Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Socio-technical change'

The world we live in is increasingly complex, interconnected and unpredictable. We face social and technological challenges, which must be overcome through the maintenance and redesign of existing systems, as well as the design and integration of new systems. Each of these systems has stakeholders at different levels and across domains, from those governing societies, to technical experts working on well-defined tasks. These stakeholders generally want their system to survive, or even thrive, in the face of uncertainty and unexpected influences. To describe this desire, people, from politicians to CEOs, use the word resilience. Resilience is a term that is referred to across domains in academic and public discourse. However, the exact definition of resilience is elusive, and it is not clear how to apply resilience in the context of socio-technical systems. To design resilient systems, we must first be able to answer questions including: Does a resilient system change to accommodate influences or stay the same? If the system changes, where should this change take place? How do we decide which system, or sub-system, to make resilient and at what level of abstraction? In this research I show how we can answer these questions by eliciting, combining and contrasting the perspectives of multiple stakeholders of socio-technical systems. In order to talk to these stakeholders, in interviews and workshops, I had to overcome communication barriers. Communicating about resilience is challenging because the term means different things to different people, both within and across domains. In this research I use diagrams to develop our understanding of resilience as a concept, prompt discussions with stakeholders, represent examples of resilience, and compare stakeholder perspectives across domains. Using these diagrams, I present three characteristics of resilience that have emerged from the literature and empirical studies: resisting, recovering and changing in response to influences. I also show how resilience is framed by stakeholders’ perspectives and depends on how a system’s boundary, purpose and timescale is defined. The characteristics of resilience are related to system dimensions, structure and function, with a focus on the similarities and differences between social and technical sub-systems. This research contributes a new understanding of resilience in the context of design practice, which moves us closer towards being able to design resilient socio-technical systems.

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, System Design and Management Program, Engineering and Management Program, 2016.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 99-100).
In the engineering of complex systems, changes to flight hardware or software after initial release can have large impacts on project implementation. Even a comparatively small change on an assembly or subsystem can cascade into a significant amount of rework if it propagates through the system. This can happen when a change affects the interfaces with another subsystem, or if it alters the emergent behavior of the system in a significant way, and is especially critical when subsequent work has already been performed utilizing the initial version. These changes can be driven by new or modified requirements leading to changes in scope, design deficiencies discovered during analysis or test, failures during test, and other such mechanisms. In complex system development, changes are managed through engineering change requests (ECRs) that are communicated to affected elements. While the tracking of changes is critical for the ongoing engineering of a complex project, the ECRs can also reveal trends on the system level that could assist with the management of current and future projects. In an effort to identify systematic trends, this research has analyzed ECRs from two different JPL led space mission projects to classify the change activity and assess change propagation. It employs time analysis of ECR initiation throughout the lifecycle, correlates ECR generators with ECR absorbers, and considers the distribution of ECRs across subsystems. The analyzed projects are the planetary rover mission, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), and the Earth-orbiting mission, Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP). This analysis has shown that there is some consistency across these projects with regard to which subsystems generate or absorb change. The relationship of the ECRSubsystem networks identifies subsystems that are absorbers of change and others that are generators of change. For the flight systems, the strongest absorbers of change were found to be avionics and the mechanical structure for the spacecraft bus, and the strongest generators of change were concentrated in the payloads. When this attribute is recognized, project management can attempt to close ECR networks by looking for ways to leverage absorbers and avoid multipliers. Alternatively, in cases where changes to a subsystem are undesirable, knowing whether it is an absorber can greatly assist with expectations and planning. This analysis identified some significant differences between the two projects as well. While SMAP followed a relatively well behaved blossom profile across the project, MSL had an avalanche of change leading to the drastic action of re-baselining the launch date. While the official reasoning for the slip of the launch date is based in technical difficulties, the avalanche profile implies that a snowballing of change may have had a significant impact as well. Furthermore, the complexity metrics applied show that MSL has a more complex nature than SMAP, with 269 ECRs in 65 Parent-Child clusters, opposed to 166 in 53 for SMAP, respectively. The Process Complexity metric confirms this, quantitatively measuring the complexity of MSL at 492, compared to 367 for SMAP. These tools and metrics confirm the intuition that MSL, as a planetary rover, is a more complex space mission than SMAP, an earth orbiter.
by Eric D. Ward.
S.M. in Engineering and Management

Printing has a long and illustrious history as a craft industry. This study explores the effects of technological change on skilled workers in the Edinburgh general printing industry. Three, initially distinct, areas of sociological theory concerning technological change shaped the research questions. These were, firstly, to establish the nature of recent technological change, and what drives it; secondly, to explore managers' decision-making in relation to such changes; and thirdly, to understand how workers' experiences of work, and their relationships at work, have changed with these changes in technology. My findings are based on three waves of investigations carried out over fifteen years, using responses from both managerial and shop-floor staff in five selected companies. This was done initially through questionnaires and later through semi-structured interviews. At Wave One (1991-92), most companies had made initial changes towards sophisticated computerisation, which had become embedded by Wave Two (1996-97). By Wave Three (2005-06) there was an ongoing programme of continual updating of these established systems constrained by the need to maintain compatibility with the computer systems used by customers due to the global hegemony of computer manufacturers. However, the effects upon workers were unexpected. Computerised typesetting programs inevitably brought deskilling, but original skills, learnt and used by workers over many years of rapidly changing technology, did remain relevant, and the acquisition of new skills associated with computerisation was regarded favourably. The most significant change for workers was the increased pressure resulting from a close relationship with customers, with vastly reduced time allowed for each job, and some erosion of workers' capacity (and managers') to produce work which satisfied their own standards of quality. The three, originally separate, themes converged to show that the particular nature of computerised technology used in this sector of the printing industry has led to a change in the traditional capitalist production relationship. These workers were not alienated, their skills had not been entirely lost, as neo-Marxist labour process theory would suggest. Rather, relationships between managers and these skilled shop-floor workers were characterised by mutual respect and understanding of the need for collaboration, not conflict, in the face of external hostile pressures.

Society is making increasing efforts to become more sustainable by fostering new technologies such as renewable energy. Often, there are significant challenges to introducing new technologies because existing infrastructure, institutions, social groupings, and behaviours have co-evolved with and consequently support incumbent technologies - a condition known as lock-in. To support efforts to introduce new technologies, researchers have developed conceptual frameworks that aim to increase our understanding of socio-technical change. One promising framework is Strategic Niche Management (SNM); however despite its strength as an ex post analytical tool, SNM has yet to be used to guide experiments with new technologies. This thesis aims to make SNM more usable for those introducing new technologies by responding to four weaknesses identified in existing literature: a weak link between the conceptual framework and action, the vague role of actors, an inadequate appreciation of issues of consensus and limits of influence, and an inadequate appreciation of the challenges that actors may face. This is achieved by identifying promising insights and testing them on a case study of wind power in Australia. The literature review identifies dynamics that have been linked to positive feedbacks in the development of new technologies and socio-technical change. These are: stimulating demand, increasing use, learning and articulation, increasing functionality, decreasing costs, decreasing uncertainty, embedding and alignment, increasing legitimacy, attracting actors, and strengthening expectations and visions. These dynamics can be used to provide a better link between theory and action. The review also identifies particular actor roles - such as niche manager, macro actor, prime mover, and dedicated network builder - and actions that actors in these roles may take. These roles and actions are linked to the dynamics. Also reviewed are issues related to consensus and limits of influence; a particularly useful concept in this regard is resource interdependency. Finally, the review identifies challenges to encouraging the dynamics aimed at helping actors to anticipate problems in the introduction of new technologies. T he relevance of this approach and applicability of these insights are tested with a case study of wind power in Australia. The case study explains changes related to grid-connected wind power in Australia between about 1997 and 2007. There was significant socio-technical change: for example, installed grid-connected wind farm capacity grew from about 1 MW to almost 900 MW, an industry and industry association formed, there were unprecedented changes in energy policy, new high-level actor groups formed to oversee the grid-integration of wind power, Governments amended planning schemes, and public opinion was increasingly articulated. The dynamics identified in the literature review were all relevant to wind power. The study provides examples of the actors that can encourage these dynamics and how they might do so. Most challenges identified in the literature review were relevant to wind power and possible strategies for managing them were identified. Also revealed were challenges in transitional strategies, legitimacy of the technology and consensus. These findings are discussed in detail. These findings are intended to help actors foster technologies for sustainability.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Instructional Systems Technology, 2006.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1301. Adviser: Thomas M. Schwen. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 14, 2007)."

Energy technologies and systems are imperative for the proper functioning of our economies and societies, but due to their growing environmental and social impacts, there appears to be an interest in making a transition toward alternative forms of energy systems. However, making such a transition would involve understanding the complex characteristics of energy technologies, their interdependencies, sustainability impacts and socio-technical contexts, therefore, it calls for an inter-disciplinary approach to such an analysis. This dissertation proposes two approaches to informing future energy and technology policies. The first approach is motivated by the need to improve methods for sustainability assessment. While a variety of tools and methods exist for the assessment of sustainability, there appears to be no systematic approach to their selection and thus the design of sustainability assessments is often driven by convenience, familiarity and availability of tools. Therefore, a framework (Sustainability Assessment Framework) is proposed for a more systematic approach to tool selection and for the design of the next generation of sustainability assessments. The second approach is based on an attempt to understand the dynamics of technological transitions. Much of the literature on technological change focuses on technologies, but the technological transitions literature highlights the importance of thinking about transitions between socio-technical systems. This dissertation suggests that the guidance to socio-technical transitions may not come from choices made between technologies, but instead from choices made about desirable futures. The articulation of a desirable future may then enable compatible technologies currently within niches, to co-evolve and develop inter-dependencies with other compatible technologies and systems, thus initiating a possible socio-technical transition. It is argued that both approaches complement each other in informing energy and technology policy regarding transitions to future energy systems. While the first approach (sustainability-driven) allows us to assess the sustainability of future technologies and systems, the second approach (transition dynamics-driven) informs us about the dynamics of the transition process and urges us to think of transitions in terms of a desired future and its characteristics (i.e. sustainability characteristics). Together the two approaches inform us on how we might think about choosing and guiding a desirable future.
Science, Faculty of
Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for
Graduate

This thesis addresses the theory of Socio-Technical Systems (STS) within the context of Information Systems (IS), a complicated field combining Information Technology and social shaping impacts. IS have been changing our society for some decades. From Office Automation (OA) to E-Commerce and E-government, IS are creating a new era of Mobilisation. Different industries have all been adopting Information Technology to enhance their business, from enterprises to public sectors. All these changes bring dramatic impacts for organisational behaviour and people's living, which need to be studied. According to academic literature, health informatics, being one of the important and complex fields in IS, started to employ mobile technical systems to improve healthcare service delivery for citizens at the start of the new Millennium. Comparing with other theoretical models in IS, the author argues that the Socio-Technical approach can explain comprehensively the new changes to organisations and society. Following the theories of STS, these case studies were decided by the researchers as field work in Chinese Community Healthcare Service Centres, where there are various mobile services for the citizens. Through multiple case studies, the author found that Leader Emphasis is one new social element in the field of the IS, while Participation, as another social element is essential to the context of this research project. These two social shaping elements, combining together within a model of STS, provide new decision making process, which is vital to a successful development of Mobile Health Information Systems (MHIS). The model has affected organisational behaviour, organisational structure, culture and society, following the usage of Mobile IS. Based on the result of the field work and the relevant literature of E-govemment, this research also concludes that M-govemment can be the transformation of E-govemment, as public service can be delivered efficiently by Mobile IS. A developing model is presented in this thesis.

In recent years, several nations have adopted institutional framework laws, so-called Climate Change Acts (CCAs), as means to enforce Paris-compliant mitigation pathways. A key institutional feature to ensure policy stability and compliance with CCAs has been the establishment of independent advisory bodies, tasked with advising on mitigation targets and policy instruments, as well as the, monitoring and evaluation of target attainment. These advisory bodies are endowed with a crucial role in the long-term evaluation and planning process: examining how the low-carbon transition pathways might be achieved. Calling attention to the question of how transition pathways should be conceived and approached, whether it is in 'bio-physical' (climate science), 'techno- economic' (technology assessment/economics) or 'socio-technical' (socio-technical transition field) terms. Recent studies have indicated that a socio-technical transitions is increasingly framed as a question of removing carbon energy from various practices and infrastructures, challenging the dominant techno-economic approach of emissions reductions using carbon-pricing instruments. This thesis explores this challenge, drawing upon a case study of the establishment of the Swedish Climate Policy Council, by means of analyzing the process of institutionalization and how transition pathways are (re)produced discursively through the practices of climate policy evaluation and planning. The main findings of this thesis is that a cross-party consensus behind the Swedish CCA was formed around institutionalizing a 'bio-physical’ mitigation pathway, monitored and safeguarded by the Council which could assign 'political embarrassment' to governments failing to comply with the interim and long-term GHG mitigation targets. Beyond this consensus, the institutional design of the Council is the result of discursive struggles between actor-coalitions supporting techno-economic versus socio-technical transition pathways. However, the recently formed Council has come to challenge previously dominant techno-economic practices of forecasting cost-efficient emissions reductions. This has been accomplished by introducing a novel socio-technical approach to climate policy evaluation: the backcasting of interrelated technological and institutional shifts believed to be necessary in bringing about a low-carbon transition or transformation. Nevertheless, as this socio-technical practice primarily backcasts upon a number of key technological innovations, with limited changes to current industrial patterns of production and consumption, doubts are raised if this approach is to be considered as constitutive of transformative transition pathways.

The need for a more sustainable approach to water consumption has increasingly gained attention in the last decade. The domestic sector accounts for over half of abstracted water in the UK and, as such, has become a major target for water efficiency interventions. Current research and water efficiency interventions are dominated by a positivist approach, focusing on a limited range of factors that can be quantitatively measured. This thesis questions the dominant approach and argues that a more holistic overview of water efficiency can be achieved through the consideration of socio-technical and behavioural theories. Taking a more constructivist approach, this research draws on four theories from socio-technical and behavioural fields and combines them to create a framework for the analysis of water efficiency interventions. The framework is applied to two case studies, exploring water users' perceptions of water, water supply, personal water use, and their responses to the water efficiency interventions. The case studies were selected to provide examples of current mainstream approaches to water demand management. Research methods used included semi-structured interviews and observation. The research findings support the argument that the current dominant approach to domestic water efficiency interventions is limited and, in some cases, ineffectual. Issues of trust, knowledge, motivation and the relationships between water users and water companies were raised. The thesis concludes that the use of a constructivist perspective could help to provide a more effective approach to understanding and improving water demand management.

1. Contextual outline of the PhD Research

Climate change is today often seen as one of the most challenging issue that our civilisation will have to face during the 21st century. This is especially so now that the most recent scientific data have led to the conclusion that the globally averaged net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming (IPCC 2007, p. 5) and that continued greenhouse gas emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming (IPCC, 2007 p. 13). This unequivocal link between climate change and anthropogenic activities requires an urgent, world-wide shift towards a low carbon economy (STERN 2006 p. iv) and coordinated policies and measures to manage this transition.

The climate issue is undoubtedly a typical policy question and as such, is considered amenable to economic scrutiny. Indeed, in today’s world economics is inevitable when it comes to arbitrages in the field of policy making. From the very beginning of international talks on climate change, up until the most recent discussions on a post-Kyoto international framework, economic arguments have turned out to be crucial elements of the analysis that shapes policy responses to the climate threat. This can be illustrated by the prominent role that economics has played in the different analyses produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to assess the impact of climate change on society.

The starting point and the core idea of this PhD research is the long-held observation that the threat of climate change calls for a change of climate in economics. Borrowing from the jargon used in climate policy, adaptation measures could also usefully target the academic discipline of economics. Given that inherent characteristics of the climate problem (e.g. complexity, irreversibility, deep uncertainty, etc.) challenge core economic assumptions, mainstream economic theory does not appear as appropriately equipped to deal with this crucial issue. This makes that new assumptions and analyses are needed in economics in order to comprehend and respond to the problem of climate change.

In parallel (and without environmental considerations being specifically the driving force to it), the mainstream model in economics has also long been (and still is) strongly criticised and disputed by numerous scholars - both from within and outside the field of economics. For the sake of functionality, these criticisms - whether they relate to theoretical inconsistencies or are empirically-based - can be subsumed as all challenging part of the Cartesian/Newtonian legacy of economics. This legacy can be shown to have led to a model imprinted with what could be called “mechanistic reductionism”. The mechanistic side refers to the Homo oeconomicus construct while reductionism refers to the quest for micro-foundations materialised with the representative agent hypothesis. These two hypotheses constitute, together with the conjecture of perfect markets, the building blocks of the framework of general equilibrium economics.

Even though it is functional for the purpose of this work to present them separately, the flaws of economics in dealing with the specificities of the climate issue are not considered independent from the fundamental objections made to the theoretical framework of mainstream economics. The former only make the latter seem more pregnant while the current failure of traditional climate policies informed by mainstream economics render the need for complementary approaches more urgent.

2. Overview of the approach and its main insights for climate policy

Starting from this observation, the main objective of this PhD is thus to assess the implications for climate policy that arise from adopting an alternative analytical economic framework. The stance is that the coupling of insights from the framework of evolutionary economics with the perspective of ecological economics provides a promising way forward both theoretically as well as on a more applied basis with respect to a better comprehension of the socioeconomic aspects related to the climate problem. As claimed in van den Bergh (2007, p. 521), ecological economics and evolutionary economics “share many characteristics and can be combined in a fruitful way" - which renders the coupling approach both legitimate and promising.

The choice of an evolutionary line of thought initially stems from its core characteristic: given its focus on innovation and system change it provides a useful approach to start with for assessing and managing the needed transition towards a low carbon economy. Besides, its shift of focus towards a better understanding of economic dynamics together with its departure from the perfect rationality hypothesis renders evolutionary economics a suitable theoretical complement for designing environmental policies.

The notions of path-dependence and lock-in can be seen as the core elements from this PhD research. They arise from adopting a framework which is founded on a different view of individual rationality and that allows for richer and more complex causalities to be accounted for. In a quest for surmounting the above-mentioned problem of reductionism, our framework builds on the idea of ‘multi-level selection’. This means that our analytical framework should be able to accommodate not only for upward but also for downward causation, without giving analytical priority to any level over the other. One crucial implication of such a framework is that the notion of circularity becomes the core dynamic, highlighting the importance of historicity, feedbacks and emergent properties.

More precisely, the added value of the perspective adopted in this PhD research is that it highlights the role played by inertia and path-dependence. Obviously, it is essential to have a good understanding of the underlying causes of that inertia prior to devising on how to enforce a change. Providing a clear picture of the socio-economic processes at play in shaping socio-technical systems is thus a necessary first step in order to usefully complement policy-making in the field of energy and climate change. In providing an analytical basis for this important diagnosis to be performed, the use of the evolutionary framework sheds a new light on the transition towards low-carbon socio-technical systems. The objective is to suggest strategies that could prove efficient in triggering the needed transition such as it has been the case in past “lock-in” stories.

Most notably, the evolutionary framework allows us to depict the presence of two sources of inertia (i.e at the levels of individuals through “habits” and at the level of socio-technical systems) that mutually reinforce each other in a path-dependent manner. Within the broad perspective on path dependence and lock-in, this PhD research has first sketched the implications for climate policy of applying the concept of ‘technological lock-in’ in a systemic perspective. We then investigated in more details the notion of habits. This is important as the ‘behavioural’ part of the lock-in process, although explicitly acknowledged in the pioneer work of Paul David (David, 1985, p. 336), has been neglected in most of subsequent analyses. Throughout this study, the notion of habits has been studied at both the theoretical and applied level of analysis as well as from an empirical perspective.

As shown in the first chapters of the PhD, the advantage of our approach is that it can incorporate theories that so far have been presented opposite, partial and incomplete perspectives. For instance, it is shown that our evolutionary approach not only is able to provide explanation to some of the puzzling questions in economics (e.g. the problem of strong reciprocity displayed by individual in anonymous one-shot situations) but also is very helpful in bringing a complementary explanation with respect to the famous debate on the ‘no-regret’ emission reduction potential which agitates the experts of climate policy.

An emission reduction potential is said to be "no regret" when the costs of implementing a measure are more than offset by the benefits it generates such as, for instance, reduced energy bills. In explaining why individuals do not spontaneously implement those highly profitable energy-efficient investments ,it appears that most prior analyses have neglected the importance of non-economic obstacle. They are often referred to as “barriers” and partly relate to the ‘bounded rationality’ of economic agent. As developed in the different chapters of this PhD research, the framework of evolutionary economics is very useful in that it is able to provide a two-fold account (i.e. relying on both individual and socio-technical sources of inertia) of this limited rationality that prevent individuals to act as purely optimising agents.

Bearing this context in mind, the concept of habits, as defined and developed in this study, is essential in analysing the determinants of energy consumption. Indeed, this concept sheds an insightful light on the puzzling question of why energy consumption keeps rising even though there is an evident increase of awareness and concern about energy-related environmental issues such as climate change. Indeed, if we subscribe to the idea that energy-consuming behaviours are often guided by habits and that deeply ingrained habits can become “counter-intentional”, it then follows that people may often display “locked-in” practices in their daily energy consumption behaviour. This hypothesis has been assessed in our empirical analysis whose results show how the presence of strong energy-consuming habitual practices can reduce the effectiveness of economic incentives such as energy subsidies. One additional delicate factor that appears crucial for our purpose is that habits are not fully conscious forms of behaviours. This makes that individuals do not really see habits as a problem given that it is viewed as easily changed.

In sum, based on our evolutionary account of the situation, it follows that, to be more efficient, climate policies would have to both shift the incumbent carbon-based socio-technical systems (for it to shape decisions towards a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions) and also deconstruct habits that this same socio-technical has forged with time (as increased environmental awareness and intentions formulated accordingly are not sufficient in the presence of strong habits).

Accordingly, decision-makers should design measures (e.g. commitment strategies, niche management, etc.) that, as explained in this research, specifically target those change-resisting factors and their key features. This is essential as these factors tend to reduce the efficiency of traditional instruments. Micro-level interventions are thus needed as much as macro-level ones. For instance, it is often the case that external improvements of energy efficiency do not lead to lower energy consumption due to the rebound effect arising from unchanged energy-consuming habits. Bearing this in mind and building on the insights from the evolutionary approach, policy-makers should go beyond the mere subsidisation of technologies. They should instead create conditions enabling the use of the multi-layered, cumulative and self-reinforcing character of economic change highlighted by evolutionary analyses. This means supporting both social and physical technologies with the aim of influencing the selection environment so that only the low-carbon technologies and practices will survive.

Mentioned references:

David, P. A. (1985), Clio and the economics of QWERTY, American Economic Review 75/2: 332–337.

IPCC, 2007, ‘Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis’, Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S. D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 996 pp.

Stern, N. 2006, ‘Stern Review: The economics of Climate Change’, Report to the UK Prime Minister and Chancellor, London, 575 p. (www.sternreview.org.uk)

van den Bergh, J.C.J.M. 2007, ‘Evolutionary thinking in environmental economics’, Journal of Evolutionary Economics 17(5): 521-549.

Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

En Europe, le développement des énergies renouvelables (EnR) est porté par des acteurs jusqu'ici atypiques dans le secteur énergétique : des particuliers, agriculteurs et collectivités locales. Si bien qu'en Allemagne, plus de 50 % des capacités de production d'EnR appartiennent à des citoyens. De plus en plus de communes rurales atteignent ainsi une autonomie énergétique locale, produisant autant voir plus que leurs consommations, connectées aux réseaux énergétiques nationaux ou non (micro-réseaux). Qu'est-ce qui a amené ces citoyens et élus à devenir individuellement et collectivement autonomes ? Et quelles sont les implications de cette réappropriation locale de l'énergie sur les représentations et usages énergétiques, l'organisation sociale, les solidarités, l'économie locale ou l'identité collective ? Ces questionnements ont guidé la réalisation d'une étude socio-anthropologique auprès de cinq communes en Allemagne, Autriche et France. Cette analyse transnationale compare également deux échelles de l'autonomie énergétique : individuelle (domestique) et collective (commune). Un changement d'échelle qui permet d'interroger le rôle du système technique dans les usages énergétiques ou encore celui, précurseur et central, que jouent les agriculteurs dans le choix des EnR - pour mieux saisir son sens social. Le choix de l'autonomie locale et l'alternative qu'il constitue, au sein même du macro-système énergétique, a en effet une dimension politique, sociale, écologique, technique, économique et symbolique. Car finalement lorsque l'énergie change de mains, le pouvoir aussi
The development of renewable energy (RE) in Europe has been sustained, inter alia, by unconventional players in the energy sector: individuals, fanners, and local communities. As a result, over 50% of renewable energy generation capacity in Germany is citizen-owned. Thus more and more rural communities are achieving local energy independence, producing as much or even more than they consume, whether they are connected to national power grids or not (microgrids). What has led these citizens and local governments to become individually and collectively energy self-sufficient? And what are the implications of this local appropriation of energy on representations of energy and its use, social organization, social cohesion, local economies, and collective identity? These questions have guided this socio-anthropological study of five communities in Germany, Austria, and France. The transnational analysis also compares two levels of energy independence: individual (domestic) and collective (community). Changing the level of analysis makes it possible to question the role of the technical system in energy use, as well as the pioneering and key role farmers play in the choice of renewables - in order to better understand its social meaning. Within the large technical system, the choice of local energy independence, and the alternative it represents, has political, social, environmental, technical, economic, and symbolic dimensions. Because, ultimately, when energy changes hands, power does as well

Un changement rapide et d’ampleur vers des pratiques agricoles qui contribuent à la protection de l’environnement et la santé humaine est nécessaire. Dans de nombreux cas, ces pratiques alternatives existent, mais elles ne sont pas mises en œuvre du fait de contraintes au niveau de la parcelle, de l’exploitation, du territoire, de la filière et/ou à une échelle globale. Dans ma thèse, j’ai développé une méthodologie d’accompagnement du changement de pratiques prenant en compte les déterminants du choix des pratiques aux différentes échelles. J’ai appliqué cette méthodologie sur un cas d’étude précis : la gestion des bioagresseurs telluriques, en particulier des nématodes à galles, en maraîchage sous abris provençal. Les nématodes à galles causent des dommages importants sur les cultures maraîchères au niveau provençal (40% des exploitations touchées) et mondial. Leur gestion actuelle repose essentiellement sur l’usage de nématicides non sélectifs causant des dommages en matière environnementale et de santé humaine. Tout d’abord, j’ai réalisé une analyse sociotechnique montrant que le système agri-alimentaire maraîcher provençal était majoritairement verrouillé autour de l’utilisation des techniques « de désinfection radicale des sols », excluant ainsi la mise en œuvre de techniques alternatives agroécologiques. Ce verrouillage était constitué d’un ensemble de freins interconnectés qui ont entravé le changement de pratiques et auxquels prenait part une diversité de parties prenantes au niveau provençal et au-delà : les agriculteurs, l’amont et l’aval de la filière (consommateurs inclus), la R&D et les acteurs des politiques publiques. Suite à cette analyse, j’ai étudié des innovations couplées existantes facilitant la mise en œuvre d’une protection agroécologique des cultures dans les systèmes légumiers français. Cette « traque aux innovations » nous a permis d’identifier 5 types d’innovations couplées, et pour chaque type les combinaisons de leviers sociotechniques mobilisés et leurs conditions de mise en œuvre. En parallèle, j’ai mis au point un jeu sérieux me permettant de partager efficacement le résultat de l’analyse sociotechnique avec les parties prenantes du problème. Ce jeu sérieux m’a également permis de faciliter la gestion des connaissances et la créativité chez les parties prenantes et de favoriser leur collaboration, afin d’initier la conception de solutions innovantes adaptées au problème traité. Enfin, j’ai mobilisé les travaux précédents (analyse, traque et jeu) lors de 4 ateliers de coconception avec les parties prenantes. J’ai créé et mobilisé une diversité de dispositifs d’accompagnement dans ces ateliers. Ils ont permis de concevoir des solutions de plus en plus élaborées pour faciliter le changement de pratiques. Au total, nous avons collectivement conçu 50 solutions innovantes dont 41 innovations couplées, ouvrant ainsi l’espace des solutions possibles. Nous avons également évalué une partie des innovations couplées. En discussion, je pointe les pistes d’action et de recherche prometteuses pour faciliter l’implémentation de pratiques agroécologiques de gestion des bioagresseurs telluriques en maraîchage provençal sous abris. Je discute les évolutions possibles du dispositif méthodologique que j’ai développé au cours de ma thèse. Je propose ainsi d'améliorer son efficacité et de compléter le processus de conception en précisant les conditions de mise en œuvre des innovations conçues, en les évaluant et en les ancrant dans le système agri-alimentaire territorial. Enfin, je montre que ce travail contribue à établir des bases théoriques et méthodologiques à l’accompagnement du changement de pratiques par la reconception multi-échelle de systèmes agricoles. Les parties A « Problématique » et C « Discussion » de ma thèse sont rédigées en français. La partie B est constituée de trois articles et d’un chapitre de thèse rédigés en anglais
A rapid and far-reaching change towards farming practices that contribute to the protection of the environment and the human health is needed. In many cases, these alternative practices exist but are not implemented due to interconnected barriers at the plot, farm, territory, value chain and/or global level. In my thesis, I developed a methodology taking into account the determinants of the farming practice choices at the different levels to support the change in farming practices. I applied this methodology to a specific case study: the management of soil-borne pests and diseases, mainly root-knot nematodes, in sheltered vegetable farming systems in Provence (France). The impact of root-knot nematodes on vegetable crops is significant both in Provence (40% of farms affected) and worldwide. Their management is essentially based on the use of non-selective nematicides that are damaging for the human health and the environment.First, I carried out a sociotechnical analysis showing that most of the Provençal agri-food system was locked around the use of "radical soil disinfection" techniques, thus excluding the implementation of alternative agroecological techniques. This lock-in arose from interconnected barriers to the change in practices, involving a diversity of stakeholders at the Provençal level and beyond it: farmers, upstream and downstream of the sector (including consumers), R&D and public policy actors. Following this analysis, I studied existing coupled innovations that foster the implementation of agroecological crop protection in French vegetable systems. This “tracking of innovations” led us to identify 5 types of coupled innovations, and for each of them, the combinations of sociotechnical levers mobilized and the way they were implemented. Meanwhile, I developed a serious game enabling the effective sharing of the sociotechnical analysis results to the stakeholders of the studied problem. This serious game also enabled to facilitate stakeholders’ knowledge management and creativity and the collaboration between them, for initiating the design of innovative solutions tailored for the problem under study. Finally, I mobilized the previous works (analysis, tracking, serious game) in 4 co-design workshops conducted with the stakeholders. I created and implemented several methods in these workshops to design increasingly elaborate solutions that favor change in practices. As a result, we collectively designed 50 coupled innovations including 41 coupled innovations, thus opening up the space of possible solutions. We evaluated part of the complex coupled innovations.In the discussion, I point out the promising avenues of action and research to facilitate the implementation of agroecological practices for the management of soil-borne pests and diseases in Provençal sheltered vegetable farming systems. I discuss the possible evolution of the methodology I developed during this thesis, in order to improve its efficiency and complete the design process. I make proposals to specify the conditions of the implementation of the innovations designed, evaluate them and anchor them in the territorial agri-food system. Finally, I show that this work contributes to establishing theoretical and methodological bases to multi-level redesign of agricultural systems for accompanying changes in farming practices.Parts A "Problem" and C "Discussion" of my thesis are written in French. Part B consists of three articles and one chapter of the thesis written in English

The UK has committed to deep, long-term reductions in national greenhouse gas emissions as part of a global effort to address climate change. Material efficiency, reducing the material inputs per service output, has long been identified as a globally underexplored mitigation strategy. Previous studies show unrealised technical potential to improve the efficiency of steel use, a large contributor of industry emissions, in the UK. This thesis explores why these opportunities may be unrealised along the steel supply chain.

Over the past decade, technologies that facilitate household electricity production and storage have seen a rapid development along with a significant cost reduction. Research points to an increased share of household-produced electricity within the existing national grids across the globe. In some cases, self-sufficiency is possible where households are able to decouple from the grid and become independent on their electricity, in other words, go off-grid. Furthermore, this change puts additional pressure on how the electricity system is set up, which, challenges prevailing incumbents to adapt. Depending on the geographical location, circumstances for selfsufficiency varies. Sweden is a country with high seasonal variations with its Northern position, which raises the question of how off-grid households are feasible and, how they can receive traction. To investigate possible changes within large technical systems such as the electricity system, which is a vital part of the society, theories within socio-technical systems have shown much promise. However, these theories often lack the more techno-economic aspect of concrete and future investment costs from a consumer perspective, suggesting an existing research gap. Hence, the purpose of this study is to provide further knowledge regarding off-grid applications in the Swedish Context. This is done by investigating what circumstances could trigger existing electricity consumers to go off-grid. The research process and structure of the report can be interpreted as indiscriminate, however, the study has focused on combining theories surrounding socio-technical changes whilst applying techno-economic modelling to strengthen the work, similar to a dual paper study. Data was collected in the form of a literature review and interviews to provide a holistic representation of off-grid and its nexus to the electricity system. In addition to this, complementing modelling of grid-connected-, prosumer-, and off-grid households were performed. Results point towards a scene where off-grid reaches grid parity within the coming two decades, which, will increase the economic rationale of investing in an off-grid. Opposingly, there is currently no economic rationale in off-grid applications considering the relatively low electricity costs in Sweden as of today. Moreover, conditions show promise if the adopters see beyond economics and, possesses a strong will towards independence. However, implications suggest that the high reliability and low costs of the Swedish electricity grid impedes the ability of new radical innovations to receive traction. Furthermore, this study has contributed by filling the research gap between socio-technical changes and techno-economic projects in regards to electricity systems. Consequently, contributing to the academic field of socio-technical change, it has been shown that the combination of socio-technical change and techno-economic projections is applicable and beneficial. Additionally, it can be argued that the results of this study highlight that the consumer have a greater role in the development of off-grid applications than what the theories suggest. Lastly, the electricity system is a complex mechanism and, to further strengthen the perception of how a relatively new application, as in the case of off-grid, will impact the system, appurtenant suggestions for possible future research within the area are proposed.
Under det senaste decenniet har teknik som underlättar hushållens elproduktion och lagring haft en hastig utveckling tillsammans med en betydande kostnadsminskning. Forskning pekar på en ökad andel hushållsproducerad el inom de befintliga nationella elnäten över hela världen. I vissa fall är självförsörjning möjligt där hushållen kan koppla bort sig från nätet och bli oberoende av sin elförsörjning, med andra ord gå off-grid. Vidare leder en potentiell förändring mot offgrid till ytterligare påtryckningar på hur elsystemet är uppbyggt, vilket utmanar många aktörers sätt att agera. Beroende på geografisk plats så varierar förutsättningarna för självförsörjning. Sverige är ett land med stora säsongsvariationer i och med sin nordliga position, vilket väcker frågan om off-grid hushåll är genomförbara i Sverige och hur de kan skulle kunna etableras. För att undersöka möjliga förändringar inom stora tekniska system som elsystemet, som är en viktig del av samhället, har teorier inom socio-tekniska system visat vara till stor nytta. Däremot saknar dessa teorier emellertid den mer tekno-ekonomiska aspekten av konkreta och framtida investeringskostnader ur ett konsumentperspektiv, vilket antyder ett befintligt forskningsgap. Följaktligen är syftet med den här studien att ge ytterligare inblick om off-grid-applikationer i svenska sammanhang. Vilket har gjorts genom att undersöka vilka omständigheter som kan leda till att befintliga elkonsumenter går off-grid. Forskningsprocessen och strukturen i rapporten kan vara svårtolkat, men studien har fokuserat på att kombinera teorier kring socio-tekniska förändringar samtidigt som man använder teknoekonomisk modellering för att stärka arbetet. Data samlades in i form av en litteraturstudie och intervjuer för att ge en holistisk representation av off-grid och dess koppling till elsystemet. Utöver litteraturstudie utfördes kompletterande modellering av hushållsanslutna, prosumeroch off-gridhushåll. Resultaten pekar mot scenarion där off-grid når nätparitet under de kommande två decennierna, vilket kommer att öka den ekonomiska rationaliteten för att investera i ett off-grid. Det finns det för närvarande inga ekonomiska skäl till att investera off-grid-applikationer med tanke på de relativt låga elkostnaderna i Sverige idag. Förhållandena visar dessutom löfte om att potentiella användare ser förbi ekonomin och har istället en stark vilja mot självständighet. Implikationer tyder emellertid på att det svenska elnätets höga tillförlitlighet och låga pris hindrar nya radikala innovationers förmåga att ta få fäste. Det är argumenterbart att den här studien har bidragit med att fylla forskningsgapet mellan socio-tekniska förändringar och tekno-ekonomiska projektioner inom elsystem. Samtidigt har studien bidragit till det vetenskapliga området kring socio-tekniska visat på möjligheten och fördelen i att kombinera teorier kring socio-teknisk förändring och tekno-ekonomiska förändringar. Dessutom kan det hävdas att resultaten av den här studie visar att konsumenten har en större roll i utvecklingen av applikationer utanför nätet än vad teorierna föreslår. Slutligen är elsystemet en komplex mekanism, och för att ytterligare stärka uppfattningen om hur en relativt ny applikation, som i fallet utanför nätet, kommer att påverka systemet föreslås lämpliga förslag för eventuell framtida forskning inom området.

Despite more than a decade-long process to transition aircraft maintenance practices from paper-to electronic-based systems, some organizations remain unable to complete this transition. Researchers have indicated that while organizations have invested resources in technology improvements, there remains a limited understanding of the factors that contribute to effectively managing technology-enabled change. The purpose of this case study was to identify and explore socio-technical (ST) factors that inhibit an effective transition from a paper-based system to an electronic-based system for aircraft maintenance. A conceptual model applying theories of change management, technology acceptance, systems thinking, and ST theory informed the research. Thirteen participants provided data via semistructured interviews, field observations, follow-up interviews, other documentation, and a questionnaire. Data were analyzed with open and axial coding techniques to identify themes, which were then crosschecked and triangulated with observation and follow-up interview data. Findings revealed communication issues, a fundamental misconception in training, and a false assumption that all personnel easily acquire computer literacy. Benefits gained from this study should assist maintenance, repair, and overall (MRO) organizations within the Department of Defense to improve current and future technology implementation as the research underscores real-life issues from a comparable organization. The implications for positive social change provide a greater understanding of technology-enabled change and contribute to the development of best practices for technology initiatives that address common ST issues in the MRO workplace.

Il lean consente di realizzare miglioramenti significativi nelle performance delle organizzazioni sanitarie. Esistono però limitati riscontri sull’effettiva capacità delle iniziative lean di perdurare nel lungo periodo mentre i processi di implementazione risultano scarsamente investigati. Il presente studio, attraverso un protocollo di ricerca articolato in tre fasi, attinge alla letteratura sull’implementation science e sul lean healthcare per investigare: (i) le condizioni organizzative rilevanti per implementare il lean in una organizzazione sanitaria, ed in particolare in un ospedale; (ii) le interdipendenze reciproche tra il lean come approccio sistemico al cambiamento ed il contesto organizzativo e (iii) l’influenza di questi processi di mutuo adattamento sulla sostenibilità delle pratiche implementate. L’analisi empirica (multiple case study) mostra che l’implementazione e la sostenibilità nel tempo di sforzi di miglioramento lean è il risultato di un processo continuo di cambiamenti e aggiustamenti nell’approccio lean originariamente adottato e nel contesto organizzativo dove si sviluppa. In particolare, l’impiego di un framework socio-tecnico per sistematizzare le evidenze emerse ha permesso di identificare alcuni correlati pattern di cambiamento che i manager ospedalieri sono chiamati a presidiare: decentralizzare le responsabilità sulle attività di miglioramento; promuovere funzioni di leadership e guida al cambiamento ad ogni livello organizzativo; introdurre un livello intermedio tra il top management ed il personale; lanciare eventi di promozione; sviluppare un processo continuo di apprendimento; adottare un approccio integrato all’ottimizzazione dei processi produttivi ospedalieri.
Lean has shown to deliver significant performance improvement in healthcare organizations. However, its practical implementation remains challenging and the ability to deliver in the long term is an under investigated issue. By using a three-step research protocol, the study draws on the main streams of literature on implementation science and lean management healthcare to explore: (i) the relevant organizational conditions for implementing lean in healthcare organizations, in particular in hospitals; (ii) the continuous process of reciprocal interdependence between lean as a system-wide organizational strategy and its context of application, and (iii) the influence of these mutual adaptation mechanisms on the sustainability of the implemented practices. As emerged from the empirical analysis (multiple case study), the implementation and the maintenance of lean efforts over time is the result of a continuous process of adjustments and modifications occurring in the overall change program originally adopted and in its context of application. In particular, the use of a socio-technical system framework to systematize the emerged evidence points out some key interrelated change patterns that hospital managers must place equal focus on: decentralizing responsibilities to practically work on lean; ensuring a stable guidance and sponsorship at all organizational levels; introducing an intermediate level between the top management and professionals; launching internal events; developing a continuous learning and improvement process; structuring a comprehensive approach to the optimization of hospital production processes.

This research provides policy-relevant insights into how a mass-scale, equitable transition to the use of Advanced Biomass (cook) Stoves (ABSs) can be achieved in India, with the aim of improving public health, especially for women and children. The research uses socio-technical systems to provide a characterisation of transition processes, and governance to explain issues of power influencing transition. A review of previous government cook-stove programmes in India and China highlights governance shortcomings in the former, in particular a lack of functional links between layers of administration and poor engagement with community institutions and cooks. Primary data from West Bengal and Karnataka highlighted sophisticated, skilful, flexible and culturally context specific cooking practices. Reasons for apparent low demand for improved stoves, characterised as lock-in, are found to include a combination of risk aversion and habits, lack of affordability, low awareness of the health consequences, as well as a mis-match between the normative priorities of policy makers – currently health- and those of cooks. It is found that the majority of polluting emissions within households - as well as greenhouse gases - from cooking derive from poorer households. A sectoral carbon offset strategy is proposed as a means of funding subsidies for ABSs and programme support measures. Several large corporations have invested significant sums in technology development, community outreach and dissemination, resulting in sales of over 600,000 ABSs. Reasons for their involvement appear mixed. Their market-based activities have generally not reached poor households and there are questions about their ability to build viable businesses in this highly dispersed and heterogeneous sector. A fundamental dichotomy is highlighted between large, centralised cooking programmes and the diverse, complex and changing reality of cooking activities, beliefs and behaviours on the ground. The research concludes that functional multi-level and multi-actor governance structures would be required to achieve a mass-scale transition to clean cooking using ABSs, with a lead role for the public sector. A key component of future success will involve building structures that ensure the agency of cooks and account for their socio-cultural cooking practices in the processes of technology and programme design and implementation.

博士
元智大學
資訊管理學系
107
Mergers and acquisitions is an important method for enterprises to improve organizational value. Information technology (IT) integration is a critical challenge for value-creating mergers and acquisitions. Many IT integration initiatives fail to deliver the expected benefits. An important percentage of these are the result of social and organizational factors, not simply technical failures. In view of the high failure rate of IT integration in M&A companies, it is extremely important to identify the risk factors of such projects and to integrate effective management methods. This study explores the dynamics of these social and technical factors to better understand the causes of success and failure. Based on data from a detailed case analysis of an IT integration project, the study depicts the IT integration process as an emergent and dynamic one, characterized by continuous local adaptations. The study ends with a proposal of a feedback-rich framework, based on a practice view of socio-technical change that offers theoretical insights and practical heuristics to project managers and top management. Keywords：mergers and acquisitions; socio-technical models; system dynamics; practice approaches; IT integration; organizational change

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alberta, 2009.
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering Management, Department of Mechanical Engineering. Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on October 23, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.