Many sustainability concerns have led to a push for more sustainable electricity systems. Governments and utilities have responded to these pressures by making changes ranging from minor incremental adjustments to sweeping transformations. This dissertation is focused on determining how we can best understand such transitions of electricity systems and what possibilities exist for First Nations to participate in them. This dissertation involves case studies of three Canadian provinces – Nova Scotia, Ontario and Saskatchewan – based on a review of relevant documents and semi-structured interviews. The theoretical basis of this dissertation is derived from the sustainability transitions field and discourse coalition theory. The conclusion of this research is a helpful and robust integrated sustainability transition framework, which is developed by combining elements of the multi-level perspective (MLP) and technological innovation system (TIS) frameworks from the sustainability transitions field, and supplementing those elements with features from discourse coalition theory. This integrated sustainability transition framework can usefully explain the complex dynamics involved in transitions of electricity systems. The typology of transition pathways – distinguishing between the possibilities of reproduction, transformation, technological substitution, reconfiguration, and de-alignment/re-alignment – provides insights into the direction of the transition. The various TIS functions add a needed element of agency and provide insights into the rate of progress along the particular transition pathway. Discourse coalition theory adds a greater degree of agency by uncovering the political dynamics involved. By considering factors for successful First Nations participation as important TIS functions, the integrated sustainability transition framework presented in this dissertation helps explain the possibilities for First Nations participation. Successful First Nations participation is more likely to occur where governments are proudly engaging in reconciliation efforts and resurgence support and where they embrace distributed, clean energy projects and deliberately open up space for new actors to participate in the electricity sector. In order to achieve the momentum needed to take advantage of a window of opportunity to participate, First Nations need a project champion, stable governance, access to cash, partnerships with the private sector, and must ensure that the focus remains on sustainable development and delivery of benefits to the entire community.

Software development has become a cognitive and collaborative knowledge-based endeavor where developers and organizations, faced with a variety of challenges and an increased demand for extensive knowledge support, push the boundaries of existing tools and work practices. Researchers and industry professionals have spent years studying collaborative work and communication media, however, the landscape of social media is rapidly changing. Thus, instead of trying to model the use of specific technologies and communication media, I seek to model the knowledge-building process itself. Doing so will not only allow us to understand specific tool and communication media use, but whole ecosystems of technologies and their impact on software development and knowledge work, revealing aspects not only unique to specific tools, but also aspects about the combination of technologies. In this dissertation, I describe the empirical studies I conducted aimed to understand social and communication media use in software development and knowledge curation within developer communities. An important part of the thesis is an additional qualitative meta-synthesis of these studies. My meta-analysis has led to a model of software development as a knowledge building process, and a theoretical framework: I describe this newly formed framework and how it is grounded in empirical work, and demonstrate how my primary studies led to its creation. My conceptualization of knowledge building withing software development and the proposed framework provide the research community with the means to pursue a deeper understanding of software development and contemporary knowledge work. I believe that this framework can serve as a basis for a theory of knowledge building in software development, shedding light on knowledge flow, knowledge productivity, and knowledge management. / Graduate

Cette recherche s’inscrit dans le domaine de la fiabilité des systèmes sociotechniques complexes, et vise à développer une nouvelle approche des arbitrages entre performance et sécurité : l’ingénierie de la résilience. La capacité des systèmes à risques à résister aux perturbations dépend, en dernière analyse, des acteurs de ces systèmes. Ceux-ci doivent réaliser des arbitrages entre des critères qui peuvent entrer en conflit : critères économiques immédiats (assurer la performance commerciale, par exemple), critères de sécurité (renoncer à satisfaire l’objectif immédiat de production). La thèse porte sur l’activité d’opérateurs d’une compagnie aérienne, en charge de répondre en temps réel à des appels d’équipages d’avions, qui signalent une complainte technique. Celle-ci peut-elle être traitée immédiatement : est-elle bénigne ou, au contraire, doit-elle conduire à l’annulation du vol concerné ? La thèse défendue est que, dans un système ultra sûr et ultra réglé, les conflits entre performance et sécurité se produisent lorsque la « sécurité gérée » rentre en conflit avec la « sécurité réglée ». Pour défendre cette thèse, trois études empiriques ont été mises en œuvre. Ainsi, plusieurs méthodes ont été utilisées en combinaison : l’observation et l’analyse de l’activité, la simulation d’activité, les questionnaires et les autoconfrontations.Les résultats obtenus ont permis, dans un premier temps, d’objectiver les arbitrages entre performance et sécurité, puis dans un second temps, d’identifier les critères qui président à ces arbitrages et d’expliciter les processus qui les sous-tendent. Ces résultats permettent, d’une part, de proposer des solutions acceptables telles que le retour d’expérience par la confrontation des pratiques, et d’assimiler la « sécurité gérée » comme un sous-ensemble de la « sécurité réglée », et d’autre part, de dépasser notre vision négative des violations, en les assimilant à une forme d’intelligence des opérateurs dans l’action. / This research is in the field of reliability of complex socio-technical systems and aims to develop a new approach to allow trade-offs between performance and safety: engineering resilience. The ability of systems to cope with disturbances ultimately depends on the operators of these systems. They must make trade-offs between criteria that may conflict: immediate economic criteria (i.e. to ensure business performance), safety criteria (i.e. give up to meet the immediate production objective). The thesis focuses on the activity of an airline’s operators, in charge of assistance via telephone for aircrew who report a technical complaint. It can be treated immediately; is it benign, or conversely should it lead to the cancellation of the flight?The thesis assumes that in an ultra-safe and ultra rule-based system, conflicts between safety and performance occur when the "rule-based safety" conflicts with "adaptative safety". To defend this thesis, three empirical studies have been implemented. Thus, several methods were used in combination: observation and activity analysis, simulation of activities, questionnaires and auto-confrontation.The results obtained allowed at first to objectify the trade-offs between performance and safety, then in a second instance to identify the criteria governing such trade-offs and explain the processes that underlie them.These results permit, on one hand, to propose acceptable solutions such as the feedback by comparing the practices and assimilate the “adaptative safety” as a subset of “rule-based safety”, and on the other hand to overcome our negative view of violations by treating them as a form of operators’ intelligence in action.

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.

Medidas para gerenciamento de saúde e segurança em laboratórios são de extrema importância em laboratórios químicos. As pessoas que realizam qualquer atividade em um ambiente de laboratório estão expostas a diversos perigos e, consequentemente, existe o risco de ocorrência de eventos adversos para a saúde e segurança. Este trabalho foi desenvolvido em um laboratório químico de uma universidade federal tem como principal objetivo o aperfeiçoamento de uma framework que permite a realização de uma análise sistemática qualitativa e quantitativa das folgas presentes em um sistema sócio-técnico complexo. Ferramentas da Engenharia de Resiliência foram utilizadas para estudar o laboratório, o qual foi considerado como um sistema sócio-técnico complexo. Uma das características de um sistema resiliente é a capacidade de lidar com a variabilidade, o que pode ser obtido por meio de recursos de folgas (slack) no sistema. O uso da framework permitiu obter dados importantes para a análise do sistema e sugestões de melhorias. Os aperfeiçoamentos propostos na framework mostraram-se eficazes, principalmente na quantificação das folgas e variabilidades, em função da utilização do método AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) para a análise de dados. O método AHP tornou possível substituir o uso de questionários para toda a equipe por uma avaliação direcionada a especialistas. Ao utilizar o AHP, os dados podem ser adquiridos com maior rapidez. Outro ganho obtido com o uso do método AHP foi a possibilidade de redução de uma etapa da framework, tornando-a mais concisa. / Measures for health and safety management are of paramount importance in chemical laboratories. People who perform any activity in a laboratory environment are exposed to a variety of hazards and consequently there is a risk of adverse health and safety events. This work was developed in a chemical laboratory of a federal university, and has as main objective the improvement of a framework that allows the accomplishment of a systematic qualitative and quantitative analysis of the slack present in a complex socio-technical system. Tools of Resilience Engineering were used for studying a chemical laboratory, which was considered as a complex socio-technical system. One of the characteristics of a resilient system is the ability to deal with variability, which can be obtained through slack resources in the system. This work was developed in a chemical laboratory of a federal university and consists in the improvement of a framework that allows the accomplishment of a systematic qualitative and quantitative analysis of the slack present in the system. The use of the framework allowed to obtain data important for the analysis of the system and suggestions for improvements. The improvements proposed in the framework proved to be effective, especially in the quantification of slack and variability, as a function of the AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) method for data collection. The AHP method made it possible to replace the use of questionnaires for the entire team by an expert team assessment. By using AHP, data can be acquired more quickly. Another gain obtained with the use of the AHP method was the possibility of reducing one stage of the framework, making it more concise.

abstract: Energy poverty is pervasive in sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria, located in sub-Saharan West Africa, is the world's seventh largest oil exporting country and is a resource-rich nation. It however experiences the same levels of energy poverty as most of its neighboring countries. Attributing this paradox only to corruption or the "Dutch Disease", where one sector booms at the expense of other sectors of the economy, is simplistic and enervates attempts at reform. In addition, data on energy consumption is aggregated at the national level via estimates, disaggregated data is virtually non-existent. Finally, the wave of decentralization of vertically integrated national utilities sweeping the developing world has caught on in sub-Saharan Africa. However, little is known of the economic and social implications of these transitions within the unique socio-technical system of the region's electricity sector, especially as it applies to energy poverty. This dissertation proposes a complex systems approach to measuring and mitigating energy poverty in Nigeria due to its multi-dimensional nature. This is done via a three-fold approach: the first section of the study delves into causation by examining the governance institutions that create and perpetuate energy poverty; the next section proposes a context-specific minimum energy poverty line based on field data collected on energy consumption; and the paper concludes with an indicator-based transition management framework encompassing institutional, economic, social, and environmental themes of sustainable transition within the electricity sector. This work contributes to intellectual discourse on systems-based mitigation strategies for energy poverty that are widely applicable within the sub-Saharan region, as well as adds to the knowledge-base of decision-support tools for addressing energy poverty in its complexity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2015

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.

Medidas para gerenciamento de saúde e segurança em laboratórios são de extrema importância em laboratórios químicos. As pessoas que realizam qualquer atividade em um ambiente de laboratório estão expostas a diversos perigos e, consequentemente, existe o risco de ocorrência de eventos adversos para a saúde e segurança. Este trabalho foi desenvolvido em um laboratório químico de uma universidade federal tem como principal objetivo o aperfeiçoamento de uma framework que permite a realização de uma análise sistemática qualitativa e quantitativa das folgas presentes em um sistema sócio-técnico complexo. Ferramentas da Engenharia de Resiliência foram utilizadas para estudar o laboratório, o qual foi considerado como um sistema sócio-técnico complexo. Uma das características de um sistema resiliente é a capacidade de lidar com a variabilidade, o que pode ser obtido por meio de recursos de folgas (slack) no sistema. O uso da framework permitiu obter dados importantes para a análise do sistema e sugestões de melhorias. Os aperfeiçoamentos propostos na framework mostraram-se eficazes, principalmente na quantificação das folgas e variabilidades, em função da utilização do método AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) para a análise de dados. O método AHP tornou possível substituir o uso de questionários para toda a equipe por uma avaliação direcionada a especialistas. Ao utilizar o AHP, os dados podem ser adquiridos com maior rapidez. Outro ganho obtido com o uso do método AHP foi a possibilidade de redução de uma etapa da framework, tornando-a mais concisa. / Measures for health and safety management are of paramount importance in chemical laboratories. People who perform any activity in a laboratory environment are exposed to a variety of hazards and consequently there is a risk of adverse health and safety events. This work was developed in a chemical laboratory of a federal university, and has as main objective the improvement of a framework that allows the accomplishment of a systematic qualitative and quantitative analysis of the slack present in a complex socio-technical system. Tools of Resilience Engineering were used for studying a chemical laboratory, which was considered as a complex socio-technical system. One of the characteristics of a resilient system is the ability to deal with variability, which can be obtained through slack resources in the system. This work was developed in a chemical laboratory of a federal university and consists in the improvement of a framework that allows the accomplishment of a systematic qualitative and quantitative analysis of the slack present in the system. The use of the framework allowed to obtain data important for the analysis of the system and suggestions for improvements. The improvements proposed in the framework proved to be effective, especially in the quantification of slack and variability, as a function of the AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) method for data collection. The AHP method made it possible to replace the use of questionnaires for the entire team by an expert team assessment. By using AHP, data can be acquired more quickly. Another gain obtained with the use of the AHP method was the possibility of reducing one stage of the framework, making it more concise.

Nos travaux se situent au croisement de trois domaines : la sûreté de fonctionnement, l'analysefonctionnelle et l'ingénierie des modèles. Dans l'objectif d'assister les analyses préliminaires desrisques, nous avons proposé d'exploiter les modèles issus de l'analyse fonctionnelle de l'avion. Cesmodèles décrivent les dépendances entre les fonctions qui doivent être réalisées durant une phasede vol. Pour exploiter ces modèles, nous avons introduit la notion d'efficacité qui mesure ledegré de contribution d'une fonction à la réalisation nominale d'une phase de vol. Cette notionest utile pour les analyses de risques car elle permet de formaliser divers cas dedysfonctionnements des fonctions et pour évaluer le niveau de dégradation d'une phase de vol encas de dysfonctionnement d'une ou plusieurs fonctions. Nous avons proposé d'annoter les modèlesissus de l'analyse fonctionnelle avec des informations relatives à l'efficacité des fonctions et à leursdysfonctionnements possibles. En suivant les principes de la transformation de modèles, nousavons étudié les moyens de produire le plus automatiquement possible des modèles utiles auxanalyses de risques à partir des modèles annotés. Les modèles produits sont décrits avec lelangage AltaRica, ils peuvent être analysés avec les outils associés à ce langage afin d'évaluerl'effet du dysfonctionnement de fonctions de l'avion ou de rechercher les combinaisons dedysfonctionnements les plus critiques. L'approche proposée a été appliquée pour analyser lesrisques associés aux fonctions utiles lors du décollage d'un avion. / Our work links three domains: safety, functional analysis and model based engineering. In orderto assist preliminary risk analysis, we have proposed to exploit models developed for functionalanalysis. These models describe dependencies between functions that have to be performed duringa flight phase. To exploit these models, we have introduced the notion of efficiency thatmeasures the degree of contribution of a function to the nominal realisation of a flight phase.This notion is useful for risk analysis because it enables the formalisation of various cases offunction failures and the evaluation of the level of degradation of a flight phase in case offunction failures. We have proposed to annotate functional analysis models with informationrelated with function efficiency and potential function failures. Following the principles of modeltransformation, we have studied the means to produce as automatically as possible models thatcould be used to support risk analysis starting from annotated models. Produced models aredescribed with the AltaRica language, they can be analysed with the tools associated with thislanguage in order to evaluate the effect of function failures or to search for the most criticalcombinations of failures. The approach was applied in order to analyse the risks associated withthe functions used during an aircraft take-off.

Medidas para gerenciamento de saúde e segurança em laboratórios são de extrema importância em laboratórios químicos. As pessoas que realizam qualquer atividade em um ambiente de laboratório estão expostas a diversos perigos e, consequentemente, existe o risco de ocorrência de eventos adversos para a saúde e segurança. Este trabalho foi desenvolvido em um laboratório químico de uma universidade federal tem como principal objetivo o aperfeiçoamento de uma framework que permite a realização de uma análise sistemática qualitativa e quantitativa das folgas presentes em um sistema sócio-técnico complexo. Ferramentas da Engenharia de Resiliência foram utilizadas para estudar o laboratório, o qual foi considerado como um sistema sócio-técnico complexo. Uma das características de um sistema resiliente é a capacidade de lidar com a variabilidade, o que pode ser obtido por meio de recursos de folgas (slack) no sistema. O uso da framework permitiu obter dados importantes para a análise do sistema e sugestões de melhorias. Os aperfeiçoamentos propostos na framework mostraram-se eficazes, principalmente na quantificação das folgas e variabilidades, em função da utilização do método AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) para a análise de dados. O método AHP tornou possível substituir o uso de questionários para toda a equipe por uma avaliação direcionada a especialistas. Ao utilizar o AHP, os dados podem ser adquiridos com maior rapidez. Outro ganho obtido com o uso do método AHP foi a possibilidade de redução de uma etapa da framework, tornando-a mais concisa. / Measures for health and safety management are of paramount importance in chemical laboratories. People who perform any activity in a laboratory environment are exposed to a variety of hazards and consequently there is a risk of adverse health and safety events. This work was developed in a chemical laboratory of a federal university, and has as main objective the improvement of a framework that allows the accomplishment of a systematic qualitative and quantitative analysis of the slack present in a complex socio-technical system. Tools of Resilience Engineering were used for studying a chemical laboratory, which was considered as a complex socio-technical system. One of the characteristics of a resilient system is the ability to deal with variability, which can be obtained through slack resources in the system. This work was developed in a chemical laboratory of a federal university and consists in the improvement of a framework that allows the accomplishment of a systematic qualitative and quantitative analysis of the slack present in the system. The use of the framework allowed to obtain data important for the analysis of the system and suggestions for improvements. The improvements proposed in the framework proved to be effective, especially in the quantification of slack and variability, as a function of the AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) method for data collection. The AHP method made it possible to replace the use of questionnaires for the entire team by an expert team assessment. By using AHP, data can be acquired more quickly. Another gain obtained with the use of the AHP method was the possibility of reducing one stage of the framework, making it more concise.