Service Systems in Changing Paradigms: An Inquiry Through the Systems Sciences

For professionals at the beginning of the 21st century, much of the conventional wisdom on business management and engineering is founded in the 20th century industrial / manufacturing paradigm. In developed economies, however, the service sector now dominates the manufacturing sector, just as manufacturing prevailed over the agricultural sector after the industrial revolution.\ud This chapter proposes the development of a body of knowledge on services systems, based on foundations in the systems sciences. The approach includes the design of\ud the systems of inquiry, acknowledging that body of knowledge on 21st century service systems is relatively nascent. A program of action science is proposed, with an\ud emphasis on multiple realities and knowledge development through dialectic. The outcome pursued is an increased number of T-shaped people with depth and breadth\ud in service systems, in communities of inquiry of researchers and practitioners

Using Net Wetland Loss, Current Wetland Condition, and Planned Future Watershed Condition for Wetland Conservation Prioritization, Tampa Bay Watershed, Florida

The Tampa Bay Watershed is emblematic of moderately sized coastal watersheds in the US: one-third of the wetlands were lost between the 1950s and 2007; numerous wetland remain, though many have been impacted; most remaining wetlands are hydrologically connected to downgradient waters; there are future constraints to wetland conservation; and the spatial complexity of these factors make it difficult to coordinate watershed-scale wetland conservation planning. Therefore, the Tampa Bay Watershed can serve as a model system for studying coordinated watershed-scale wetland conservation planning. The development of a technical framework requires that spatially explicit information be obtained, analyzed, and organized so customizable queries can be run by stakeholder agencies. Our approach does so by using readily available data to create a geodatabase organized into a set of screening layers that can be intersected hierarchically to identify areas where wetland preservation and restoration might be best used to accomplish overarching goals. Our approach was developed in conjunction with stakeholder input and is currently being integrated into a coordinated watershed-scale wetland conservation effort

Using Net Wetland Loss, Current Wetland Condition, and Planned Future Watershed Condition for Wetland Conservation Planning and Prioritization, Tampa Bay Watershed, Florida

The Tampa Bay Watershed is emblematic of moderately sized coastal watersheds in the US, particularly along the Gulf Coast: one-third of the wetlands were lost between the 1950s and 2007; numerous wetland remain, though many have been impacted; most of the remaining wetlands are hydrologically connected to downstream wetlands and waterbodies; there are future constraints to wetland conservation; and the spatial complexity of these factors make it difficult to coordinate watershed-scale wetland conservation planning. Therefore, the Tampa Bay Watershed can serve as a model system for studying ways to coordinate watershed-scale wetland conservation planning efforts. The development of a technical framework to support coordinated, watershed-scale wetland conservation planning requires that spatially explicit information be obtained, analyzed, and organized so customizable queries can be run by stakeholder agencies. The approach described herein does so by using readily available data to create a geodatabase organized into a set of screening layers that can be intersected hierarchically to identify areas where wetland preservation and restoration might be best used to accomplish overarching goals. The information and tools described herein were developed in conjunction with stakeholder input and are in the process of being integrated into a watershed master plan for freshwater wetland conservation

A ‘Bedford Falls’ kind of place: Neighbourhood branding and commercial revitalisation in processes of gentrification in Toronto, Ontario

Drawing on in-depth stakeholder interviews and media accounts, we explore a case of civic activism over the opening of a strip club in a neighbourhood of Etobicoke, one of six municipalities amalgamated in 1998 to form the current City of Toronto, Ontario. In 2008, the growing residential gentrification of the area had not yet extended into the commercial district and the opening of the strip club challenged the gentrifiers’ nascent ‘revitalising and family-friendly’ neighbourhood brand – a brand that became integral to their civic and legal strategies to impede the opening of the club. This case highlights the ways in which gentrifiers participate in processes of commercial gentrification by enacting place marketing strategies that express social and spatial class-based disaffiliation and that define suitable uses of neighbourhood public spaces. The political contestation of neighbourhood boundaries takes shifting civic and legal forms, and the place branding expressed and promoted by these strategies encourages commercial gentrification by inviting particular patterns of class-based consumption into neighbourhood business districts. The case also underscores the contingent meaning of neighbourhood land uses for gentrifiers and the growing potential importance of commercial identities for gentrifiers’ relational constructions of ‘community’ and its boundaries. We contextualise this case within literature on commercial gentrification and the constitution of identity – individual, neighbourhood and class – through processes of ‘othering’, demonstrating that gentrification is a politically contested social and spatial practice with affective and material consequences

Smartness, Sustainability and Resilience: Are They Related?

In the imminent future, cities have to face not only an increasing urbanization but also the negative consequences of natural and human disasters. From this point of view, a city should be considered as vulnerable to climate change and other natural negative events. Thus, the challenge of a city consists in remaining on a sustainable development path. To reach this object the concepts of smartness, sustainability and resilience for a city should be intertwined. Starting from the analysis of a bright city as an integrated approach, the aim of this study consists in propose a first framework of an index which should include sustainable, smartness and resilient indicators. Integrating and measuring these three concepts in a unique index allows city’s policy makers to understand and manage natural and anthropogenic risks. Comparing dimensions/indicators with the common characteristics of the bright city concept, efficiency, diversity, and networking are the main characteristics while technology, governance, and social vulnerability are the prevailing dimensions. Flexible and resilient actions should be developed by cities to prevent and implement initiatives against negative environmental events which will be becoming common in the next years