22 research outputs found
Plurality in understandings of innovation, sociotechnical progress and sustainable development: An analysis of OECD expert narratives
Deterministic theory and discourse on sociotechnical progress ignore the existence of multiple and equally viable pathways towards progress, obscure socioeconomic and environmental conflicting interests and values, and overshadow socially inclusive deliberative choices about policy strategies. Demystifying techno-determinism, by incorporating a plurality of understandings to policy appraisal, becomes a matter of not only democratic accountability but also of analytical rigour. This article analyses the normative and ontological understandings on scientific and technological pathways among a group of experts interviewed at one key Directorate of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, using Q-methodology. The three main framings detected do not correspond exclusively to any single innovation and development theoretical framework â namely Innovation Systems, Learning Systems, Catch-Up models or the science, technology and society approach. Each narrative organizes an array of policy understandings based upon different theories and practices. As these forms of discourse highly influence global policy recommendations, their plurality should be made explicit, negotiated and integrated into policymaking
Non-formal environmental education in a vulnerable region: Insights from a 20-year long engagement in PetrĂłpolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Environmental education is essential in the diffusion of the ethics, values, and skills that are critical to sustainable transformations. This paper presents the experience of non-formal environmental education approaches held in schools in the PetrĂłpolis region of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between 1997â2016. This paper adds to the literature on the relevant approaches and effectives of non-formal environmental education, especially in the vulnerable areas of low and middle-income regions that face critical environmental challenges. Specifically, to set up the context, this paper intends to firstly convey the commonly identified environmental sustainability challenges that the communities of the PetrĂłpolis region are facing. Secondly, this report aims to convey key insights on how non-formal environmental education practices can strengthen gardening skills, environmental ethics, and sustainable food practices. These approaches have the potential to enhance the capacity of students toward sustainable transformations through encouraging them to be engaged with local social-environmental challenges. This paper adds new insights to the growing literature on non-formal environmental education, and it is hoped to inspire new educational approaches among sustainability educators
The role of war in deep transitions: exploring mechanisms, imprints and rules in sociotechnical systems
This paper explores in what ways the two world wars influenced the development of sociotechnical systems underpinning the culmination of the first deep transition. The role of war is an underexplored aspect in both the Techno-Economic Paradigms (TEP) approach and the Multi-level perspective (MLP) which form the two key conceptual building blocks of the Deep Transitions (DT) framework. Thus, we develop a conceptual approach tailored to this particular topic which integrates accounts of total war and mechanisms of war from historical studies and imprinting from organisational studies with the DT frameworkâs attention towards rules and meta-rules. We explore in what ways the three sociotechnical systems of energy, food, and transport were affected by the emergence of new demand pressures and logistical challenges during conditions of total war; how war impacted the directionality of sociotechnical systems; the extent to which new national and international policy capacities emerged during wartime in the energy, food, and transport systems; and the extent to which these systems were influenced by cooperation and shared sacrifice under wartime conditions. We then explore what lasting changes were influenced by the two wars in the energy, food, and transport systems across the transatlantic zone. This paper seeks to open up a hitherto neglected area in analysis on sociotechnical transitions and we discuss the importance of further research that is attentive towards entanglements of warfare and the military particularly in the field of sustainability transitions
Investigating the Regulatory-Push of Eco-innovations in Brazilian Companies
This paper presents eco-innovation as the means of harmonizing economic activities with environmental resilience. Several agents and factors are involved with generation and diffusion of eco-innovations; nevertheless, the role performed by the state, as an inducer of eco-innovation, is crucial. Little is known about the role played by governments in promoting eco-innovations. This work investigates the influence of regulations in generating eco-innovation in Brazil, through a statistical analysis originated by an unprecedented survey carried out with 98 Brazilian enterprises. Results suggest that regulations are keen on promoting organizational and process innovations, with incremental impacts and internalizing environmental externalities that are no longer tolerable by the government. A high number of regulatory-pushed eco-innovations were generated using economic mechanisms, such as funding and subsidies and came out of cooperative arrangements, mostly with suppliers. Regulations could also be influencing high-impact eco-innovations, opening up opportunities to suppliers of cleaner products and services
Towards a Theory of Ecosystem Catalyst
Organizational growth, size, and longevity are core assumptions within the notion of âscaleâ within the entrepreneurship literature. The concept of scale, however, has limited use when taken-for-granted in the social impact context because it neglects that a social venture may synchronize growth in value creation, exchange, and capture for their intended beneficiaries through changes that occur within an ecosystem, rather than through growth that is confined to the boundaries of the organization. In this study, we inductively explore the case of ColaLife - an organization created to scale up access to diarrhea treatment in Zambia while also rendering itself gradually more redundant until ceasing its operations. We ask an undertheorized question in entrepreneurship literature: How do social entrepreneurs scale social impact while simultaneously scaling away their own organizations? By studying ColaLife in-depth and over time, we theorize the role of Ecosystem Catalysts as the combinatorial function of instilling in an ecosystem a shared purpose, leveraging existing capabilities and resources, and enhancing the autonomy of local players. We argue for a more nuanced and value-based conceptualization of âscaleâ: one that is more adequate to interpreting scaling efforts at the intersection between social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems
Empowering political participation through artificial intelligence
Technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI) can radically change the existing political paradigm, empowering more diffused forms of political participation beyond electionsâespecially in the emergent worldwide context of unrestricted disclosure of governmental data online. The objective of this research is to investigate how civil society can use AI-based technologies to empower political participation. A sample of 721 publications was conducted through a combination of bibliometric analysis and systematic review, which revealed the characteristics and the nascent state of literature. This was followed by an exploratory Case Study, conducted through in-depth interviews and participant observation and supplemented by secondary materials. The content of the Case Study was extensively and systematically analysed through textual coding. We depicted a framework of how civil society can use AI-based technologies to nurture diffused political participation. This framework scrutinizes six focal areas and their respective dominant traits and descriptive features, aiming at contributing to guiding academic studies and political endeavours
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How do projects decouple from coercive pressures? A study of decoupling in construction projects
PurposeHow organisations interact with and respond to environmental pressures has been a long-term interest of organisational scholars. Still, it remains an under-theorised phenomenon from a project perspective. So far, there is limited understanding of how projects, which are composed by a constellation of organisations, ârespondâ to institutional pressures that are exerted on them. This research takes the perspective of projects as adopters/implementers of institutional pressures and analyses how they interact with, and respond to, such pressures. More specifically, this research explores how construction projects respond to the pressure of a Building Information Modelling (BIM) mandate.Design/methodology/approachMultiple in-depth case studies were conducted to explore the practical implementation of a BIM mandate in the UK and understand how the construction projects responded to the coercive pressures to implement a new policy mandate for process digitalisation. Multiple sources were employed for data collection and the data were analysed inductively. The findings identify a hybrid response comprising four distinct ways that projects might respond to an institutional pressure.FindingsWe find that projects decouple both from the content and from the intended purpose of a policy, i.e. there are two variance of a policy-practice decoupling phenomenon in projects. The findings also reveal the underlying conditions leading to decoupling.Originality/valueWe advance decoupling literature so that it better applies to the temporary, distributed and interdependent work conducted via projects. Second, we define decoupling in projects as a provisional and fragmented process of wayfinding through heterogeneous institutional spaces, and discuss the potential policy-practice assemblages in projects, influenced by how, if and when project members' activities decouple from the many and often contradicting institutional pressures they face. Third, we discuss how the qualitatively different forms of decoupling that we identified in our work may act as part of a legitimation process in ambiguous situations whereby projects might share a resemblance of conformity with institutional pressures when they are de facto only partially conforming to them.</jats:sec
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Experimentation in wicked situations: how activists construct pragmatic action frames
Experimentation is key in wicked situations; it provides small wins while keeping several options open for the future. The literature is however scarce on how experimentation is framed, a crucial aspect to the understanding of how actors identify and pursue experiments in situations that are constantly changing and lack a clear resolution. We address this gap by drawing on the concept of âaction framesâ and deploying a comparative case study of nine cases in diverse contexts in which activists experimented with wicked problems. We find that activists pragmatically shy away from pursuing a permanent solution to focus instead on achieving small wins, diagnosing âsymptomsâ rather than âroot causesâ of problems, and âworking aroundâ institutional constraints instead of directly âconfrontingâ them. This pragmatic action frame prompts them to initiate pilot experiments that involve trial-and-error and collective learning, and that sometimes scaffold into cumulative small wins. Reflecting on our findings, we build a model of how pragmatic action frames fuel distributed possibilities to experiment in wicked situations. Our model contributes to the literature on wicked problems by revealing how activists âwelcomeâ complexity instead of âtamingâ it. We contribute to the literature on action frames by demonstrating how multiple viable pragmatic action frames are constructed iteratively without threatening an alternative, dominant frame. Lastly, we contribute to the literature on robust action by demonstrating how pragmatic action frames pave the way for distributed experimentation and by unpacking the core attributes that make ârobust actorsâ accepting of open-ended wayfinding journeys