Certifying sustainability: opportunities and challenges for the cattle supply chain in Brazil

Up to 75% of deforestation in Brazil is associated with cattle ranching. To reduce forest conversion and increase sustainability in the cattle supply chain, government, private sector and civil society support interventions based on combinations of institutions and policies, incentives, and information and technology. In this paper we analyse the observed and expected interactions among the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) Standard for Sustainable Cattle Production Systems certification program and other interventions associated with livestock and deforestation in Amazonia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with cattle supply chain key actors, who identified the opportunities and barriers to the development and scaling of the SAN cattle program. The SAN cattle program has set a new high standard for sustainability, demonstrated the viability of certifying the cattle supply chain, and created new incentives and markets. However, the program has certified few farms to date. Other interventions are playing a critical role in incentivizing farms towards enhanced sustainability. Interventions that complement progress towards the SAN program include those that help producers to comply with forest laws or provide farmers with access to information and technology to improve their practices. Other interventions may constrain the program, for example by competing with the standards in the marketplace. Greater coordination among interventions may catalyze a more coherent, strategic approach to enhanced sustainability

Meeting new demands : The role of the library as a centre for education and research

The world is increasingly hungry for information. The demand for better access to information is even more marked in higher education than in society as a whole and, as research becomes more specialised and at the same time more interdisciplinary, the range of information sought by all engaged in higher educa­tion is expanding. Libraries are faced with the problem of the timely and adequate supply of information held not only in conventional printed and manuscript docu­ments but also in electronic data in vari­ous formats including on-line data. An ever greater number of users seeks these materials. The paperless society which was forecast by some to accompany the revolution in information technology has yet to arrive and new approaches are needed in respect to how the library copes with the continued growth of material and demand. Libraries are increasingly constrained by escalating costs. More significantly, they are still constrained by unrealistic aspirations towards some ideal of self-sufficiency, by out-dated practi­ces, and by lack of a clear strategic development plan which will promote new concepts of service and exploit new methods of access to information. This paper seeks to explore the impact of this demand for information upon the academic library, and to consider how the academic library can develop in these changing circumstances to meet with increasing effectiveness the infor­mation needs of scholars, researchers and students. It examines the need for new organisa­tional structures to enable the library to influence the strategic planning and allo­cation of resources in support of its role at the centre of a learning and research institution. It recognises that as teaching methods change to become more learn­ing centred, the library must have both the authority and the vision to meet its responsibility for providing easy access to all forms of information. It must organ­ise better access in the context of a real­istic awareness of cost, value for money, and an effective service to its users. The author considers how the library should modify its collection develop­ment and service policies in the light of information technology. It is critically im­portant that new policies should be set in place that are built on a better assess­ment of user needs, informed by greater collaboration between the user and the librarian. This implies a major change in conventional practice, and attitudes. It requires change in the perceived role and responsibilities of the librarian. These responsibilities include not only the man­agement of resources, but also the con­tribution the librarian needs to make to the development of the educational and research objectives of the university. The development of the library staff as experts in providing access to information and effectively managing the dissemination of information throughout the university is an essential part of any new policy. New priorities must be set to achieve new objectives. The paper explores what yet needs to be done if the library is to achieve the vision that it lies at the heart of all learning, that it renews and augments the knowledge of all teachers and researchers, and that it provides access to information that is indispensable to lifelong learning throughout a wider community

Meeting new demands : The role of the library as a centre for education and research

The world is increasingly hungry for information. The demand for better access to information is even more marked in higher education than in society as a whole and, as research becomes more specialised and at the same time more interdisciplinary, the range of information sought by all engaged in higher educa­tion is expanding. Libraries are faced with the problem of the timely and adequate supply of information held not only in conventional printed and manuscript docu­ments but also in electronic data in vari­ous formats including on-line data. An ever greater number of users seeks these materials. The paperless society which was forecast by some to accompany the revolution in information technology has yet to arrive and new approaches are needed in respect to how the library copes with the continued growth of material and demand. Libraries are increasingly constrained by escalating costs. More significantly, they are still constrained by unrealistic aspirations towards some ideal of self-sufficiency, by out-dated practi­ces, and by lack of a clear strategic development plan which will promote new concepts of service and exploit new methods of access to information. This paper seeks to explore the impact of this demand for information upon the academic library, and to consider how the academic library can develop in these changing circumstances to meet with increasing effectiveness the infor­mation needs of scholars, researchers and students. It examines the need for new organisa­tional structures to enable the library to influence the strategic planning and allo­cation of resources in support of its role at the centre of a learning and research institution. It recognises that as teaching methods change to become more learn­ing centred, the library must have both the authority and the vision to meet its responsibility for providing easy access to all forms of information. It must organ­ise better access in the context of a real­istic awareness of cost, value for money, and an effective service to its users. The author considers how the library should modify its collection develop­ment and service policies in the light of information technology. It is critically im­portant that new policies should be set in place that are built on a better assess­ment of user needs, informed by greater collaboration between the user and the librarian. This implies a major change in conventional practice, and attitudes. It requires change in the perceived role and responsibilities of the librarian. These responsibilities include not only the man­agement of resources, but also the con­tribution the librarian needs to make to the development of the educational and research objectives of the university. The development of the library staff as experts in providing access to information and effectively managing the dissemination of information throughout the university is an essential part of any new policy. New priorities must be set to achieve new objectives. The paper explores what yet needs to be done if the library is to achieve the vision that it lies at the heart of all learning, that it renews and augments the knowledge of all teachers and researchers, and that it provides access to information that is indispensable to lifelong learning throughout a wider community

Making rivers modular : emerging river science 1980-2005

Conceptual, instrumentational and institutional dimensions of river science evolved interdependently between 1980 and 2005. The analysis is informed by an approach of science as cultural practice, co-production as the shaping and working of knowledge in society in terms of interdependent discursive, social and material orderings, and contextual history of science. \ud River science then serves as a case to evaluate claims made in three diagnoses of recent science (mode 2 science, strategic science, post-modern science). From the diagnoses five aspects are distilled for further investigation: a primacy of technology in scientific practices; the dissolution of disciplines and the emergence of inter- and transdisciplinary configurations; institutional heterogeneity, an orientation towards practical problems and specific institutions; and governance of science. \ud River science is portrayed in subsequent chapters as a cosmopolitan scientific field, as specialties contributing to river science at the national level (Netherlands), and as emerging river science in the Netherlands and the shaping of a local research configuration. \ud The analysis of river science confirms the claims distilled from the diagnoses of recent changes in science, but adds an aspect that does not figure in the diagnoses: an orientation towards design. The striking features of a primacy of technology in river science, and a primacy of hydraulics in the local research configuration were not intended, but can be understood from the contextual history. \ud The metaphor of ‘making rivers modular’ in the title draws attention to a discourse that has emerged over the last decades. For river science, this is visible in scientific conceptions of rivers (the river as a spatially nested hierarchy), ways of integrating contributions from different specialties (the coupling of specialty modules) and designs of river landscapes (interchangeability of standard units of river nature, ecotopes). These are actually enabled by information technology and remote sensing The role of such technologies is another feature of recent changes in science

РОЛЬ ІНФОРМАЦІЇ У ФОРМУВАННІ ГЛОБАЛЬНОЇ ЕКОНОМІКИ ТА ЕКОНОМІЧНОГО РОЗВИТКУ СУСПІЛЬСТВА

The article examines the role of information in the formation of the global economy and the development of the information society in Ukraine.The development of information technologies in the global environment has led to the fact that information has become a key concept in the modern economy, and the information sector of the economy is the most popular. The development of the information society is accompanied by the globalization of social space, the increasing influence of information on all spheres of human life, the development of each individual on the basis of knowledge and the introduction of innovative technologies into social production and the life of each person.The purpose of the article is to study the transformation of information into an economic resource as the basis for the formation of an information economy and an information society.The basic principles for the development of the information society on a global scale are based both at the level of the World Summit and at the country level. The World Summit on the Development of the Information Society defines it as «a people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented society in which everyone can create, access, use and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, citizens and peoples fully realize their potential, contributing to their sustainable development and improving the quality of their lives».The problems of information development in the modern world are investigated and the role of information and communication technologies in the formation of the information economy and information society in the global economic environment is determined. It has been established that the formation of the information economy and information society in Ukraine is carried out in accordance with the state information policy, indicated by the current legislative documents. In a strategic perspective, the development of the information economy and the information society will strengthen the economic position of Ukraine in the global economic environment and improve the well-being of the country's population. The conclusions drawn indicate the enormous influence of information on the socio-economic, political and cultural life of society. And the main product that will actively move society towards socio-economic progress will be information and communication technologies, knowledge and scientific research, intellectual services.Key words: information, communication, technology, information economy, Internet, global environment.У статті досліджена роль інформації у формуванні глобальної економіки та розбудові інформаційного суспільства в Україні.Розвиток інформаційних технологій у глобальному середовищі призвів до того, що у сучасній економіці інформація стала ключовим поняттям, а інформаційний сектор економіки – найбільш популярним. Розбудова інформаційного суспільства супроводжується глобалізацією соціального простору, посиленням впливу інформації на усі сфери життя людини, розвиток кожного індивідуума на основі знань та впровадження інноваційних технологій у суспільне виробництво та побут кожної людини. Метою статті є дослідження трансформації інформації у економічний ресурс як основи формування інформаційної економіки та інформаційного суспільства.Основні засади розвитку інформаційного суспільства у глобальному масштабі започатковані як на рівні Всесвітнього саміту так і на рівні країн Європи. Всесвітній саміт з розвитку інформаційного суспільства визначає його як «суспільство, орієнтоване на людей, відкрите для усіх і спрямоване на розвиток, у якому кожний може створювати інформацію і знання, мати до них доступ, користуватися і обмінюватися ними, даючи змогу окремим особам, громадянам і народам повною мірою реалізувати свій потенціал, сприяючи своєму сталому розвитку і підвищуючи якість свого життя».Досліджено проблеми розвитку інформації у сучасному світі та визначено роль інформаційно-комунікаційних технологій у становленні інформаційної економіки й інформаційного суспільства у глобальному економічному середовищі. Встановлено, що формування інформаційної економіки та інформаційного суспільства в Україні здійснюється у відповідності до державної інформаційної політики, окресленої чинними законодавчими документами. У стратегічній перспективі розбудова інформаційної економіки та інформаційного суспільства дасть можливість зміцнити економічні позиції України у глобальному економічному середовищі та підвищити добробут населення країни. Зроблені висновки указують на величезний вплив інформації на соціально-економічне, політичне та культурне життя суспільства. А основним продуктом, який буде активно рухати суспільство у напрямі соціально-економічного прогресу будуть інформаційно-комунікаційні технології, знання і наукові дослідження, інтелектуальні послуги.Ключові слова: інформація, комунікація, технологія, інформаційна економіка, Інтернет, глобальне середовище

Research and Technology Policy in the European Union: A Bottom-up Contribution to European Integration

Presented on April 21, 2009, President’s Suites C & D – Student Success Center.Co-sponsored by the Center for International Strategy, Technology and Policy (CISTP) as part of the Globalization, Innovataion and Development Lecture Series.The European Union’s Research Policy, aimed to increase competitiveness of the European productive system, is implemented through strategic actions, the most relevant of which is increased public and private investments in strategic industrial research and innovation, but it includes also investments in education, lifelong learning, and technological infrastructures. We prove that research policy is playing a role over and above the institutional objective of competitiveness. Research and development (R&D) programs led to an upgrade in the scientific, cultural, and technological level of participants and contributed to the path towards political union, to the irradiation of European values within and beyond European boundaries, and to the implementation of other policies. EU research programs generated high return on the investment. It is estimated that current Community contribution of € billion/year might generate a GDP increase of € 200 billion/year in the 2030s. Intangible results are also momentous. In this paper we address the impact of research on other policies: Competition, Consumer Protection, Employment, Energy, Enlargement, Enterprise, Environment, Information Society, Institutional Affairs, Internal Market, Mobility, Public Health, Regional Policy, and Transport. R&D policy was put at the heart of the Lisbon Strategy (LS) to boost employment and growth in Europe. LS suffered of major weaknesses, described in the paper; it had however, a role in putting R&D center stage in EU strategic planning for sustainable growth and in creating the conditions for the member states to decide for a major increase of R&D public spending, thus reinforcing the most effective component of the LS, the Framework Program, built on strengths of proved effectiveness: the involvement of all stakeholders in its planning, the feeling of ownership by the scientific/industrial community, focused funding, strict monitoring of execution, and enhanced exploitation plans. Community funding is the incentive to face the intrinsic complexity of international collaborations, an incentive ever so much important in EU27 to overcome the diversity in business culture, business practices, innovation, and workforce qualification across the enlarged Union. Diversity makes integration more complex and introduces additional costs to international cooperation, but it is an asset and a point in favor of the EU within the Triad. It facilitates addressing and understanding competitors in a world where new actors from remote markets and with different cultures take increasingly relevant roles. Changes triggered by research policy are bottom up and affect people in the first place: researchers, industrialists, students. By getting to know their peers in other countries, European participants in the programs learn to respect and appreciate diverse cultures, overcome the barriers that divided Europe, experience the feeling of belonging in a community larger than their own country, and establish networks that are the ground culture for European citizenship. Changes triggered by research policy affect enterprises as well. They broaden their horizon and they experience the advantages of international collaboration, known to universities for centuries. This bottom-up action complements and is supported by the institutional activities of the EU and builds a community united in diversity capable of facing the challenges of a globalized world

Information technology: futurism, corporations and the state

The significance of information technology (IT)' lies in the breadth of its potential impact on society: on work, communications, political processes, education and entertainment. It offers not just the possibility, in the current economic crisis, of restructuring work in order to gain greater control over that process the better to increase productivity, but also the possibility of a new cycle of growth in both capital and consumer goods, facilitating the restructuring of modes of consumption and the strengthening and recomposition of capital over patterns of leisure, communication and entertainment

Implementation Action Plan for organic food and farming research

The Implementation Action Plan completes TP Organics’ trilogy of key documents of the Research Vision to 2025 (Niggli et al 2008) and the Strategic Research Agenda (Schmid et al 2009). The Implementation Action Plan addresses important areas for a successful implementation of the Strategic Research Agenda. It explores the strength of Europe’s organic sector on the world stage with about one quarter of the world’s organic agricultural land in 2008 and accounting for more than half of the global organic market. The aims and objectives of organic farming reflect a broad range of societal demands on the multiple roles of agriculture and food production of not only producing commodities but also ecosystem services. These are important for Europe’s economic success, the resilience of its farms and prosperity in its rural areas. The organic sector is a leading market for quality and authenticity: values at the heart of European food culture. Innovation is important across the EU economy, and no less so within the organic sector. The Implementation Action Plan devotes its third chapter to considering how innovation can be stimulated through organic food and farming research and, crucially, translated into changes in business and agricultural practice. TP Organics argues for a broad understanding of innovation that includes technology, know-how and social/organisational innovations. Accordingly, innovation can involve different actors throughout the food sector. Many examples illustrate innovations in the organic sector includign and beyond technology. The various restrictions imposed by organic standards have driven change and turned organic farms and food businesses into creative living laboratories for smart and green innovations and the sector will continue to generate new examples. The research topics proposed by TP Organics in the Strategic Research Agenda can drive innovation in areas as wide ranging as production practices for crops, technologies for livestock, food processing, quality management, on-farm renewable energy or insights into the effects of consumption of organic products on disease and wellbeing and life style of citizens. Importantly, many approaches developed within the sector are relevant and useful beyond the specific sector. The fourth chapter addresses knowledge management in organic agriculture, focusing on the further development of participatory research methods. Participatory (or trans-disciplinary) models recognise the worth and importance of different forms of knowledge and reduced boundaries between the generators and the users of knowledge, while respecting and benefitting from transparent division of tasks. The emphasis on joint creation and exchange of knowledge makes them valuable as part of a knowledge management toolkit as they have the capacity to enhance the translation of research outcomes into practical changes and lead to real-world progress. The Implementation Action Plan argues for the wider application of participatory methods in publicly-funded research and also proposes some criteria for evaluating participatory research, such as the involvement and satisfaction of stakeholders as well as real improvements in sustainability and delivery of public goods/services. European agriculture faces specific challenges but at the same time Europe has a unique potential for the development of agro-ecology based solutions that must be supported through well focused research. TP Organics believes that the most effective approaches in agriculture and food research will be systems-based, multi- and trans-disciplinary, and that in the development of research priorities, the interconnections between biodiversity, dietary diversity, functional diversity and health must be taken into account. Chapter five of the action plan identifies six themes which could be used to organise research and innovation activities in agriculture under Europe’s 8th Framework Programme on Research Cooperation: • Eco-functional intensification – A new area of agricultural research which aims to harness beneficial activities of the ecosystem to increase productivity in agriculture. • The economics of high output / low input farming Developing reliable economic and environmental assessments of new recycling, renewable-based and efficiency-boosting technologies for agriculture. • Health care schemes for livestock Shifting from therapeutics to livestock health care schemes based on good husbandry and disease prevention. • Resilience and “sustainagility” Dealing with a more rapidly changing environment by focusing on ‘adaptive capacity’ to help build resilience of farmers, farms and production methods. • From farm diversity to food diversity and health and wellbeing of citizens Building on existing initiatives to reconnect consumers and producers, use a ‘whole food chain’ approach to improve availability of natural and authentic foods. • Creating centres of innovation in farming communities A network of centres in Europe applying and developing trans-disciplinary and participatory scientific approaches to support innovation among farmers and SMEs and improving research capacities across Europe

Environmental modelling of the Chief Information Officer

Since the introduction of the term in the 1980’s, the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) has been widely researched. Various perceptions and dimensions of the role have been explored and debated. However, the explosion in data proliferation (and the inevitable resulting information fuelled change) further complicates organisational expectations of the CIOs role. If organisations are to competitively exploit the digital trend, then those charged with recruiting and developing CIOs now need to be more effective in determining (and shaping) CIO traits and attributes, within the context of their own organisational circumstances and in line with stakeholder expectations. CIOs also need to determine their own suitability and progression within their chosen organisation if they are to remain motivated and effective. Before modelling the role of the future CIO, it is necessary to synthesise our current knowledge (and the lessons learnt) about the CIO. This paper, therefore, aims to identify and summate the spectrum of key researched ‘themes’ pertaining to the role of the CIO. Summating previous research, themes are modelled around four key CIO ‘dimensions’, namely (1) Impacting factors, (2) Controlling factors (3) Responses and (4) CIO ‘attributes’. Having modelled the CIOs current environment, and recognising the evolving IT enabled information landscape, the authors call for further research to inform the recruitment and development of the future CIO in terms of personal attributes and the measurable impact such attributes will have on their respective organisation

The societal embedding of sustainable Product-Service Systems: Looking for synergies between strategic design and transition studies

Copyright @ 2014 Greenleaf Publishing.Eco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability, but their implementation and diffusion is hindered by several cultural, corporate and regulative barriers. Hence, an important challenge is not only to conceive sustainable PSS concepts, but also to understand how to manage, support and orient the introduction and diffusion of these concepts. Building upon recent advances in the innovation studies field (in particular the contributions from transition studies) this chapter puts forward a conceptual framework for the introduction and scaling-up of eco-efficient PSSs. A key role is given to the implementation of socio-technical experiments: protected spaces where radical innovations can be tested, become more mature, and potentially challenge and change dominant socio-technical practices, habits and institutions. Starting from these considerations this chapter investigates the potential contribution that a strategic design approach can make to stimulating and supporting the societal embedding of eco-efficient PSS innovations. A new strategic design role thus emerges, a role in which the ideation and development of sustainable PSS concepts is coupled with the designing of appropriate transition paths to gradually incubate, introduce and diffuse these concepts. Starting from these considerations the chapter outlines and discusses the new design approach and capabilities required by strategic designers