Experiments on Socio-Technical Systems: The Problem of Control

My aim is to question whether the introduction of new technologies in society may be considered to be genuine experiments. I will argue that they are not, at least not in the sense in which the notion of experiment is being used in the natural and social sciences. If the introduction of a new technology in society is interpreted as an experiment...

On infrastructure network design with agent-based modelling

We have developed an agent-based model to optimize green-field network design in an industrial area. We aim to capture some of the deep uncertainties surrounding infrastructure design by modelling it developing specific ant colony optimizations. Hence, we propose a variety of extensions to our existing work, first ideas on how to realize them...

Adaptation of interconnected infrastructures to climate change: A socio-technical systems perspective

Climate change is likely to affect how society will function in this century. Because climate change effects may be severe, a next step is to study not only the effects on natural systems, but also the effects on built infrastructure systems and, in response to anticipated effects, the adaptation of those systems. Studies that discuss...

Viability of Self-Governance in Community Energy Systems: Structuring an Approach for Assessment

This paper sets out to formulate a structured approach to assist in analyzing the viability of self-governance in community energy systems. Existing research in self-governance in the framework of socio-ecological systems provides a basis for analysis in applications concerning socio-technical systems, but more than a basis is needed. Although...

Scripting Transitions: A framework to analyze structural changes in socio-technical systems

A sustainable energy system is paramount if we would like to see our future generations prosper. Changing the energy system towards sustainability implies a transition. The contribution of this research will be to develop an analytical tool that will give insight into possible transitions in energy systems. Dominant views on transition are...

Agent-Based Simulations of Energy Transitions

The notion of transition receives noticeable attention in political as well as scientific arenas. In the policy arena in the Netherlands, significant results have not been achieved yet despite all the efforts on ‘managing’ the transition to a sustainable energy sector. Although the scientific literature on transitions contains publications from...

Resilience and adaptability of infrastructures: A complex adaptive systems perspective

While we rely on the continuous functioning of infrastructures such as water, electricity and Internet, 100% uptime is not possible. Infrastructure systems must therefore be resilient – they must be capable of flexing in response to disruptions and recovering quickly. In this paper we explore options for supporting infrastructure resilience from...

Modeling the adaptation of infrastructures to prevent the effects of climate change: An overview of existing literature

Climate change is likely to affect our infrastructures and, consequently, the way society interacts with these infrastructures. For instance, higher average temperatures increase the need for electricity delivered through the grid in the summer due to augmented air-conditioning. As the scientific consensus is that climate change effects may be...

Understanding socio-technical change: A system-network-agent approach

Transitions are processes of change that have always occurred in society: for example, the production of goods changed from handcraft to machine-made. In recent years, these transitions attract more and more attention, mainly because societies now wish to actively bring about certain changes, such as the reduction of the use of fossil fuels –...

Analyzing Transition Dynamics: The Actor-Option Framework for Modelling Socio-Technical Systems

Transition can be characterized as long-term structural changes in the societal systems, through which the way these systems function change significantly. Both the scope and extent of change, and the nature of the societal systems make transition processes a complex dynamic phenomena to understand. This study explores both methodological and...

Can We Make Sense of the Notion of Trustworthy Technology?

In this paper we raise the question whether technological artifacts can properly speaking be trusted or said to be trustworthy. First, we set out some prevalent accounts of trust and trustworthiness and explain how they compare with the engineer’s notion of reliability. We distinguish between pure rational-choice accounts of trust, which do not...

Capturing socio-technical systems with agent-based modelling

What is a suitable modelling approach for socio-technical systems? The answer to this question is of great importance to decision makers in large scale interconnected network systems. The behaviour of these systems is determined by many actors, situated in a dynamic, multi-actor, multi-objective and multi-level jungle. Models to support such an...

Treating socio-technical systems as engineering systems: Some conceptual problems

Systems engineering has been plagued by the problem of how to separate a system from its environment or context, in particular from its social context. We propose to include anything in the system that is necessary for performing its intended function and that may be the object of design. For certain engineering systems, such as civil aviation...