This paper discusses how Clinical Pathways (CPs) are defined, used and maintained in two hospital settings. A literature review and observational study are combined to illustrate the composite nature of CPs and the different roles they play in different phases of their life-cycle, with respect to the theme of bridging medical knowledge with the related practices by which physicians deal with a specific care problem. We take the case of the CP as a paradigmatic case to stress the urgent need for an integrated approach with the computer-based support of information and knowledge management in rapidly evolving cooperative work settings.

Land use planning and policy making for environmental systems involve uncertainty, long time scales, and complex socio-natural systems and processes; most decisions are often characterized by conflict and tension and give rise to disagreements which are widely considered and managed as disagreement about socio-environmental values. Although the growing acceptance of participatory models in environmental planning and policy making is forcing the public authorities to implement participatory mechanisms, participation practices are not showing much effectiveness in reducing conflict and tension. This paper argues that negotiation approaches in participatory decision making often pose the attention on disputing actors and their related values (in the field of environmental planning, on socio-environmental values) thus amplifying the risk for conflict to sharpen. Participation practices, in fact, often use Decision and Conflict Analysis models as means to disclose structures of parties' values and preferences to parties themselves, thus risking to enhance sources for conflict and tension. In this article, participation is conceptualized as an exploration process looking for decision 'opportunities' which allow transforming participatory decision making into operational collaboration. To illustrate the discussion we present a case of participatory decision making process in the Torre Guaceto wetland, a Natural Reserve in Southern Italy. The process refers to the formulation of the land use plan and is analysed by the application of a cognitive model. The analysis shows how the negotiation The present article is the result of a collaborative work between the authors; their names are listed alphabetically.A. Celino 123 256 A. Celino, G. Concilio process evolves from a conflict to collaboration and becomes centred on the content of the decision rather than the social and environmental values involved.

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Abstract. The proposed contribution presents the results of an on going research work aiming at the implementation of a knowledge based system devoted to supporting the local government and the citizenship during the setting up process of a Natural Protected Area in Southern Italy. The system architecture integrates Group Decision Support Technology already available on the enterprise software market with tools enabling a dynamic representation of organizational memory. Organizational memory, structured within information systems supporting decision-making and action in organizational environments, can be a useful mean for developing multilevel (individual, of group, organizational) collaborative learning. Starting from the case study -the process for setting up the Gravina Natural Protected Area-, the paper describes the system's architecture and discusses some problematic issues related to: expert and nonexpert knowledge acquisition and representation; possible dynamic representation of organizational memory, creation, use and storage of decision/learning histories, and dimension and relevance of memory.

The paper presents some preliminary results developed throughout a research work aiming at capturing and making available short-term organizational memory in order to support specific decision making processes. It introduces, with regard to the environmental planning domain, a conceptual model describing the production and use of both short and long term organizational memories referring to organizations emerging when developing spatial plans environmentally oriented. In particular the paper focuses on the role of argumentation in explaining modification along time of the short-term memory, or working memory, from one transient-scenario to the subsequent and presents the attempt made to use argumentative-maps as means to partially explain the evolution of the process-scenario.