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Measuring Safety Attitude Differences in the Construction Supply ChainSaunders, Lance Walter 03 May 2013 (has links)
Construction worker safety is normally a construction activity in the United States, even though there is an emerging body of literature discussing the positive effects of considering safety earlier in the construction lifecycle. This literature has discussed the fragmentation in terms of safety attitudes between owners and designers and those carrying out the construction of a project. Quantitatively identifying the specific areas that the differences exist in terms of safety attitudes between common roles on a construction project could be a step toward reducing the fragmentation that currently exists in the work system and promoting safety to be more of a consideration earlier in the project lifecycle. One common technique for measuring safety attitudes is the use of safety climate survey instruments, but in the construction industry these have historically focused on just construction personnel. This research will discuss the development of a survey instrument to measure differences in safety attitudes between typical members of the entire construction project work system in order to identify specific areas that gaps exist. Phase I of the research include the development of an instrument using Mohammed\'s (2002) survey as a base, validation of the measurement model using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and using applied nonparametric statistics to analyze the data and identify significant differences. These results will be used in Phase II to develop a training tool to educate relevant project personnel on differences that were identified in Phase I, and to determine the best mediums for conveying this type of information. / Ph. D.
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Quality performance by deploying instant feedback technologies to automotive manufacturingShawhan, Jason 30 April 2021 (has links) (PDF)
There are many contributing factors that influence the development, deployment, and use of lean manufacturing techniques. This study will focus on an automotive factory production system but will gather data across many areas. The concepts presented in the available research will then be related to lean manufacturing techniques at a union-based automotive factory. Several factors to focus on during this study are the Industry 4.0 movement, production systems, deployment and implementation strategies, lean manufacturing, persuasive technology, and manufacturing culture. These factors play a significant role in developing and implementing core techniques, which would lead to best in class metrics. The study will also experiment with different technologies and apply these finding to an assembly line. Two contributions that this research will add to the body of knowledge: 1. An action research deployment of instant feedback stations at operators’ workstations with results and analysis of quality outputs. 2. An action research deployment of instant feedback production check sheets from operators to management with results and analysis of quality outputs.
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The impact of domestic water user cultures on water efficiency interventions in the South East of England: Lessons for water demand management.Knamiller, C. January 2011 (has links)
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.
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A Middleware for Large-scale Simulation Systems & Resource ManagementMakkapati, Hemanth 26 May 2013 (has links)
Socially coupled systems are comprised of inter-dependent social, organizational, economic, infrastructure and physical networks. Today's urban regions serve as an excellent example of such systems. People and institutions confront the implications of the increasing scale of information becoming available due to a combination of advances in pervasive computing, data acquisition systems as well as high performance computing. Integrated modeling and decision making environments are necessary to support planning, analysis and counter factual experiments to study these complex systems.
Here, we describe SIMFRASTRUCTURE -- a computational infrastructure that supports high performance computing oriented decision and analytics environments to study socially coupled systems. Simfrastructure provides a middleware with multiplexing mechanism by which modeling environments with simple and intuitive user-interfaces can be plugged in as front-end systems, and high-end computing resources -- such as clusters, grids and clouds -- can be plugged in as back-end systems for execution. This makes several key aspects of simulation systems such as the computational complexity, data management and resource management and allocation completely transparent to the users. The decoupling of user interfaces, data repository and computational resources from simulation execution allows users to run simulations and access the results asynchronously and enables them to add new datasets and simulation models dynamically. Simfrastructure enables implementation of a simple yet powerful modeling environment with built-in analytics-as-aservice platform, which provides seamless access to high end computational resources, through an intuitive interface for studying socially coupled systems.
We illustrate the applicability of Simfrastructure in the context of an integrated modeling environment to study public health epidemiology and network science. / Master of Science
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Enhancing Safety in Critical Monitoring Systems: Investigating the Roles of Human Error, Fatigue, and Organizational Learning in Socio-Technical EnvironmentsLiu, Ning-Yuan 09 April 2024 (has links)
Modern complex safety-critical socio-technical systems (STSs) operate in an environment that requires high levels of human-machine interaction. Given the potential for catastrophic events , understanding human errors is a critical research area spanning disciplines such as management science, cognitive engineering, resilience engineering, and systems theory. However, a research gap remains when researching how errors impact system performance from a systemic perspective.
This dissertation employs a systematic methodology and develops models that explore the relationship between errors and system performance, considering both macro-organizational and micro-worker perspectives. In Essay 1, the focus is on how firms respond to serious errors (catastrophic events), by exploring the oscillation behavior associated with the organizational learning and forgetting theory. The proposed simulation model contributes to the organizational science literature with a comprehensive approach that assesses the firm's response time to "serious" errors when the firm has a focus on safety with established safety thresholds. All of these considerations have subsequent impact on future performance.
Essay 2 explores the relationship between safety-critical system's workers' workload, human error, and automation reliance for the Belgian railway traffic control center. Key findings include a positive relationship between traffic controller performance and workload, and an inverted U-shaped relationship with automation usage. This research offers new insights into the effects of cognitive workload and automation reliance in safety-critical STSs. Essay 3 introduces a calibrated System Dynamics model, informed by empirical data and existing theories on workload suboptimality. This essay contributes to the managerial understanding of workload management, particularly the feedback mechanism between operators' workload and human errors, which is driven by overload and underload thresholds. The model serves as a practical tool for managerial practitioners to estimate the likelihood of human errors based on workload distributions.
Overall, this dissertation presents an interdisciplinary and pragmatic approach, blending theoretical and empirical methodologies. Its broad impacts extend across management science, cognitive engineering, and resilience engineering, contributing significantly to the understanding and management of safety-critical socio-technical systems. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation is motivated by the increasing autonomy in infrastructure systems designed to enhance safety performance. Yet paradoxically, we continue to witness system failures leading to catastrophic disasters. High-profile incidents such as the Metro-North train derailment in New York City, the Boeing 737 MAX plane crashes, and the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle accidents highlight this contradiction. This research delves into safety-critical systems where the intricate collaboration between humans and machines is crucial, and where even minor human errors can lead to disastrous consequences.
This dissertation is presented in three parts. In the first part I examine how firms react to serious errors. The study focuses on their learning processes following safety incidents and the potential for these lessons to be forgotten over time. I introduced a simulation model grounded in the organizational science literature, offering deeper insights into how companies respond to errors, including changes in safety focus, safety culture, and policy, and the impact of these factors on future company's performance.
The second part shifts to a worker-centered perspective, exploring the relationship between workload, performance, and automation usage among traffic controllers. The findings indicate that while performance can improve with an increase in workload up to a certain threshold, excessive reliance on automation may lead to a decline in performance. This part of the study sheds light on how cognitive workload and technology usage influence operators in safety-critical roles. The final part of the dissertation presents another simulation model, this time focusing on how workload, and the resulting stress and boredom due to workload, influence the likelihood of errors. Utilizing real operational data from the Belgian railway transportation system, this model aids managers in understanding how to optimally balance workloads to minimize error risks.
Overall, this dissertation takes an interdisciplinary and pragmatic approach, merging theoretical concepts with empirical data. Its extensive impact spans management science, cognitive engineering, and resilience engineering, significantly enhancing our comprehension and management of safety-critical socio-technical systems.
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Situation awareness amongst emergency care practitionersAbd Hamid, Harris Shah January 2011 (has links)
The increase and changes in the demand for emergency care require pro-active responses from the designers and implementers of the emergency care system. The role of Emergency Care Practitioner (ECP) was introduced in England to improve the delivery of emergency care in the community. The role was evaluated using cost-benefit approach and compared with other existing emergency care roles. An analysis of the cognitive elements (situation awareness (SA) and naturalistic decision making (NDM)) of the ECP job was proposed considering the mental efforts involved. While the cost-benefit approach can justify further spending on developing the role, a cognitive approach can provide the evidence in ensuring the role is developed to fulfil its purpose. A series of studies were carried out to describe SA and NDM amongst ECPs in an ambulance service in England. A study examined decision-making process using Critical Decision Method interviews which revealed the main processes in making decision and how information was used to develop SA. Based on the findings, the subsequent studies focus on the non-clinical factors that influence SA and decision making. Data from a scoping study were used to develop a socio-technical systems framework based on existing models and frameworks. The framework was then used to guide further exploration of SA and NDM. Emergency calls that were assigned to ECPs over a period of 8 months were analysed. The analysis revealed system-related influences on the deployment of ECPs. Interviews with the ECPs enabled the identification of influences on their decision-making with respect to patient care. Goal-directed task analysis was used to identify the decision points and information requirements of the ECPs. The findings and the framework were then evaluated via a set of studies based on an ethnographic approach. Participant observations with 13 ECPs were carried out. Field notes provided further insight into the characteristics of jobs assigned to the ECPs. It was possible to map the actual information used by the ECP to their information needs. The sources of the information were classified according to system levels. A questionnaire based on factors influencing decision-making was tested with actual cases. It was found that the items in the questionnaire could reliably measure factors that influence decision-making. Overall, the studies identify factors that have direct and indirect influences on the ECP job. A coherent model for the whole emergency care systems can be developed to build safety into the care delivery process. Further development of the ECP role need to consider the support for cognitive tasks in light of the findings reported in this thesis.
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Germany's Energy Transition Experiment: A Case Study about Guiding Decisions and Steering Large Socio-Technical Systems in Desired DirectionsJanuary 2018 (has links)
abstract: The Energiewende aims to drastically reduce Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions, without relying on nuclear power, while maintaining a secure and affordable energy supply. Since 2000 the country’s renewable-energy share has increased exponentially, accounting in 2017 for over a third of Germany's gross electricity consumption. This unprecedented achievement is the result of policies, tools, and institutional arrangements intended to steer society to a low-carbon economy. Despite its resounding success in renewable-energy deployment, the Energiewende is not on track to meet its decarbonization goals. Energiewende rules and regulations have generated numerous undesired consequences, and have cost much more than anticipated, a burden borne primarily by energy consumers. Why has the Energiewende not only made energy more expensive, but also failed to bring Germany closer to its decarbonization goals? I analyzed the Energiewende as a complex socio-technical system, examining its legal framework and analyzing the consequences of successive regulations; identifying major political and energy players and the factors that motivated them to pursue socio-technical change; and documenting the political trends and events in which the Energiewende is rooted and which continue to shape it. I analyzed the dynamics and the loopholes that created barriers to transition, pushed the utility sector to the brink of dissolution, and led to such undesirable outcomes as negative wholesale prices and forced exports of electricity to Germany’s European neighbors. Thirty high-level energy experts and stakeholders were interviewed to find out how the best-informed members of German society perceive the Energiewende. Surprisingly, although they were highly critical of the way the transition has unfolded, most were convinced that the transition would eventually succeed. But their definitions of success did not always depend on achieving carbon-mitigation targets. Indeed, Germany jeopardizes the achievement of these targets by changing too many policy and institutional variables at too fast a pace. Good intentions and commitment are not enough to create economies based on intermittent energy sources: they will also require intensive grid expansion and breakthroughs in storage technology. The Energiewende demonstrates starkly that collective action driven by robust political consensus is not sufficient for steering complex socio-technical systems in desired directions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2018
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Framework para avaliação de projetos de melhoria contínua sob a visão da complexidade : um estudo na área da saúdeFerreira, Dayane Maximiano Carvalho January 2018 (has links)
Sistemas de saúde têm sido cada vez mais exigidos a serem mais eficientes, o que encorajou o uso de iniciativas de melhoria de processos. A partir de então, a Produção Enxuta (PE) surgiu como uma abordagem amplamente utilizada. Alguns resultados insatisfatórios da PE podem ser, parcialmente, explicados pela falta de considerar a complexidade dos serviços de saúde. Os sistemas de saúde são classificados como sistemas sócio-técnicos complexos (SSTC) devido à incerteza, diversidade e interações não-lineares. De acordo com a literatura, as implementações de Lean em serviços de saúde geralmente envolvem Kaizen, que tende a produzir ganhos significativos de eficiência e segurança através de mudanças relativamente pequenas e localizadas. Contudo, as melhorias locais podem implicar resultados globais indesejados, uma vez que as interações entre os elementos de sistemas complexos podem não ser lineares. Para isso, este trabalho desenvolve e aplica uma framework que visa avaliar projetos de melhoria em SSTC. O estudo foi realizado em uma unidade de internação de um hospital escola. As interações entre os projetos foram modeladas através do desenvolvimento de um diagrama de loop causal, o qual representou variáveis relacionadas a cinco projetos de melhoria analisados e um modelo FRAM. Os projetos também foram avaliados quanto ao seu impacto no sistema e sua adesão a boas práticas em Kaizen, identificadas na literatura. A framework demonstrou-se eficaz em elencar as variáveis para que possam influenciar positivamente os resultados dos projetos e embasar recomendações para a condução de novos projetos de melhoria por meio de uma visão sistêmica. / Healthcare systems have been increasingly demanded to be more efficient, which has encouraged the use of process improvement initiatives. From these, lean production has emerged as a widely used approach. Some disappointing results of lean production can be partially due to the lack of consideration of the complexity of healthcare. Health systems are classified as Complex socio-technical systems (CSTS) due to the uncertainty, diversity, and non-linear interactions. According to the literature, the implementation of Lean in healthcare usually involves Kaizen, which tends to produce significant gains in efficiency and safety through relatively small and localized changes. However, local improvements may imply unwanted overall results, since interactions between elements of complex systems may not be linear. For this, this work develops and applies a framework that aims to evaluate improvement projects in CSTC. The study was performed in an in-patient surgical ward of a teaching hospital. The interactions between the projects were modelled through the development of a causal-loop diagram, which accounted for variables related to all five projects, and a FRAM model. The projects were also evaluated as to their impact on the system and their adherence to good Kaizen practices identified in the literature. The framework proved to be effective in highlighting the variables so that they can positively influence the projects results and support recommendations for conducting new improvement projects through a systemic view.
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Offentlighetens nya rum : teknik och politik i Sverige 1969-1999Ilshammar, Lars January 2004 (has links)
<p>This study in contemporary history describes the transformation of the public sphere in Sweden during the period 1969-1999, and analyses the role of information technology and politics in the process. The overall aim of the study is to explain how, and why, the public sphere in Jürgen Habermas sense has deteriorated during a period of rapid technological and political change, when increasing attention has been given to information technology as a new tool for improving democracy and empowering citizens.</p><p>Theoretical inspiration is drawn from two perspectives within the modern history of technology and sociology of technology; the LTS (Large Technical Systems) and STS (Science, Technology and Society) approaches, as well as from the regime theory concept within political science. This multidisciplinary framework provides the theoretical basis for the study, including terms as socio-technical systems, system builder, technification, interpretative flexibility, stabilization, closing and regime change. In addition, the analysis draws upon previous research in economic history, where focus often has been on the important role of institutions. The term path dependence is central in this tradition.</p><p>The starting point for the study is the process of a mutual legitimization between citizens and political actors that traditionally has taken place within the public sphere. In return for citizens support and trust, political actors have granted format rights to the public space. Two aspects of this interdependence are addressed: Freedom of speech and citizen’s access to public information, and their access to arenas where an exchange of political ideas and opinions is taking place. In the study, the former is a question of the legal system and the limits to freedom of speech in new medias such as the Internet, while the latter concerns citizen’s technical means and possibilities to connect to electronic networks.</p><p>Research interest is concentrated on the formal political system, focusing both actors and structural factors such as technological development, media convergence, ideological change and international integration in the transformation process. Four case studies of institutional changes during formative moments, within what is defined as the legal and the technical infrastructures, are conducted and represent the empirical base of the thesis. The case studies are centered on Swedish governmental commissions, on the government itself and on proceedings in the parliament, and concerns formation and transformation of computer law, as well as the deregulation and privatization of the technical infrastructure.</p><p>In the latter process Televerket (Swedish Telecom) has been an influential promoter of competition and institutional separation between tele- and data communications, representing a major regime change in favour of market relations in the technical infrastructure. In the area of computer law, the Swedish regime dominated by SCB (Statistics Sweden) was incorporated into a joint European data protection regime, resulting in limitations of freedom of speech on the Internet. These regime changes have also transformed the role of the state, constituting a “net watchers state”. </p><p>Another important finding is that promotion of democracy and improvement of access to the public sphere, never was on the agenda in the political transformation processes studied, although a parallel discourse on democracy and information technology existed throughout the period studied.</p>
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The economics of climate change and the change of climate in economics:the implications for climate policy of adopting an evolutionary perspective/Economie du changement climatique et changement de climat en économie: implications pour la politique climatique de l'adoption d'une perspective évolutionnisteMaréchal, Kevin 11 September 2009 (has links)
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.
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