A Framework for Supporting Organizational Transition Processes Towards Sustainable Energy Systems

abstract: Economic development over the last century has driven a tripling of the world's population, a twenty-fold increase in fossil fuel consumption, and a tripling of traditional biomass consumption. The associated broad income and wealth inequities are retaining over 2 billion people in poverty. Adding to this, fossil fuel combustion is impacting the environment across spatial and temporal scales and the cost of energy is outpacing all other variable costs for most industries. With 60% of world energy delivered in 2008 consumed by the commercial and industrial sector, the fragmented and disparate energy-related decision making within organizations are largely responsible for the inefficient and impacting use of energy resources. The global transition towards sustainable development will require the collective efforts of national, regional, and local governments, institutions, the private sector, and a well-informed public. The leadership role in this transition could be provided by private and public sector organizations, by way of sustainability-oriented organizations, cultures, and infrastructure. The diversity in literature exemplifies the developing nature of sustainability science, with most sustainability assessment approaches and frameworks lacking transformational characteristics, tending to focus on analytical methods. In general, some shortfalls in sustainability assessment processes include lack of: * thorough stakeholder participation in systems and stakeholder mapping, * participatory envisioning of future sustainable states, * normative aggregation of results to provide an overall measure of sustainability, and * influence within strategic decision-making processes. Specific to energy sustainability assessments, while some authors aggregate results to provide overall sustainability scores, assessments have focused solely on energy supply scenarios, while including the deficits discussed above. This paper presents a framework for supporting organizational transition processes towards sustainable energy systems, using systems and stakeholder mapping, participatory envisioning, and sustainability assessment to prepare the development of transition strategies towards realizing long-term energy sustainability. The energy system at Arizona State University's Tempe campus (ASU) in 2008 was used as a baseline to evaluate the sustainability of the current system. From interviews and participatory workshops, energy system stakeholders provided information to map the current system and measure its performance. Utilizing operationalized principles of energy sustainability, stakeholders envisioned a future sustainable state of the energy system, and then developed strategies to begin transition of the current system to its potential future sustainable state. Key findings include stakeholders recognizing that the current energy system is unsustainable as measured against principles of energy sustainability and an envisioned future sustainable state of the energy system. Also, insufficient governmental stakeholder engagement upstream within the current system could lead to added risk as regulations affect energy supply. Energy demand behavior and consumption patterns are insufficiently understood by current stakeholders, limiting participation and accountability from consumers. In conclusion, although this research study focused on the Tempe campus, ASU could apply this process to other campuses thereby improving overall ASU energy system sustainability. Expanding stakeholder engagement upstream within the energy system and better understanding energy consumption behavior can also improve long-term energy sustainability. Finally, benchmarking ASU's performance against its peer universities could expand the current climate commitment of participants to broader sustainability goals.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Sustainability 201

The Validity, Generalizability and Feasibility of Summative Evaluation Methods in Visual Analytics

Many evaluation methods have been used to assess the usefulness of Visual Analytics (VA) solutions. These methods stem from a variety of origins with different assumptions and goals, which cause confusion about their proofing capabilities. Moreover, the lack of discussion about the evaluation processes may limit our potential to develop new evaluation methods specialized for VA. In this paper, we present an analysis of evaluation methods that have been used to summatively evaluate VA solutions. We provide a survey and taxonomy of the evaluation methods that have appeared in the VAST literature in the past two years. We then analyze these methods in terms of validity and generalizability of their findings, as well as the feasibility of using them. We propose a new metric called summative quality to compare evaluation methods according to their ability to prove usefulness, and make recommendations for selecting evaluation methods based on their summative quality in the VA domain.Comment: IEEE VIS (VAST) 201

Primary Teacher Education in Malawi: Insights Into Practice and Policy: Multi-Site Teacher Education Research Project (MUSTER), Country Report Three

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

The Visibility and Communication of Cohesion Policy in Online Media

This study evaluates the visibility and communication of cohesion policy in online media. It employs a mixed methods approach to investigate media coverage, representation and user perceptions of cohesion policy in online media. The research draws on an original dataset of over 60,000 news articles and 100,000 user-generated comments. It also analyses social media – over 11,000 Facebook posts and over five million tweets on Twitter – and 13,000 EU press releases. The key conclusion is that cohesion policy visibility is relatively low in online media. Policy recommendations are provided to improve cohesion policy visibility particularly through citizen engagement

Servant leadershp style of Michigan public school superintendents and MEAP reading and math proficiency

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between servant leadership style and Michigan public school superintendents as measured by student proficiency on the MEAP Math and Reading tests for grades 3rd – 8th. The methodology for this qualitative study consisted of the Wong and Page’s (2003) Servant Leadership Profile Revised Instrument (SLPR). The survey consisted of a 62 item survey, using a 7- point Likert type scale, comprised of 10 subscales used to represent the presence of servant leadership characteristics. There were 7 additional items created by the researcher to gather demographic information. The participants were convenience sampling identified from the Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI), according to the criteria set for the study. The study examined how servant leadership characteristics (listening, empathy, healing, persuasion, awareness, foresight, conceptualization, commitment to the growth of people, stewardship and building community) are used by the superintendent to create a culture within their district that promotes academic success as measured by the MEAP test. The literature framed the historical definition and description of the superintendent and their role, a comparison and transition from transformational leadership to servant leadership as a result of public demand to reform school districts and how the culture determines growth and academic success for staff and students. The data from the survey is a result of self-reporting from superintendents in urban, suburban and rural districts. The study produced insights into how 3 of the 7 traits of servant leadership influences trends in student proficiency on the MEAP. Summarily, the results strengthen the discussion regarding a superintendent’s leadership influence on academic achievement, particularly those superintendents who practice servant leadership. A leader must lead considering the affective aspects of leadership that encompass supporting the whole individual, ultimately, influencing the goals of the organization

Co-designing in the real world: managing a multiple stakeholder design process with an NGO

Many ICT4D research projects work in collaboration with NGOs in order to meet their development objectives and to increase their interventions’ effectiveness. Herein, aspects of co-design are often applied, where the intention is to include all stakeholders as equal participants in the design process. However, collaborating with NGOs and with users who have reduced access to technology can be challenging. As a result, the ideals of co-design are not easily achieved, due to the vastly differing backgrounds of stakeholders in ICT4D projects. In this thesis, an explicit approach for managing the varying interactions between stakeholders is proposed and described through a case study. The approach was derived from ethnographic action research and participatory design methodologies, led by practical consideration from real-world constraints. The approach is structured around an interactive design process that includes the stakeholder groups in unique ways at each phase of the design process, in order to maximise the contributions in a way that respects their backgrounds and areas of expertise. The proposed approach was evaluated through its implementation in the design of a mobile recordkeeping application, in collaboration with an NGO in Cape Town, South Africa. The NGO comprises of two stakeholder groups: the staff and the micro-entrepreneurs who they empower. The NGO’s focus is to provide training and support over a two-year process to women from low-income communities, by teaching them how to manage their own businesses to become socially and financially independent. The objective of this case study was to design a mobile application that aligned with the recordkeeping curriculum of the NGO and meet the specific requirements and constraints of the target users. Through the implementation of the design approach, the students and staff were able to provide useful and complementary contributions towards the design of the system. A one-month field study of the application with a group of 21 student participants revealed that the system was a suitable solution and appropriately met the needs of the NGO and the end-users. The final evaluation of the stakeholders’ reflections on the design process revealed that it was an appropriate design process to have followed. The results further identified that care must be taken to clarify expectations at each stage of the design process, especially when external factors change, and to frequently communicate with all stakeholders involved. The design approach proposed and employed during this research project, and the unique way that it allowed the stakeholders to contribute, will benefit future ICT4D research projects that are faced with stakeholder groups that vary significantly, where traditional equal participation is not possible

Reconciling conservation and development in Madagascar's rapidly-expanding protected area system

The creation and management of protected areas is our principal approach to conserving biodiversity worldwide. Management and governance models for these diverse institutions have become more pluralistic in recent decades, moving away from the traditional exclusionary protected area model that has proliferated historically. Indeed, most new protected areas are being established for ‘multiple-use’ and, therefore, permit a range of human livelihood activities to occur within their boundaries. However, we know little about how such sites can be effectively managed. In this thesis, I use an interdisciplinary mixed-methods approach to investigate the implementation of new multiple-use protected areas in Madagascar. Madagascar is a global conservation priority characterised by high levels of endemism, and has a largely forest-dependent biota. Since most of the human population is rural and dependent on natural resources for subsistence and income to differing extents, the expanded protected area system is managed for both conservation and socioeconomic goals (poverty alleviation and development). However, these objectives may be conflicting since human resource use can be a significant driver of biodiversity loss. I begin by examining trends in new protected area establishment at the nationwide-level to generate insights into protected area categorisation, and the role of natural resources and protected areas in poverty alleviation. I then consider the impacts of forest use on biodiversity, through a literature review and empirical study of bird and reptile communities across a degradation gradient. The findings indicate that habitat change arising from forest use may impact the high-value, endemic component of the fauna most negatively. In addition, I develop a simple index to enumerate the conservation value of different species. This is then used to determine how degradation influences the conservation value of exploited habitats, as well as assessing if the index is a suitable tool that can be used to prioritise conservation investment across a portfolio of sites. Finally, I seek to understand the drivers of natural resource use by rural communities within the Ranobe PK32 protected area, and discover that both bushmeat hunting and charcoal production are fallback activities or supplements to other livelihoods. The evidence collated in the thesis, derived from both ecological and social perspectives, suggests that managing new protected areas in Madagascar for conservation and development is overambitious, and that, at least in forest areas, management cannot be optimised towards both goals simultaneously

Experiencing Shadow Education: The Rural Gambian Context

The purpose of this study is to gain insights into the practices that emerge at the community and school level to promote change and to understand the underlying values at play in local educational practice compared to and inside the larger structure of national or state level educational planning. The phenomenological approach to this study focuses on the lived experience in the provision, monitoring and receiving of educational services in the rural Gambian context. Attitudes and perceptions are explored, divorced from assumptions about universal educational goals. This provides a descriptive, rather than evaluative, record of the relationship and meaning that supplemental education has in the daily lives of those it affects