Modelling infrastructures as socio-technical systems

Ottens, Maarten; Franssen, Maarten; Kroes, Peter; Poel, Ibo van de

doi:10.1504/ijcis.2006.009433

Cited by 104 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The literature on sociotechnical transitions advocates the concept of studying not only technologies, but their role in society as part of integrated "socio-technical systems". This expands the common, engineering-derived definition of "system" to include not only networks of technological artefacts but also the associated supporting institutions and individuals who use them [12,13]. Benjamin Sovacool sums up the co-evolving nature of sociotechnical change by observing that "To be successful, technologies must not only get built, but get built into society" [14].…”

Section: The Multi-level Perspective (Mlp) On Socio-technical Transitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling energy transitions for climate targets under landscape and actor inertia

Strachan

2017

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

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The speed at which established socioeconomic and technological systems can be adapted to alternatives that are compatible with a climate stabilised, 2°C world remains unknown. Quantitative models used for assessing this challenge typically make a number of arguably optimistic assumptions regarding human behaviour and decision making. This often restricts the insights produced to futures approximating a so-called first-best policy landscape. However, empirical studies of socio-technical change have shown that technological diffusion is often influenced by actors and institutions interacting under less ideal, second-best conditions. This paper quantifies these factors in a formal energy model as landscape and actor inertia and employs them for the first time in BLUE, a dynamic stochastic socio-technical simulation of technology diffusion, energy and emissions inspired by the multi-level perspective. Using the UK energy system as an example, the results illustrate how socio-technical inertia may significantly blunt future efforts to achieve climate targets. KeywordsSocio-technical change; transitions; energy systems; modelling; decarbonisation; climate policy; Highlights We present a quantitative socio-technical energy transitions model inspired by the Multi-Level Perspective  BLUE is a stochastic system dynamic model that features multiple actors with detailed behavioural parameters  The feasibility of UK climate targets is explored under landscape and actor inertia  The results show that actor inertia may significantly increase the difficulty of achieving climate targets  The results also show the importance of taking socio-technical perspectives on energy transitions

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Section: The Multi-level Perspective (Mlp) On Socio-technical Transitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling energy transitions for climate targets under landscape and actor inertia

Strachan

2017

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

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“…Today's energy infrastructures and their transitions can be understood by framing them as socio-technical systems [9,18]. The energy sector not only comprises a large technical system, but also an extensive social system -a network of players, such as miners, refiners, power companies, traders, transmission system operators, brokers, industrial consumers, retailers, consumers, their associations, government, their agencies and NGO's.…”

Section: Framing Systems Transition and Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling for Transition Management

Chappin

Dijkema

2015

SSRN Journal

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A framework for the modeling and simulation of transitions is presented. A transition, "substantial change in the state of a socio-technical system", typically unfolds over a long timespan. We therefore suggest to use simulation to inform transition managers on the effect of their decisions. Transition models preferably meet five functional requirements: to allow for the representation of physical and social components, for material and immaterial interactions, to allow the system structure to change, to compute transition indicators and to capture the effect of interventions. Modeling the decarbonization of the power sector illustrates that an agent-based model allows us to let both the content and the structure of a system to emerge in a simulation.

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“…The aim of the framework is to show that investment decision making is impacted by both social and technical components. The public transport sector is a sociotechnical system (STS), as it combines social and technical components that interact and function together (Ottens et al 2006). Social components include actors, rules, regulations, etc; technical components include machinery, buses, etc.…”

Section: Impact Of Uncertainties On Investment Decision Makingmentioning

confidence: 99%