Assessing Systems Integration: A Conceptual Framework and a Method

Vernay, Anne-Lorène; Boons, Frank

doi:10.1002/sres.2221

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Organizational Sociology Theory examines the social aspects and phenomena that interfere and occur in ecosystems inside (Ashton, 2008). Socio-Technical Systems Theory characterizes the integration of social and technical systems in symbiotic exchange (Vernay & Boons, 2015). Control Theory determines appropriate inputs to control dynamic systems.…”

Section: Second Period (2010-2014)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Unfolding research themes for industrial symbiosis and underlying theories

Agudo

Bezerra

Gobbo

et al. 2022

Sustainable Development

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This paper aims to analyze the research themes that are addressed in studies on industrial symbiosis (IS), from the perspective of theories. The paper method is a longitudinal analysis of retrospective nature from 1998 to 2021. This approach allowed to detects the main drivers and associated themes that structured researches on IS in the period. In general, Industrial Ecology Theory, Network Theory, Systems Theory and Organizational Theory were present in a considerable part of research themes on IS. It was observed that the IS research themes moved over the period analyzed to nine areas of study: (1) Waste as a resource, (2) development industrial symbiosis network, (3) circular economy and industrial symbiosis, (4) industrial co‐localization, (5) energy innovations, (6) closed loop chains, (7) IS's social aspects, (8) regional‐level metabolism, and (9) waste knowledge. In summary, the contributions of this paper are the thematic proposition of IS from the perspective of theories, pointing out the key‐aspects; and presentation of a research themes' diagram towards the IS buildup.

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Section: Second Period (2010-2014)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Unfolding research themes for industrial symbiosis and underlying theories

Agudo

Bezerra

Gobbo

et al. 2022

Sustainable Development

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“…Sustainability transformation of industrial systems is a clear example of concerted action and interaction across various societal domains and social worlds; it extends beyond single organisations and sectors, thereby requiring new collaborations between organisations and sectors (Vernay and Boons 2015;de Bruijn and Tukker 2002;Niesten et al 2017;Loorbach et al 2017). Such collaboration can be challenging, because these stakeholders typically work in different sectors or institutional fields (DiMaggio and Powell 1983), where each stakeholder has its own culture, norms and practices and operates technical assets of vastly different natures.…”

Section: Boundary Objects and Translations Between Social Worldsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory multi-modelling as the creation of a boundary object ecology: the case of future energy infrastructures in the Rotterdam Port Industrial Cluster

et al. 2020

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Finding leverage points for sustainability transformation of industrial and infrastructure systems is challenging, given that transformation is emergent from the complex interactions among socio-technical system elements over time within a specific social, technical and geographical context. Participatory multi-modelling, in which modellers and stakeholders collaborate to develop multiple interacting models to support a shared understanding of systems, is a promising approach to support sustainability transformations. The participatory process of modeling can serve as a leverage point by facilitating social learning amongst stakeholders, in which models can function as boundary objects that facilitate dialogue between stakeholders from different social worlds. We propose that participatory multi-modeling allows for the creation of a boundary object ecology, which involves a set of interacting and co-evolving boundary objects emerging throughout the modeling process. To explore this, we analyse the participatory multi-modelling process in the Windmaster project in the Rotterdam Port industrial cluster to understand which design choices were key to the creation of boundary objects. Our analysis shows that two types of design choices were key: design choices that enabled translations between participants, and those between participants and their organisation. We conclude that conceptualising participatory multi-modelling as a process of an evolving boundary object ecology, creating and adapting multiple interacting boundary objects provides a novel perspective that is useful for analysis and design of future participatory multi-modeling processes.

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“…In Östergötland, Sweden, local firms, governments, and knowledge institutes work together to integrate the local transport system and energy system through IS based on a complex network of exchanges within the biofuel industries (Martin and Eklund ). To integrate these two systems that used to be separate, a participatory process was essential to resolve any barriers among actors from the two different systems (Vernay and Boons ). A similar example is the Biopark Terneuzen initiative in Zeeland, the Netherlands (Spekkink ).…”

Section: The Dynamics Of Industrial Symbiosismentioning

confidence: 99%

Industrial Symbiosis Dynamics and the Problem of Equivalence: Proposal for a Comparative Framework

Boons¹,

Chertow²,

Park³

et al. 2016

J of Industrial Ecology

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145

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Industrial symbiosis (IS), one of the founding notions within the field of industrial ecology, has diffused throughout significant parts of the world as a practice that can reduce the ecological impact of the industrial processes of groups of firms. In this article, we propose a fresh look at this research topic, building on the considerable advances that have been made in the last 15 years in understanding how IS comes about. We propose a conceptual and theoretical framework for taking on the challenge of comparative analysis at a global level. This requires developing an approach to address a solution to the problem of equivalence: the difficulty of comparing instances of IS across different institutional contexts. The proposed framework emphasizes IS as a process and attempts to address the obstacles to comparative study by (1) identifying terminology to examine IS variants, (2) providing a typology of IS dynamics, and (3) formulating key research questions to illuminate a way forward. In developing our argument, we build on the collective experiences of collaborative research efforts in North America, Europe, and Asia as evidenced in recent overviews of the literature. Note:The PLUS sign indicates the name of the core organization and that others from the same region or category also participated on the named team, as appropriate. Names of team leaders appear in bold.

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Assessing Systems Integration: A Conceptual Framework and a Method

Cited by 7 publications

References 26 publications

Unfolding research themes for industrial symbiosis and underlying theories

Unfolding research themes for industrial symbiosis and underlying theories

Participatory multi-modelling as the creation of a boundary object ecology: the case of future energy infrastructures in the Rotterdam Port Industrial Cluster

Industrial Symbiosis Dynamics and the Problem of Equivalence: Proposal for a Comparative Framework

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