Planificación de Desarrollo Cooperativo (PDC) es un modelo de planificación de Proyectos de Cooperación y Desarrollo, implementado en el ONGIA, una prototipo de Inteligencia Artificial para el estudio predictive de Proyectos de Desarrollo. Los Proyectos de Cooperación y Desarrollo realizados por las ONGDs (Organizaciones No Gubernamentales de Desarrollo) están marcados por un alto grado de incertidumbre, debido por una parte, a la multiplicidad de intereses de los diferentes agentes que intervienen en la definición y ejecución del proyecto, así como a la naturaleza dinámica del contexto (entorno) que convive con la evolución del proyecto, por la otra. Es por este motivo que se propone el modelo de Planificación de Desarrollo Cooperativo, para la simulación de las fases: Identificación de los Problemas, Definición de los Objetivos, Generación de los Planes Alternativos y Viabilidad de los Planes, que nos permitirá consensuar a los distintos agentes que intervienen a lo largo del desarrollo de un Proyecto de Cooperación y Desarrollo. ONGIA está basado en una arquitectura de agentes distribuidos. Cada agente dispone de un conocimiento especializado (el específico de cada grupo de usuarios del proyecto); una lógica común a todo el grupo de agentes (un álgebra de valores de verdad que parte de los conjuntos borrosos); y un conjunto de metareglas de control. El mecanismo de consenso en la definición del problema y objetivos en el ONGIA se basa en la teoría de los Sistemas de Argumentación y la de los Sistemas Multicontexto. El modelo para consensuar a los diferentes agentes en la definición de los planes abstractos alternativos utiliza la función de Beneficio Conjunto para llegar al compromiso entre los distintos ejecutores del plan abstracto. La técnica utilizada para controlar el problema de la cualifícación se basa en una Ordenación Aproximada Priorizada. Finalmente, el modelo para simular la ejecución de cada plan abstracto se basa en la teoría de las Situaciones Posibles y en la de la Entropía Termodinámica para describir la posible evolución del plan.

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This thesis interrogates the potential of, and constraints upon, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) to effect socio-cultural and political change in the UK. CSA is a potentially transformative yet under-developed model of agriculture that seeks to redress a range of social, economic, and environmental problems associated with conventional agriculture. There are fewer than 100 schemes in the UK at present, a total comparable to that in North America approximately 20 years ago where numbers now exceed 6000. This study, in part, addresses the potential of CSA to ‘scale up’ and ‘scale out’ across the UK. My methodology consisted of an extended ethnographic comparison of two nascent and contrasting CSA schemes in rural west Wales and peri-urban south Yorkshire. My research methods comprised a 2 year-long participant observation as a member of the executive body of both case studies and simultaneous in-depth interviews with key CSA participants. I argue that the community of CSA is reciprocally reproduced at multiple scales from the local to the global. I contend that CSA depends on different forms of social capital for its constitution and reproduction, although social capital is a limited and unreliable resource that, depending on its availability, can encourage or hinder the development of CSA. I argue that the moral economy of CSA has inherent structural tensions between ethical and economic values that CSA schemes continually navigate through a spectrum of instrumental and collaborative approaches. I develop my previous arguments regarding the limits of social capital at my case studies and the immanent tension between instrumental and collaborative approaches to CSA to argue that both my CSAs had constrained capacity and were reliant on volunteerism to an extent that I characterised as a form of sacrifice. However both case studies retained a fragile and circumstantial resilience and exhibited potential to contribute to socio-technical transformation.

One of the fastest growing types of intentional community; cohousing aims to provide an enhanced sense of community, while also retaining the possibility for privacy among its residents. Research has shown that cohousing communities have the capacity to foster social and environmental sustainability. Therefore, increasing attention is being given to cohousing options as solutions for multi-generational community living, or for ‘stay-at-home’ choices for older people. Nonetheless, the body of literature on cohousing remains scarce, especially in terms of primary studies investigating the factors affecting its success. In view of these considerations, this study sets out to determine important factors that influence the long-term success of cohousing communities. Social capital and environment-behaviour theories are used as a frame of reference; whereas in-depth interviews with 46 cohousing residents from 16 different cohousing communities (across four North-West European countries: Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK) form the main body of data. In three of these countries, cohousing has a long history, and it is well-established. Desk research, spatial analysis of the physical design, and participant observation supplement the accounts of interviewees. The findings reveal 16 important factors that influence the long-term success of cohousing. These factors can be categorized under four ‘grand’ themes: motivation; development process; physical design; and environmental sustainability.

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From the Garden City and cooperative movements to self-help housing and community land trusts (CLTs), radical experiments in collective dweller control aim to protect use values and fix in place increasingly mobile capital for long-term community benefit. This research critically explores how such mutual alternatives might provide the basis for more effective, democratic and self-sustaining urban regeneration, to resolve wicked problems of housing deprivation and inner-city decline, where conventional state and market-led approaches have failed. It examines how specific experiments emerged and developed in Liverpool, a city with a particularly rich history of mutual housing experimentation; in part a reaction to decades of urban decline, deprivation, deteriorating housing conditions, and displacement. The focus is on Liverpool’s 1970s co-op movement and contemporary CLT campaigns. Co-ops and CLTs are conceptualised as common ownership institutions distinct from public and private property; as ‘social innovations’ in land reform aiming to find socially empowering new solutions to old problems. Drawing on Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space, the thesis advances a more spatialised and historicised reading of social innovation as ‘spatial projects’ dialectically produced through place-based practices and competing logics. Liverpool provides an illustrative case study of the social, political and institutional dynamics of how mutual housing experiments emerge, institutionalise, fail, or replicate. Methodologically, this thesis employs a qualitative case study comparison of various campaigns emerging in the Liverpool city-region since 1960. A genealogical approach traces connections between radical moments, drawing on documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation. Urban political economy informs the contextualisation of these moments within Liverpool’s changing governance structure of state, market and third sector institutions. The research aims to identify the motivations, catalysts, drivers, barriers, opportunities and constraints shaping the development of mutual housing alternatives in this historical-geographical context, as a means for understanding broader political prospects. Empirical findings suggest that mutual housing development is a complex, conflictual and highly political socio-spatial process, with often unexpected and contradictory outcomes. Nonetheless, there were clear benefits produced by the co-op movement: socioeconomic and political empowerment of residents; democratically-designed community-owned housing that remains durable, easy to manage, and responsive to local needs; and lasting improvements to urban environments. But this often entailed exclusions at higher scales, and relied on generous state funding, proving politically unsustainable. Liverpool’s CLTs are potentially more democratic and self-sustaining vehicles for neighbourhood regeneration; reimagining and transforming place in extraordinary ways. The findings reveal that the CLT model was originally introduced to Liverpool through state-led projects, scoping out the possibility of incorporating CLTs as succession vehicles for regeneration programmes. These experiments failed partly due to local state fears over loss of control of public assets; partly through lack of resident involvement, suggesting CLTs require democratic mandate and grassroots participation. The most successful campaigns were funded through public arts and private philanthropy, grown from the grassroots by a local ‘creative class’ of artist-activists, potentially enacting arts-led or eco-gentrification, posing questions over public accountability. For mutual housing to resolve urban problems, more systematic development is required, supported by state-funded decentralised professional support networks.

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Esta tesis doctoral se centra en el estudio de los diferentes enfoques de gestión de la calidad y sus repercusiones sobre el desempeño organizativo tomando como referencia la perspectiva basada en los recursos y capacidades. Se comparan el enfoque de aseguramiento de la calidad y la gestión de la calidad total analizando en profundidad los principios y las técnicas operativas de la calidad que caracterizan a cada uno de estos enfoques. La segunda variable clave objeto de esta investigación es el desempeño organizativo, siendo el principal objetivo de este trabajo determinar si la implantación de un enfoque u otro repercute de manera diferente sobre los resultados empresariales. La principal aportación de esta tesis es la consideración del papel de las competencias distintivas como factor explicativo de la influencia del enfoque de gestión de la calidad sobre el desempeño organizativo, y el análisis efectuado de las técnicas y prácticas de la calidad, ya que éstas van a determinar las competencias distintivas adquiridas por la organización. Tras la formulación de una serie de hipótesis a contrastar y la propuesta de un modelo teórico, la segunda parte del trabajo está constituida por la investigación empírica llevada a cabo. La población objeto de estudio está compuesta por medianas y grandes empresas de servicios ubicadas en España de los siguientes sectores principalmente: hostelería, bancario, seguros, transporte y hospitales. Los resultados obtenidos muestran diferencias entre los diferentes enfoques de calidad respecto a la generación de competencias distintivas que repercutirán sobre los resultados empresariales. Así, se ha relacionado el enfoque de gestión de la calidad con la consecución de ventajas competitivas a través de la generación de recursos intangibles responsables de la obtención de competencias distintivas. Además, se ha validado empíricamente un modelo teórico planteado que relaciona el enfoque de gestión de la calidad, los principios y técnicas de calidad, las competencias distintivas y el desempeño organizativo. Las conclusiones derivadas de este trabajo conllevan a plantear futuras líneas de investigación orientadas al análisis de la relación entre el enfoque de gestión de la calidad y el desempeño organizativo. / This research is focused on the study of the different quality management approaches and their influence on organizational performance in the context of a resource-based perspective. Quality assurance and total quality management are compared, studying the quality principles and operative techniques characterizing these approaches. The main purpose of this study is to explain how the implementation of these approaches has a different influence on firm performance. The main contribution is the consideration of the distinctive competences role, as an explanatory factor of the quality management approach influence on the organizational performance, and the analysis developed about the quality techniques, considering that they are going to determine the distinctive competences obtained by the firm.Several hypothesis have been formulated and a theoretical model has been developed. The second part of the study implies an empirical research. The data were obtained from Spanish large and medium size service firms of different sectors: hotels, banking, insurance, transport and hospitals. The results show significant differences between quality approaches in terms of the generation of distinctive competences, with influence on firm performance. Moreover, the quality management approach has been related to the achievement of competitive advantages through the generation of intangible resources, and then distinctive competences. A theoretical model, which relates quality management approach, quality principles and techniques, distinctive competences and organizational performance, has been validated.

This thesis is based on research that utilises social innovation theory to examine the role and potential of community gardens and community supported agriculture (CSA) in transitioning toward more sustainable food systems, with a geographical focus on Wales. The research originates from the rationale that there is an urgent need for transforming the current food systems into more sustainable ones, and that community-based socially innovative initiatives may become drivers for such a transformation. The main objective is to demonstrate what is the socially innovative role of community gardens and community supported agriculture in Wales and what is their potential for making a societal change toward food sustainability, thus aiming to contribute to the wider debates on the role of the social economy and its potential for socio-economic transformation. The empirical approach applied is qualitative case studies based on 38 semi-structured interviews and participant observation in four community gardens and four community supported agriculture initiatives. The data is analysed by using ALMOLIN (Alternative Model for Local Innovations) as an innovative analytical tool mapping the dynamics of social innovation and processes of social initiatives. The research intends to contribute to the literature of community gardens and community supported agriculture by examining these initiatives from the social innovation perspective. In addition, it intends to contribute to the social innovation literature with the case of community food growing. A final contribution is addressing the geographical gap in the community food growing literature by focusing on Wales as an under-researched area and using large number of case studies to allow a comparison between its different regions and types of initiatives. The study further makes a range of theoretical and policy recommendations.

Los objetivos de la presente tesis son los siguientes: Recopilar el estado del arte en torno a los debates sobre el papel de universidad en la innovación, el fenómeno de la interacción universidad-empresa y el auge de un instrumento reciente para llevarla a cabo, las patentes universitarias. Realizar un estudio apreciativo sobre algunos de los cambios experimentados por las universidades a raíz de la asunción reciente de una voluntad de involucrarse con su entorno. Realizar sendos estudios empíricos sobre la interacción universidad-empresa en la Comunidad Valenciana y sobre las patentes universitarias en dos universidades concretas, la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia y la Universidad Louis Pasteur. Plantear si debería continuar el apoyo de la administración pública a los tres fenómenos estudiados tal como se concibe en la actualidad, o si existen alternativas a plantearse, cuestionando especialmente la visión intuitiva predominante de que el apoyo actual estimula la innovación tecnológica.Se procederá a realizar una introducción acerca de los estudios sobre la innovación en el capítulo 1. La aproximación al papel de las universidades en la innovación, contenida en el Capítulo 2, se limitará a exponer una revisión bibliográfica y a tratar de sintetizarla en una serie de planteamientos que guíen el resto del trabajo. El Capítulo 3 y el Capítulo 4 ahondarán la revisión bibliográfica en los temas específicos de la interacción universidad-empresa y las patentes universitarias, respectivamente, para formular a continuación las preguntas claves sobre las que pretendemos aportar nueva evidencia empírica: en primer lugar, si estos fenómenos tienen repercusiones sobre la calidad de la investigación académica; en segundo lugar, si estimulan efectivamente la transmisión de conocimientos y la producción de innovaciones.Para contestar estas preguntas el Capítulo 3 se basa en una encuesta sobre interacción universidad-empresa en la Comunidad Valenciana, que permitirá plantearse adicionalmente si son compatibles todos los objetivos de la interacción universidad-empresa. A su vez, el Capítulo 4 se basa en dos casos de estudio sobre patentes universitarias, la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia y, con tal de ofrecer una panorámica distinta (y acaso alternativa) a la del caso español, la Universidad Louis Pasteur, de Estrasburgo. Plantea, además, un modelo teórico sobre los incentivos de los académicos para patentar.Además de las conclusiones parciales de cada capítulo, el Capítulo 5 ofrecerá un compendio y una síntesis de las mismas que tratará de cubrir los objetivos de la tesis. / These are the objectives of this thesis: To summarise the state-of-the-art regarding the debates on the role of university in innovation and the recent increase of university-industry interaction and university patents. To perform an appreciative analysis on some of the changes taking place at universities in their attempt to get involved in their environment.  To perform some empirical analyses on university-industry interaction in the Valencian Community and on university patents on two specific universities -Polytechnic University of Valencia and Louis Pasteur University. To raise whether public support to the three analysed phenomena should continue or change, specially if the aim is to foster technological innovation.Chapter 1 contains an introduction on innovation studies. Chapter 2 explains the role of universities in innovation. It shows a bibliographic review and some appreciative theory that guides the rest of the work. Chapters 3 and 4 deepen into the bibliographic review on university-industry interaction and university patents, respectively. They raise key questions for an empirical contribution. First, whether these phenomena have an impact on the quality of academic research. Second, whether they foster knowledge transmission and innovation.To answer these questions, Chapter 3 relies on a survey on university-industry interaction in the Valencian Community. It will also enable us to study whether all the objectives of university-industry interaction are compatible. Chapter 4 relies on two case studies on university patents, the Polytechnic University of Valencia and, in order to offer a different view from the Spanish case, the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg. The chapter also includes a theoretical model on the academic incentives to patent.Besides partial conclusions at every chapter, Chapter 5 offers their summary, as well as a synthesis in order to fulfil the objectives of the thesis.