, there have been relatively few implementations of integrated electronic health record (EHR) systems into specialist mental health settings. The National Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT) in England was the most expensive IT-based transformation of public services ever undertaken, which aimed amongst other things, to implement integrated EHR systems into mental health hospitals. This paper describes the arrival, the process of implementation, stakeholders' experiences and the local consequences of the implementation of an EHR system into a mental health hospital

The Campaign: a case study in identity construction through performance

This article undertakes a detailed case study of The Campaign, a teaching and learning innovation in media and communications that uses an online educational role-play. The case study draws on the qualitative analysis of classroom observations, online communications and semi-structured interviews, employing an interpretive approach informed by models drawn from social theory and sociotechnical theory. Educational authors argue that online educational role-plays engage students in authentic learning, and represent an improvement over didactic teaching strategies. According to this literature, online role-play systems afford students the opportunity of acting and doing instead of only reading and listening. Literature in social theory and social studies of technology takes a different view of certain concepts such as performance, identity and reality. Models such as performative self constitution and actor network theory ask us to consider the constructed nature of identity and the roles of all of the actors, including the system itself. This article examines these concepts by addressing a series of research questions relating to identity formation and mediation, and suggests certain limitations of the situationist perspective in explaining the educationalvalue of role-play systems

Resilience and agency in mature sustainability transitions. Theoretical conceptualisation and empirical analysis of actor- & system-level dynamics in sociotechnical energy systems

In Switzerland, Germany and Austria, as in many European countries, the transition of the energy sector towards more sustainability is a long-term transition process, unfolding since decades. It however only reached the regime level in recent years and therewith the established technologies and governance structures of the energy systems. This fundamental transition process causes complex, interrelated and non-linear dynamics and changes on multiple scales in the technical and social sphere of the energy systems. The energy transition, thus, became a mature sustainability transition, which is a new challenge for research and decision-making in practice. This dissertation contributes to an improved conceptual and empirical understanding of actor- and system-level structures and dynamics in mature sustainability transitions. To tackle this research aim, the dissertation employed an iterative theory building process, which develops theoretical considerations based on preexisting theories and frameworks as well as empirical evidence. The empirical analyses were thereby conducted using a mixed methods approach, which allowed for rich empirical evidence and triangulation. The research was implemented in four modules, whereby each module tackled one research question. Main data sources were scholarly literature, regional structural data and documents as well as transcripts from several rounds of semi-structured expert interviews and expert workshops. The empirical data stemmed from three cases: energy regions in Austria and Germany, a network of change agents in Germany and urban utility companies in Germany and Switzerland. The main analytical methods, employed in this dissertation were qualitative literature analysis, document analysis and structuring qualitative content analysis. For the analysis of system structure for functionality and transition dynamics, this dissertation presents an indicator set to analyse and measure resilience of sociotechnical energy systems in transition, based on the key system characteristics of diversity and connectivity. The empirical application provided rich insights on the sociotechnical system structure and its changes over time and discusses appropriate methods for the empirical analysis. For the analysis of transition dynamics, this dissertation provides a reconceptualised framework for the systematic analysis of actor- and system-level determinants of agency as well as the feedback of agency on the system. Especially focusing on the role of incumbents in mature sustainability transitions, the dissertation moreover provides findings from the empirical exploration of urban utility companies and derived analytical perspectives for public incumbent actors in network industries in transition. The dissertation finally discusses the integrability of conceptual findings to transition studies and presents an integrated framework to analyse structures and dynamics in mature sustainability transitions. The thesis provided key theoretical and empirical insights on actor- and system-level aspects of mature sustainability transitions in sociotechnical energy systems. It contributed to a further discussion on dynamic resilience concepts for sociotechnical energy systems, a more systematic analysis of agency in sustainability transitions and a more nuanced picture of incumbents' agency in sociotechnical energy systems in mature sustainability transitions

Strategic Alignment: What Else? A Practice Based View of IS Value.

Pour l’essentiel, les recherches traitant des valeurs stratégiques du SI restent dans le paradigme de l’alignement stratégique, et utilisent des notions telles que celles de "processus" ou "d’activités". En s’appuyant sur la perspective offerte par les théories de la pratique, cet article offre une alternative en distinguant trois formes de praxis et des valeurs spécifiques.Literature about IS strategic management or IS strategic value is abundant. Nonetheless, the bulk of existing studies are focused on the concept of alignment. They do not make sense of a strategic value "in practice" and still draw on notions such as activity or process to make sense of alignment. By means of a practice-based view of technology, three praxis are suggested here for the modeling of strategic value: legitimacy-related (based on adoption praxis), assimilative (related to design and acceptance praxis) and appropriative (linked to local adaptation and improvisation praxis). They are introduced by means of a "thought experiment" (a short story about a rifle).Strategic alignment; IS strategic value; Practice-based views; strategic value in practice; thought experiments;

Sociotechnical matters: reviewing and integrating science and technology studies with energy social science

Theoretical frameworks associated with science and technology studies (STS) are becoming increasingly prominent in social science energy research, but what do they offer? This review provides a brief history of relevant STS concepts and frameworks and a structured analysis of how STS perspectives are appearing in energy social science research and how energy-related research is appearing in social science STS. Drawing from an initial body of 262 journal articles and books with a stratified sample of 68 published from 2009 to mid-2019, the review identifies four major groups of perspectives: (1) STS-related cultural analysis, especially the study of sociotechnical imaginaries; (2) STS-related policy analysis, such as research on the social construction of risks and standards and on the performativity of economic models; (3) STS perspectives on public participation processes, expert-public relations, and mobilized publics; and (4) the study of sociotechnical systems, including large technological systems, the politics of design, and users and actor-networks. Connections among the perspectives and the value for energy social science research are also critically discussed