Managed clinical and care networks (MCNs) have emerged in Scotland as a collaborative form of organising within health and between health and social services. Bringing together disparate disciplines and professions their aim has been to allow work across service and sector boundaries to improve care for patients. Whilst MCN prevalence has increased and policy has moved to centralise this method of organising, many research questions remain. These include: how can we understand the form, function and impact of MCNs, and further, what are the underlying motivations for practitioners and managers to organise in this way? Focussing in on the work of 3 voluntary MCNs operating in Scotland, the centrality of practice emerges. Practice is defined broadly to encompass both the interactions between practitioner-patient and practitioner-population. From this, the MCN becomes conceptualised as a set of activities focussed around ground-level clinical MCN service issues and top-level policy direction. Through considering work the interplay between ethics and scientific evidence emerges. The inherent uncertainty and suffering of daily practice comes to the fore, these concepts are brought together within a framework, morals-in-practice. Further, using the hermeneutic dynamics of alterity, openness and transcendence, MCNs can be understood as providing a space to foster creative responses to the wicked problems created by health and social service design and delivery. The organising opportunities provided by MCNs thus arguably serve several organisational and social functions, providing a forum to: mutually support and respond to the intrinsically challenging nature of practice understood; debate morals-in-practice helping to ensuring collective clinical governance; sharing of organisational knowledge; planning, delivery and audit of services; and creatively respond to wicked problems. By focussing in on the work, the practice particularities of each individual MCN are resultantly emphasised, whilst still maintaining recognition that much of the NHS operational context is more widely shared. Through this these voluntary MCNs, at least, can be viewed as an organising form which has emerged in response to the complexities of modern health and social service, care, design and delivery.

Since various public and private actors at the international, supranational, national and subnational levels started to adopt long-term targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, low-carbon scenario analyses have flourished. Literature reveals an increasing number of analyses envisioning and exploring alternative images of low-carbon futures, as well as their adjacent transition pathways. Scenario approaches or “foresight” is intended to help policy-makers to navigate the maelstrom of confusion and conflicts associated with highly complex societal challenges such as climate change – i.e. the “super-wicked” problems. Typical scenario exercises aim at coping with uncertainty and conflicting values, and hence are often claimed as a suitable approach for knowing and governing super-wicked problems. When reviewing the scenario literature published over the recent years, we observe significant methodological developments, in particular at the level of the calculus or data-sets. These contributions have generated an increasing technical sophistication of scenario building methods, and contrast with the relative absence of social sciences research on scenarios. Scenario analyses have received little academic attention from social sciences, whether they are political science, sociology, philosophy of science or science and technology studies. By providing a SHS-analysis of low-carbon scenarios, the present thesis contributes to bridge this research gap. Scenarios are here understood as “boundary objects” linking different social worlds: science and policy, but also natural and social sciences. This thesis aspires to create an enhanced understanding on how scenario analyses perform such “boundary work”. More specifically, the following analysis of low-carbon scenarios is based on a twofold perspective focusing, on the one hand, on the interactions between low-carbon scenarios and governance (i.e. link between science and policy), and, on the other hand, on the making of knowledge about governance in low-carbon scenarios (i.e. link between natural and social sciences). In other words, it explores “scenarios in governance” and “governance in scenarios”. The thesis project includes three research axes, each based on its particular empirics. A first study explores the interactions between low-carbon scenarios and governance on the basis of a multiple case study analysing the role of four energy foresight studies in policy-making. The other two studies focus on the making of knowledge about governance in low-carbon scenarios. One of them provides an assessment of the knowledge needed to steer the low-carbon transition. The other one aims at contributing to the debate on the relations between quantitative modelling and social sciences by exposing a critical review of socio-technical energy transition models. The objective of the present thesis thus consists in providing an empirical contribution to social sciences research on low-carbon scenarios. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

abstract: Pierce College at Joint Base Lewis – McChord (PCJBLM) is a community college extension campus that is challenged with complying with multiple policies while serving a transient student population amid budget constraints. Through multiple cycles of research, entry-level student services staff expressed concern about their professional development and their ability to contribute meaningfully to initiatives around student success. Student services staff were also concerned with their connection to colleagues and leaders within the unit. Research shows that leaders may need to be more flexible and creative in staff development to appreciate the diverse values and talents of their teams. Research also identifies professional development as essential to solidifying student affairs as a profession and meeting the demands of today’s educational environment. Through multiple cycles of research, peer-to-peer mentoring was identified as the innovation to address the problem of practice at PCJBLM. The program was evaluated as part of an action research study. The theoretical perspectives guiding of the study were wicked problems, theory of structural empowerment, theory of psychological empowerment, and social learning theory and communities of practice. Peer-to-peer mentoring was evaluated over eight-weeks. Participants were selected via purposeful sampling. Key artifacts produced by participants were reflective journals and an individual development plan (IDP). Multiple qualitative data sources were used to triangulate the results. The quantitative instrument, Conditions of Work Empowerment Questionnaire – II (CWEQ-II), was administered to support learning about the participants’ feelings and perceptions about empowerment. The pre- and post-test (CWEQ-II) measures were used in conjunction with the qualitative sources. Credibility and rigor were addressed through triangulation, prolonged engagement, and member checking. Results indicate more investigation is needed to address the identified wicked problem. Peer-to-peer mentoring supported a broadened view of the problem practice. The peer-to-peer mentoring program was structurally empowering while not completely psychologically empowering. The participants’ conflicts related to psychological empowerment were identified and will support continued learning in this area. Additionally, through multiple cycles of qualitative analysis, the values of this unit were identified. These values were essential to the developing community of practice. Continued research in empowerment and wicked problems is needed to support the future growth of the community of practice. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2018

Model Forests were developed to bridge the gap between the emerging policy and the practice of sustainable forest management (SFM) in the early 1990s and, as such, to facilitate uptake of research findings into practice. The purpose of this study was to explore mechanisms that may explain why some research results are used in the policy and practice of SFM and others are not. Based on interviews in three Model Forests in Canada, the most prominent factors influencing research utilization identified were (1) relevance of the research findings to users’ needs, (2) effective research design and scientific credibility, and (3) user involvement in the research process. However, it was evident that there is no one factor that influences uptake, but rather a combination dependent upon the circumstances of each situation. This study also deepens understanding of the science–practice/policy interface by exploring the notion of Model Forests as boundary organizations.

This thesis investigates how rural communities negotiate the development of renewable energy projects. Public and local community acceptance of these new technologies in rural areas around the world is uncertain and spatially uneven and represents an area of emerging public policy interest and one where scholarly theory is rapidly developing. This thesis uses Habermasian concepts of public sphere, communicative action and deliberative democracy, as well as the concept of “wicked problems” from the planning studies literature combined with geographical concepts of place and scale to advance theoretical and empirical understanding of how public opinion on renewable energy technologies is formed in place. It documents energy use patterns, attitudes and sociopolitical relations at a time when considerable state and business efforts are directed at the construction of solar, wind, biomass and small-hydro technologies in rural regions. These concepts and theories are applied in a case study of rural communities in the Eastern Ontario Highlands, an impoverished area undergoing rapid restructuring driven by centralization of services and amenity migration but with abundant natural resources in form of forests, numerous waterways and open space which have attracted a broad range of new energy developments. Overall high levels of support for alternative energy development particularly for solar power were found, albeit for reasons of local energy security and not for reasons of preventing climate change. There was some evidence that seasonal residents are less supportive of hydro and biomass projects than permanent residents possibly reflecting broader trends in rural economies away from productive uses of land to consumptive appreciation of rural landscapes. The thesis suggests that collective action to advance energy projects in the case study area require agreement along three world-claims (truth, rightness and truthfulness) and that communication leading to discourse which uncovers hitherto hidden reasons for action is possible. These findings offer rare empirical evidence of the predictions of deliberative democratic theory in environmental planning settings. However, multiple barriers to communicative action were also identified and there is evidence that the state’s reliance on market incentives may have long term costs in terms of diminished public reasoning around renewable energy.

For the first time in history, the global urban population now exceeds the global rural population, meaning that more than 50 % of the world’s population now live in cities. Much attention has been paid to the discourse of sustainable development during the last decades, however, many environmental and social scientists point to an increasing problematic realted to climate change. Greehouse gas emissions are rising, water levels are rising and drought periods are becoming longer, and urban areas are becoming more and more populated. Due to an increasing urbanisation, cities now have the highest demand, compared to rural areas, for food, water, energy and healthcare. At the same time, cities are the biggest threats when it comes to environmental impacts, being responsible for 75 % of all resource consumption and 70 % of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. Drawing from sustainability transition theory, new modes of political governance theory and finally, pragmatist educational theory, this paper attempts to analyze the type of learning taking place in political spaces that exist within an institutional void. Learning, as a concept, is in this paper relating both to the type or learning the participants in the case study are experiencing, as well as what society can learn concerning Urban Sustainability Transitions (USTs). The aim of this paper is to explore theoretically and empirically how political spaces of USTs may function as educative spaces. It poses as its research question: How can pragmatist educational theory be used to understand transition for sustainability in institutional voids? As a case study, Housing Roar Uppsala is investigated as a political space where learning occurs. Two meetings have been recorded and four semi- structured interviews have been made in order to analyze the conversations using Practical Epistemology Analysis. A dramaturgical analysis has also been made in order to understand the setting and staging in which the meetings took place. The paper identifies as its results that there is a lingering gap, a lack of knowledge, occurring throughout the meetings, which in turn leads to another gap: that nothing is happening within the network. Furthermore, the ultimate purpose of the network does not always correlate with the proximate purposes of the participants. This is a source for the lingering gap. Through these findings, this paper suggests that the structure of the meetings might not always be the most beneficial one when trying to transition into sustainability, however, it might be the only one participants have when faced with complex, wicked issues. Wicked issues are problems that do not have a simple, single solution. It also finds that the type of learning taking place within the network might be a negotiation of purposes between participants. Finally, the paper concludes that, in relation to USTs, the type of learning that is taking place is that perhaps a totally open, nonhierarchical, network-type organization in a completely open setting, that bans political figures and private companies from entering into the conversation is not the most successful way of reaching sustainability.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Blake Belanger / In recent decades, traditional methods of oil and gas extraction in the United States have been fortified by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The process of fracking involves injecting water, aggregates, and chemicals into the earth to rupture rock that is trapping oil and gas. This process has unlocked access to once unobtainable reserves, and as a result, U.S. oil and gas production has continued to increase despite recurring forecasts that supplies would peak. While increased production has strengthened some sectors in the U.S. economy, it has also renewed a reliance on non-renewable energy, compromised the well-being of communities, and poses serious environmental threat. While research into the process of hydraulic fracturing and its effects are common, little discussion has been generated regarding the broader impacts of the systems required to construct, supply, and maintain fracking operations. The processes of hydraulic fracturing contain a dense array of components that effect both the present and future state of communities, environments, and economies. As energy demands grow and resources deplete, these millions of facilities will demarcate the wicked problems of a post-oil and gas future and reveal a dense system of derelict infrastructure and underutilized lands. This report presents the Fracklands. Fracklands are a comprehensive telling of the landscapes of hydraulic fracturing. They offer insight into what a dynamic and complex system of modern oil and gas extraction infrastructure looks like. After first defining fracking and discussing current practices and policies as grounds, I present a classification framework for defining the Fracklands. Organized by four approaches – Systems, Typologies, Trends and Futures – this Framework utilizes a set of descriptive methods conducted in three U.S. regions to present and discuss the Fracklands. Results reveal a more complete picture of fracking’s effects on the American landscape today, while giving hints of what the Fracklands will present in the future. The Fracklands are a little understood system of components and processes that profoundly affect land, people, place, and society. By presenting the Fracklands framework in this report, I aspire that planners, designers, and decision-makers will have a clear outline for better understanding the nature of this wicked problem. As a point of departure, I propose three unique design-based alternatives to address the future of the Fracklands and dilemmas yet materialized. With the Fracklands revealed, footholds are set for a methodology to be adapted and used in future study for understanding the ever-changing landscape of hydraulic fracturing.

Informed by archival data and oral history interviews, this dissertation explored stories of the lived experiences of the stakeholders of Mercer University’s Beloved Community. The goal was to gain insight into how higher educational institutions (HEIs) engaged community partners to address long-term racial injury through the process of racial reconciliation. This study included the insights of 18 participants in a racial reconciliation project named the Beloved Community; which began in 2005 and was sponsored by Mercer University, a private higher educational institution; formerly affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention. An aim of the project was to sustain a frank discourse within a safe, public forum, that would address the present and past injuries of racial segregation at the local church level and include the injured in problem solving. Mercer is one of few formerly segregated southern universities engaged in such an endeavor. The research questions were: 1) What do Mercer University’s Beloved Community stakeholders perceive as the primary goals of higher educational institutions in addressing racial reconciliation? 2) What are Mercer University’s Beloved Community stakeholders’ perceptions and lived experiences of racial reconciliation, through this project? 3) What patterns and contradictions are there in the stakeholders’ stories about their perceptions and lived experiences of racial reconciliation? The findings validate the research of Androff (2012) that reconciliation is a slow process, occurring at multiple levels, and provides insights into such an endeavor at a local level. Further, this study found that enactment of the project is influenced by social identity, collective memory, and intergroup interaction. A culture of social reconciliation, in the form of building interpersonal relationships and creating forums for racial dialogue, was the dominant form of reconciliation found within Mercer’s Beloved Community. This study is significant in examining the role of HEIs who include community partners to extend sustained scholarship, learning, and civic engagement.

This thesis investigates how rural communities negotiate the development of renewable energy projects. Public and local community acceptance of these new technologies in rural areas around the world is uncertain and spatially uneven and represents an area of emerging public policy interest and one where scholarly theory is rapidly developing. This thesis uses Habermasian concepts of public sphere, communicative action and deliberative democracy, as well as the concept of “wicked problems” from the planning studies literature combined with geographical concepts of place and scale to advance theoretical and empirical understanding of how public opinion on renewable energy technologies is formed in place. It documents energy use patterns, attitudes and sociopolitical relations at a time when considerable state and business efforts are directed at the construction of solar, wind, biomass and small-hydro technologies in rural regions. These concepts and theories are applied in a case study of rural communities in the Eastern Ontario Highlands, an impoverished area undergoing rapid restructuring driven by centralization of services and amenity migration but with abundant natural resources in form of forests, numerous waterways and open space which have attracted a broad range of new energy developments. Overall high levels of support for alternative energy development particularly for solar power were found, albeit for reasons of local energy security and not for reasons of preventing climate change. There was some evidence that seasonal residents are less supportive of hydro and biomass projects than permanent residents possibly reflecting broader trends in rural economies away from productive uses of land to consumptive appreciation of rural landscapes. The thesis suggests that collective action to advance energy projects in the case study area require agreement along three world-claims (truth, rightness and truthfulness) and that communication leading to discourse which uncovers hitherto hidden reasons for action is possible. These findings offer rare empirical evidence of the predictions of deliberative democratic theory in environmental planning settings. However, multiple barriers to communicative action were also identified and there is evidence that the state’s reliance on market incentives may have long term costs in terms of diminished public reasoning around renewable energy.

The ongoing sustainability crisis offer numerous, multifaced societal challenges as a result of the ongoing degradation of socio-ecological systems by human activity causing massive ecological damage and human suffering. Overcoming these difficulties begs for the rapid transition of society towards sustainability. This desire for urgent action has been hindered by the lack of coordinated global leadership focused on addressing these challenges and implementing a transition towards a sustainable future. The sustainability crisis and its manifestations, which include for example climate change, air and water pollution, deforestation and social segregation, are interconnected and volatile issues whose parts influence and impact each other causing the crisis to worsen. The earth system is pushed towards tipping points from beyond which it may become impossible to maintain the human civilization. The failure of leadership to address the wicked nature of these crises means humanity has been left ill-equipped to deal with the complex problems of sustainability.  This thesis considers the role of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in overcoming these issues and operating as a leverage point towards sustainability. It focuses on investigating how the development of sustainability leadership education in Higher Education can contribute to addressing the sustainability crisis. It looks at the role that educators can play in designing learning environments that ensure leaders and leadership capable of addressing wicked problems posed by global unsustainability. The aim of this research is to investigate what educators should consider when designing learning environments that promote the qualities needed for leading in complexity towards sustainability. It does this by examining a number of ESD programs as case studies to investigate the efficacy of those programs at creating sustainability outcomes within their students. It also undertakes a literature review to describe and articulate the unique challenges faced by sustainability leaders from a personal and professional perspective. The study is situated closely to the ongoing ESD discussion regarding competencies-based learning for sustainability and the research aims to provide some contribution to that dialogue. It does this through the investigation of competencies acquisition and the discussion of emerging areas of leadership that may hold beneficial outcomes for the development and practice of sustainability leaders.   The results of the thesis suggest a number of outcomes for consideration by educators and include a number of main findings. Firstly, educational programs can be capable of achieving the acquisition of ‘sustainability’ competencies within their students, but if these competencies are not taught within a larger sustainability contextualization, then students can fail to see the purpose of the competencies ‘for’ sustainability. Secondly, reflective practices, developed as the result of reflective pedagogies, can provide beneficial qualities in students as future sustainability leaders and require distinct pedagogical structures in order to guide reflective practices towards sustainability outcomes. Finally, a number of unique personal and professional challenges to sustainability leadership exist and need to be overcome if the domain of sustainability is to ensure the ongoing resilience and wellbeing of individuals and groups acting as sustainability leaders.   This research suggests a novel contribution to a number of areas within ESD research, including creating knowledge within the competencies discussion regarding emerging areas of study that may influence the future of defined sustainability competencies. It also highlights the need for educators to consider the role of wellbeing and resilience in current and future sustainability leaders.