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1 – 10 of 268Donghee (Don) Shin, Anestis Fotiadis and Hongsik Yu
The purpose of this study is to offer a roadmap for work on the ethical and societal implications of algorithms and AI. Based on an analysis of the social, technical and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to offer a roadmap for work on the ethical and societal implications of algorithms and AI. Based on an analysis of the social, technical and regulatory challenges posed by algorithmic systems in Korea, this work conducts socioecological evaluations of the governance of algorithmic transparency and accountability.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyzes algorithm design and development from critical socioecological angles: social, technological, cultural and industrial phenomena that represent the strategic interaction among people, technology and society, touching on sensitive issues of a legal, a cultural and an ethical nature.
Findings
Algorithm technologies are a part of a social ecosystem, and its development should be based on user interests and rights within a social and cultural milieu. An algorithm represents an interrelated, multilayered ecosystem of networks, protocols, applications, services, practices and users.
Practical implications
Value-sensitive algorithm design is proposed as a novel approach for designing algorithms. As algorithms have become a constitutive technology that shapes human life, it is essential to be aware of the value-ladenness of algorithm development. Human values and social issues can be reflected in an algorithm design.
Originality/value
The arguments in this study help ensure the legitimacy and effectiveness of algorithms. This study provides insight into the challenges and opportunities of algorithms through the lens of a socioecological analysis: political discourse, social dynamics and technological choices inherent in the development of algorithm-based ecology.
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Oğuz N. Babüroğlu and John W. Selsky
The digital transformation calls for new thinking about sociotechnical systems design (STSD) because it has enabled new kinds of work systems to proliferate. We identify a new…
Abstract
The digital transformation calls for new thinking about sociotechnical systems design (STSD) because it has enabled new kinds of work systems to proliferate. We identify a new class of sociotechnical system, called the Platform-STS (P-STS), which complements the existing Industrial- and Knowledge-STSs. The P-STS has distinctive characteristics compared to the other classes because it reaches directly into ecosystems and is, therefore, “distributed,” and because it is governed through market mechanisms rather than hierarchy or clan mechanisms. We introduce a new design principle, redundancy of connectivity, to ground design thinking about the P-STS. We demonstrate why fundamental STSD principles need to be reconfigured, suggest how they might do so, and conclude that socioecological designs and interventions may need to supplant sociotechnical ones.
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Tourism, if properly managed, can represent an opportunity for economic development and social growth especially for territories that have infrastructure deficits and economic…
Abstract
Tourism, if properly managed, can represent an opportunity for economic development and social growth especially for territories that have infrastructure deficits and economic problems. This is the case of rural and mountain areas, many of which in Italy correspond to the so-called ‘inner areas’, spaces for which the public sector has developed a specific strategy in recent years. Within these fragile areas, tourism planning plays a crucial role because, more than in other spaces, it must identify balanced goals between fostering economic development and safeguarding local identities. The point of equilibrium can be reached through strategies of resilience, that is, by adopting collective response-and-adaptation tools that allow to manage tourism by mitigating its impact on the local sociocultural organization and to restore sustainable mechanisms of operation of the tourism system.
The communities of the Madonie, a rural and mountainous area close to Palermo, taking advantage of the strategy for inner areas, have decided to start processes of institutional innovation through an intermunicipal governance and also to promote new partnership networks to strengthen the capacity of resilience and development of the territorial system as a ‘green community’. Some territorial planning actions specifically concern the tourism sector, as in the case of the organization of a destination management community and the creation of an ecomuseum.
This chapter analyses some experiences recently conducted by the Madonie communities, which are trying to reconcile, also through planning tools, economic growth and landscape protection.
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Jamie MacKee, Hedda Haugen Askland and Louise Askew
This paper aims to propose an alternative strategy for preparing, recovering and conserving cultural built heritage (CBH) in the context of natural disasters. It presents the idea…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose an alternative strategy for preparing, recovering and conserving cultural built heritage (CBH) in the context of natural disasters. It presents the idea that disaster preparedness is integral to CBH protection and conservation.
Design/methodology/approach
Building upon a review of existing scholarship on CBH, resilience and disaster management, a conceptual model is proposed to assist key stakeholders preparing for the recovery of CBH after natural disasters. It is argued that the protection and recovery of CBH in the wake of natural disasters require a holistic approach and that the theoretical framework of resilience thinking can support such an approach.
Findings
The paper discusses how the process of adaptive cycles has a role to play in the development of a holistic understanding of the conservation process. It proposes an adaptive cycle model that is supported by four critical factors: reordering, conserving, shifting and transforming.
Originality/value
Through exploration of systems thinking and resilience theory, the research presented in this paper explores a new approach to the conceptualisation of CBH. The paper presents the first stage of a research project that aims to develop strategies that can support the protection and recovery of CBH in the wake of natural disasters. The proposed model represents a holistic approach for reconceptualising CBH and may, as such, have potential implications that extend from the field of post-disaster recovery into the domain of CBH conservation and protection.
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Joshua Aboah, Mark M.J. Wilson, Karl M. Rich and Michael C. Lyne
The analysis of the concept of resilience in supply chain management studies mostly focuses on the downstream side of the value chain and tacitly assumes an unlimited supply of…
Abstract
Purpose
The analysis of the concept of resilience in supply chain management studies mostly focuses on the downstream side of the value chain and tacitly assumes an unlimited supply of raw materials. This assumption is unreasonable for agricultural value chains, as upstream disruptions clearly have a material impact on the availability of raw materials, and indeed, are a common source of supply problems. This paper aims to present a framework for the operationalisation of the concept of socioecological resilience in agricultural value chains that incorporates upstream activities.
Design/methodology/approach
A citation network analysis was adopted to review articles. A conceptual framework is then advanced to identify elements of resilience and indicators relevant to tropical agricultural value chains.
Findings
There are limited studies that assess resilience in the food chain context. Flexibility, collaboration, adaptability and resourcefulness are key elements for assessing resilience at the individual chain actor level. However, the paper argues that adaptability is the relevant element for the assessment of resilience at an aggregate food system level because it considers the alteration of a system’s state of resilience.
Practical implications
The proposed framework and propositions accommodate stakeholder interactions in the value chain and could serve as a tool to guide the assessment of resilience in agricultural value chains.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the few to extend resilience to cover the socioecological interaction aspects for supply chains that yield the raw materials needed for continuity in channel-wide value creation processes.
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Lorena Carrete, Pilar Arroyo and Roberto Villaseñor
This study aims to contribute to the understanding of how elements of the socioecological system shape individual behaviors. The problem of childhood overweight and obesity is…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to contribute to the understanding of how elements of the socioecological system shape individual behaviors. The problem of childhood overweight and obesity is analyzed as existing within a complex system of relationships at different levels by means of system dynamics (SD).
Design/methodology/approach
Secondary sources and primary information collected from an elementary school were used to analyze the influences of several social environmental factors on the dietary habits and physical activity of children. The major elements that influence these behaviors were identified via a socioecological framework (SEF), and the interrelationships among these elements were described using an SD model. Then, several scenarios corresponding to social marketing actions oriented toward modifying the influence of specific elements in the socioecological system were proposed to evaluate how effective they are at reducing the percentages of overweight and obesity among children.
Findings
The current research shows the existence of counteracting efforts at the micro (family) and macro (governmental policies) levels that need to be aligned to reduce rates of obesity and overweight.
Practical implications
The systems perspective supports decision makers in defining social marketing strategies to modify alimentary behaviors based on the understanding of what elements of the SEF influence behavior and how they interrelate. To the authors’ knowledge, a detailed analysis of the influences of the socioecological environment has not been performed based on Latin American countries to seek solutions to the public health problems of overweight and obesity.
Originality/value
The application of SD enhances the value of the SEF suggested by Collins et al. (2010) for modeling individual behaviors. Moreover, the use of the systems approach for framing and understanding how the interrelationships of socioecological elements derive in synergic or antagonistic effects helps to predict the long-term effect of governmental actions and school interventions.
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The purpose of this paper is to undertake a comparative case study (Stake, 2006) of two multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) building resilient water systems to address how they…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to undertake a comparative case study (Stake, 2006) of two multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) building resilient water systems to address how they communicatively frame and manage key tensions. “Glacier” is the North American convener of an MSI focused on developing reliable and measurable standards of water stewardship in catchment areas around the world. “Delta” convenes a MSI centered on the water economy, with the goal to connect and help diverse organizations around “the business of water.”
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative data were analyzed using Tracy’s (2013) pragmatic-iterative method, which envisions ongoing cycles of theme generation and refinement, and draws on both induction and deduction to identity and sort themes. The “reflexive circular process” it involves helped trace how tensional poles were framed and managed.
Findings
For Glacier, the key tensions were: creating new and distinct standards while reiterating extant measures; collective decision making although privileging corporate interests; and fixed impact performance that is nevertheless fluid. Delta also displayed three tensions: focus on the ecological issue connecting the MSI or partner benefits; broader ethics of water stewardship vis-à-vis local considerations; and avowing a bipartisan agenda although politics remained central to its everyday work.
Research limitations/implications
The paper underlines how communicative framing and management of tensions are key to developing resilience for socioecological systems. It highlights how traditional organizational boundaries and collectives are disrupted in seeking resource system resilience, and suggests that texts and conversations might emphasize tensions differently.
Practical implications
First, MSI conveners and members working for resource system resilience should use visioning exercises to see how tensional poles might be dialectical, rather than focus on stark differences. Second, ongoing dialogue and evaluation can help trace alternative tension frames. Third, since context and MSI purpose matter in framing tensions, practitioners should be careful while transferring lessons learned across MSIs.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to resilience scholarship by underlining how the communicative management of tensions is vital to developing adaptive complexity and learning capabilities within broader socioecological systems – especially with MSIs working on complex wicked problems.
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New York City, the most dense and populous city in the United States, is one of the world's most altered landscapes. Yet, New York City boasts an urban ecology which produces…
Abstract
New York City, the most dense and populous city in the United States, is one of the world's most altered landscapes. Yet, New York City boasts an urban ecology which produces invaluable environmental benefits. The extent and vitality of its green and blue spaces would not be where it is without the unrelenting organization, stewardship, and advocacy of the New York citizenry.
Born from these grassroots environmental justice movements, citizens have built the nature-based solutions (NBS) they seek out of oft-neglected landscapes and vacant lots. Today, over 800 civic environmental stewardship groups are active across all of New York City's 205,000 acres. These groups directly manage, restore, and conserve greenspaces, as well as advocate for their investment and expand ecological awareness through educational programming and campaigns, and their work is more important as ever, with the growing impacts of climate change. This chapter will review three cases of community environmental stewardship, including a distributed community garden movement, restoration of a polluted waterway, and an emerging framework for adaptive coastal protection. Through these cases, we may understand the origins and frontiers of some of today's civic networks stewarding New York City's natural areas. These cases emphasize a socioecological view of the city's ecology. They show that we must consider green infrastructure and natural resources as places which have social and cultural meaning, not merely spaces with ecological functions. They highlight the labor and investments committed by community groups which require compensation and nurturing. Lastly, they demonstrate the importance of supporting social networks and local capacities in stewarding nature-based strategies and building resilient, adaptive, and equitable socioecological systems.
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Douglas B. Johnson and Granger Macy
A model is developed which allows an organization to assess its environmental perception and how that perception may impact its response to stakeholders. The model differentiates…
Abstract
A model is developed which allows an organization to assess its environmental perception and how that perception may impact its response to stakeholders. The model differentiates an organization’s socioecological responsibility across four dimensions for placement on Colby’s five‐paradigm continuum, which ranges between the frontier economic paradigm and new ecological paradigm. This article provides a useful means of assessing the ecological paradigm utilized by firms and offers criteria that may assist the organization in developing a competitively valuable environmental stance.
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Mary E. Brenner and Maryam Kia-Keating
Given the backdrop of a global influx of refugees and high numbers of youth under the age of 18 among counts of forcibly displaced persons, this chapter examines the literature on…
Abstract
Given the backdrop of a global influx of refugees and high numbers of youth under the age of 18 among counts of forcibly displaced persons, this chapter examines the literature on educational experiences among resettled refugees in Western countries. Young refugees typically face a complex set of unique challenges and adversities including disruptions in their schooling, displacement, exposure to potentially traumatic events, and resettlement stressors. Youth and parent interactions with schools are influenced by linguistic and cultural differences, which can make it difficult to communicate and advocate for young refugees' educational needs. The chapter provides a review of educational literature on resettled refugee youth. We use a socioecological framework and offer a protective and promotive lens, including psychosocial issues, to consider for school-based prevention and intervention programs. The chapter builds upon Pastoor (2015), who advocated a holistic approach with refugee students in school-based settings.
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