Genetic Improvement of Livestock for Organic Farming Systems

Organic farming which experienced a constant rise over the last two decades is a system based on sustainability and on a concept tending towards functional integrity. Legislation as well as the wish to produce separately from conventional farming raise the question whether organic farming should be conducted completely apart from conventional farming or not. This paper discusses the aspects that affect animal breeding under these circumstances, e.g., maintaining genetic diversity by using local breeds and possible G×E interactions which might occur when breeds adapted to conventional farming systems are used in organic farming. Ways of modelling G×E are presented, moreover examples of G×E in dairy cattle, swine, and poultry are given. Trends in selection index theory–designing multi-trait breeding goals including functional traits on one hand, and developing methods for using customised selection indices on the other hand–support breeding work for organic farming systems. It is concluded that before the technical issues can be addressed, all parties involved, farmers, consumers as well as legislators, have to agree on the socio-cultural conditions under which organic farming should be conducted

How Information Systems Evolve by and for Use

Few studies have examined dynamic interactions between IT change and organizational change during information system evolution (ISE). We propose a dynamic model of ISE which characterizes ISE related change in four dimensions: 1) planned, 2) improvised, 3) organizational, and 4) IT related. The model- generated inductively through theory-building case studies - enables us narrate a more comprehensive explanation of ISE over time- in particular how such evolution is orchestrated by both planned and improvised change, which tacks between technical and organizational modifications. The model thus recognizes dynamic interactions between organizational and IT change by showing how incremental/improvised changes in IT or organizational processes evolve into pervasive and permanent change when organizations institutionalize these improvisations into new permanent IT designs and revised organizational routines. We demonstrate the analytical value of the proposed evolution model by investigating ISE processes in two manufacturing organizations implementing the same inter-organizational system over a period of two years. This multi-site case study research allows us to more systematically characterize significant socio-technical changes triggered by user improvisation. Our model and associated empirical analysis moves explorations of organizational and IT change towards a more unified understanding of how both mutually affect the form, function and evolution of the other

Rethinking sociotechnical transitions and green entrepreneurship : the potential for transformative change in the green building sector

This paper explores the development of green entrepreneurship and its potential role in transformative change towards a green economy. It achieves this through a study of the green building sector in England and Wales, based on qualitative empirical data from fifty-five semistructured interviews with businesses in the green building sector and with support organisations, including banks, financial sources, and business advice and support. The paper both critiques and synthesises two bodies of literature-entrepreneurial research and sociotechnical transitions theories, specifically the multilevel perspective (MLP)-to better understand the role of green entrepreneurs in facilitating a shift towards a green economy. This analysis embeds green entrepreneurs in a wider system of actors, rather than reifying the lone entrepreneurial hero, in order to explore how green entrepreneurs facilitate sustainability transitions. The paper challenges the notion that green entrepreneurs are an unproblematic category. We discovered that individuals move between 'green' and 'conventional' business, evolving over time, such that this is a fluid and blurred, rather than static, state. Moreover, while the green economy and the green building sector are often referred to as coherent sectors, with agreed and consistent practices, our evidence suggests that they are far from agreed, that business models vary, and that there are significant contradictions within so-called green building practices. The paper contributes to the development of sociotechnical transitions theory and suggests that the MLP needs to incorporate complexity and multiplicity within niches, that niches may be inherently co nflictual rather than consensual, and that the concept of 'protection' for niches is problematic. © 2014 Pion and its Licensors

Applying Bourdieu to socio-technical systems: The importance of affordances for social translucence in building 'capital' and status to eBay's success

This paper introduces the work of Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and his concepts of ‘the field’ and ‘capital’ in relation to eBay. This paper considers eBay to be a socio-technical system with its own set of social norms, rules and competition over ‘capital’. eBay is used as a case study of the importance of using a Bourdieuean approach to create successful socio-technical systems.Using a two-year qualitative study of eBay users as empirical illustration, this paper argues that a large part of eBay’s success is in the social and cultural affordances for social translucence and navigation of eBay’s website - in supporting the Bourdieuean competition over capital and status. This exploration has implications for wider socio-technical systems design which this paper will discuss - in particular, the importance of creating socially translucent and navigable systems, informed by Bourdieu’s theoretical insights, which support competition for ‘capital’ and status

Desperately seeking niches: Grassroots innovations and niche development in the community currency field

The sustainability transitions literature seeks to explain the conditions under which technological innovations can diffuse and disrupt existing socio-technical systems through the successful scaling up of experimental ‘niches’; but recent research on ‘grassroots innovations’ argues that civil society is a promising but under-researched site of innovation for sustainability, albeit one with very different characteristics to the market-based innovation normally considered in the literature. This paper aims to address that research gap by exploring the relevance of niche development theories in a civil society context. To do this, we examine a growing grassroots innovation – the international field of community currencies – which comprises a range of new socio-technical configurations of systems of exchange which have emerged from civil society over the last 30 years, intended to provide more environmentally and socially sustainable forms of money and finance. We draw on new empirical research from an international study of these initiatives comprising primary and secondary data and documentary sources, elite interviews and participant observation in the field. We describe the global diffusion of community currencies, and then conduct a niche analysis to evaluate the utility of niche theories for explaining the development of the community currency movement. We find that some niche-building processes identified in the existing literature are relevant in a grassroots context: the importance of building networks, managing expectations and the significance of external ‘landscape’ pressures, particularly at the level of national-type. However, our findings suggest that existing theories do not fully capture the complexity of this type of innovation: we find a diverse field addressing a range of societal systems (money, welfare, education, health, consumerism), and showing increasing fragmentation (as opposed to consolidation and standardisation); furthermore, there is little evidence of formalised learning taking place but this has not hampered movement growth. We conclude that grassroots innovations develop and diffuse in quite different ways to conventional innovations, and that niche theories require adaptation to the civil society context

A strategic perspective for managing socio-technical systems: the missing link

Most man-made systems around us are mainly socio-technical systems. As such it is imperative that to manage such systems effectively we need to understand their properties at both the micro and macro level and the holistic functioning of such systems. Such an approach is important in understanding the emergent properties that are exhibited by such system. We already have been delving into the micro level and the intricacies of the different subsystems without actually having the broader view of the whole system. This current approach came from the fact that reductionism is the ‘mantra’ of our scientific nature and endeavours, and dictates how a problem is solved. In this paper a strategic approach is put forward, making use of the force field theory as a necessary missing component for designing and managing socio-technical systems. With this proposed strategic approach the true understanding of solving these emergent properties will be reinforced with what we already know and also help in solving some disorder exhibited in these systems, without creating more uncertainties. This paper sets out the framework and its usefulness to understanding the socio-technical systems around us