Simulating Dynamics of Institutions

In society, institutions are the foundation that governs human behaviour through rules, norms, and regulations. The actions and interactions of individuals are shaped by these institutions, forming a cyclic system with numerous parameters and factors. Altering any of these factors, triggers the entire system to transition into a new state that...

Examining the Interplay Between National Strategies and Value Change in the Battle Against COVID-19: An Agent-Based Modelling Inquiry

Social disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic challenged existing institutional arrangements that govern the society. During that time, nation-states had to prevent the collapse of society and rapidly establish new institutions and adapt existing ones to address public health, job security, and freedom-of-movement concerns. At the same time...

Editorial: Modelling Values in Social, Technical, and Ecological Systems

This editorial paper for the special section on “Modelling Values in Socio/Technical/Ecological Systems” introduces interdisciplinary perspectives on values and reflects on growing appeals for modelling values. In public and academic discourses, values typically relate to matters of importance (e.g., beliefs, priorities) and principles about...

Adapting to changing values: a framework for responsible decision-making in smart city development

Smart cities are proposed as a solution for problems of urbanization. Technologies associated with smart cities involve the monitoring of human activities and resulting data streams. These technologies affect certain public values, which may be subject to change depending on their sociotechnical development. This paper presents a method that...

Value Change in Energy Systems

The ongoing energy transition toward more sustainable energy systems implies a change in the values for which such systems are designed. The energy transition however is not just about sustainability but also about values like energy security and affordability, and we witness the emergence of new values like energy justice and energy democracy....

Twisted thinking: Technology, values and critical thinking

Technology should be aligned with our values. We make the case that attempts to align emerging technologies with our values should reflect critically on these values. Critical thinking seems like a natural starting point for the critical assessment of our values. However, extant conceptualizations of critical thinking carve out no space for the...

Ex-ante assessment of social acceptance of sustainable heating systems in Amsterdam South East using Cross-Impact Balance analysis

The municipality of Amsterdam plans to transition away from its reliance on fossil fuel-based energy sources for residential heating by 2040. The municipality has laid out a roadmap that details possibilities for sustainable heating on a per-neighborhood basis. One neighborhood of particular interest is Geerdinkhof in Amsterdam South East. There...

Exploring Value Change in Sustainable Energy Systems: An Agent-Based Exploratory Modelling Approach to Study the Change in Importance of Values

The climate change around the globe driven by Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) is fueling the growth of Sustainable Energy Systems (SES) at a faster pace. However, the lack of acceptance of these systems by society has stifled its successful deployment. Societal values play a key role in evaluating the social acceptance and the broader...

Anticipating social acceptance of heating alternatives in Amsterdam: Using value conflicts in an agent-based model

The municipality of Amsterdam is currently in the middle of a heat transition. The municipalit aims to cut down the use of natural gas for space heating in order to reduce its impact on the natural environment. For the Geerdinkhof neighborhood in Amsterdam South-East, the municipality is planning to implement a district heating system. These...

Liv/fe Transition: to a healthy agriculture sector with livestock as an integral part of life

By 2050, South-Holland will transform into a transition based urbanity with value change at its core. Currently, consumers are disconnected from where their food is produced, leading to a high environmental impact, unhealthy choices and social injustice to the farmers’ work. The proposed strategy of change for the region would see South Holland...

An Interpretation of Value Change: A Philosophical Disquisition of Climate Change and Energy Transition Debate

Changing values may give rise to intergenerational conflicts, like in the ongoing climate change and energy transition debate. This essay focuses on the interpretative question of how this value change can best be understood. To elucidate the interpretation of value change, two philosophical perspectives on value are introduced: Berlin’s value...

Tracing Long-term Value Change in (Energy) Technologies: Opportunities of Probabilistic Topic Models Using Large Data Sets

We propose a new approach for tracing value change. Value change may lead to a mismatch between current value priorities in society and the values for which technologies were designed in the past, such as energy technologies based on fossil fuels, which were developed when sustainability was not considered a very important value. Better...

Value conflicts in energy systems

This thesis introduces an approach to support the long-term social acceptance of energy systems by addressing value conflicts embedded in regulatory and technical designs. When designing energy systems, the realisation of some values can conflict with the realisation of other values. The decision to deploy energy systems therefore inevitably...

Values in responsible research and innovation: from entities to practices

This article explores the understanding of values in Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). First, it analyses how two mainstream RRI approaches, the largely substantial one by Von Schomberg and the procedural one by Stilgoe and colleagues, identify and conceptualize values. We argue that by treating values as relatively stable entities,...