Actor Constellations Research Articles

Assigning Obligations in AI Regulation: A Discussion of Two Frameworks Proposed By the European Commission

The emergence and increasing prevalence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems in a growing number of application areas brings about opportunities but also risks for individuals and society as a whole. To minimize the risks associated with AI systems and to mitigate potential harm caused by them, recent policy papers and regulatory proposals discuss obliging developers, deployers, and operators of these systems to avoid certain types of use and features in their design. However, most AI systems are complex socio-technical systems in which control over the system is extensively distributed. In many cases, a multitude of different actors is involved in the purpose setting, data management and data preparation, model development, as well as deployment, use, and refinement of such systems. Therefore, determining sensible addressees for the respective obligations is all but trivial. This article discusses two frameworks for assigning obligations that have been proposed in the European Commission’s whitepaper On Artificial Intelligence—A European approach to excellence and trust and the proposal for the Artificial Intelligence Act respectively. The focus is on whether the frameworks adequately account for the complex constellations of actors that are present in many AI systems and how the various tasks in the process of developing, deploying, and using AI systems, in which threats can arise, are distributed among these actors.

Introduction: Quo Vadis , Latin America? Human Rights, Environmental Governance and the Sustainable Development Goals

Introduction: <scp> <i>Quo Vadis</i> </scp> , Latin America? Human Rights, Environmental Governance and the Sustainable Development Goals

Dissent within the global political economy: four frustrations, and some alternatives

While there has been a turn towards incorporating examples of dissent, resistance and alternatives in the Global Political Economy literature, this article claims that there is still a considerable absence of analysis of dissent in and against the global political economy. The authors identify four frustrations (which can be easily turned into suggestions). First, that resistance, dissent and alternatives, continue to be marginal to most attempts at understanding the global political economy. Second, when resistance and dissent are considered, often they are presented as discrete episodes of ‘protest’. The third ‘frustration’ points towards the types of questions the literature tends to ask of instances of resistance: why resist, and with what effect? This directly connects with the fourth frustration: effect is often seen narrowly, simply as ‘impact’. The discussion of these frustrations concludes that dissent and resistance are ultimately central to the configurations of actors, institutions, ideas and their power relations that constitute the global political economy, and our understandings of it.

Germany’s Industrial strategy 2030, EU competition policy and the Crisis of New Constitutionalism. (Geo-)political economy of a contested paradigm shift

ABSTRACT In early 2019, the German Ministry of Economic Affairs revealed its National Industrial Strategy 2030. Even though attenuated due to fierce domestic opposition, it marks a shift towards a more selective, interventionist industrial policy. In particular, this shift has instigated far-reaching upheavals in EU competition policy under Franco-German pressure. This article probes into the determinants of this shift in Germany, a country (in-)famous for its allegedly ordoliberal stance, especially with regard to competition policy and EU economic integration. Drawing on regulation and critical state theory, neo-Gramscian IPE as well as historical materialist policy analysis, and based on trade and investment data, document analysis and expert interviews, it reconstructs the crisis tendencies and the constellation of interests and actors which have underpinned this shift in Germany. The article argues that – in face of growing geopolitical rivalries and technological decoupling – the NIS 2030 indicates a strategic re-orientation in relevant parts of the German power bloc towards actively promoting ‘technological sovereignty’ and ‘European champions’, thereby also calling into question an important facet of the EU’s neoliberal new-constitutionalist architecture. However, this re-orientation is deeply contested, revealing growing divisions within German capital along diverging competitive positions and patterns of internationalisation.

A value creation model from science-society interconnections: Archetypal analysis combining publications, survey and altmetric data.

The interplay between science and society takes place through a wide range of intertwined relationships and mutual influences that shape each other and facilitate continuous knowledge flows. Stylised consequentialist perspectives on valuable knowledge moving from public science to society in linear and recursive pathways, whilst informative, cannot fully capture the broad spectrum of value creation possibilities. As an alternative we experiment with an approach that gathers together diverse science-society interconnections and reciprocal research-related knowledge processes that can generate valorisation. Our approach to value creation attempts to incorporate multiple facets, directions and dynamics in which constellations of scientific and societal actors generate value from research. The paper develops a conceptual model based on a set of nine value components derived from four key research-related knowledge processes: production, translation, communication, and utilization. The paper conducts an exploratory empirical study to investigate whether a set of archetypes can be discerned among these components that structure science-society interconnections. We explore how such archetypes vary between major scientific fields. Each archetype is overlaid on a research topic map, with our results showing the distinctive topic areas that correspond to different archetypes. The paper finishes by discussing the significance and limitations of our results and the potential of both our model and our empirical approach for further research.

Co-producing urban expertise for SDG localization: the history and practices of urban knowledge production in South Africa

ABSTRACT The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are used as an entry point to consider issues and questions surrounding the forms of urban expertise that are required to achieve transformative and sustainable urban development. The article builds on the authors’ experiences as researchers working co-productively with South African municipalities through the African Centre for Cities, an interdisciplinary research hub at the University of Cape Town. Insights from the literature on urban policy mobilities are deployed alongside those from an emerging literature on transdisciplinary research and knowledge co-production for global policy implementation. The aims are, first, to identify emerging kinds of urban expertise that are produced and mobilized by constellations of actors involved in the advancement of global development policies at the city scale and, second, to examine the role of city-university partnerships in producing particular forms of urban expertise to support SDG localization. Locating this work within a longer genealogy of urban governance reform in South Africa, it is shown that the conditions under which effective co-productive relationships can be built and institutionalized are highly context specific and geographically uneven. Understanding and assembling such conditions will enable cities to benefit from the forms of expertise these can engender.

Towards a socially fair green transition in the EU? An analysis of the Just Transition Fund using the Multiple Streams Framework

The Just Transition Fund was introduced in 2021 as part of the European Union’s Green New Deal and aims to assuage some of the painful social consequences of the green transition. Relying on the Multiple Streams Framework, this article reconstructs the JTF’s institution. It identifies 2018–2019 as a key conjuncture in the European Union when various social, ideational and political preconditions enabling policy innovation converged. Subsequently, the need to publicly finance a just transition emerged in relation to some Eastern European states’ reluctance to work towards the 2050 climate neutrality target. After a Polish-led configuration of actors propelled the JTF onto the agenda, the von der Leyen Commission assumed the task of designing a less transparently self-serving policy instrument necessary to garner wider political support. The final JTF emerged from the interplay between two policy entrepreneurs in the context of the negotiations on the 2021–2027 European Union budget and the dislocations provoked by the COVID-19 crisis.

Curating smart cities

ABSTRACT In this paper, a curatorial perspective is developed to draw attention to the notion that smart cities are assembled within a field of relations and thus inevitably connected to constellations of actors, histories, materialities and ideas. In this way, a curatorial perspective informed by diverse disciplines such as art history, critical theory and institutional critique, can be used to reveal the struggles through which fragmented, entangled and shifting constellations of technologies, places and policy ideas are purposely cultivated to prefigure new ways of living in smart cities. Drawing on an in-depth longitudinal case study of Milton Keynes (MK), an English new town founded in 1967, this paper examines how concepts of a smart city were used to draw together, catalyze and possibly (re)configure pre-existing policies, narratives and materialities, i.e. to curate smart city developments. Urban curation, understood as the selection, organization and care for a constellation of elements and their relation to place, is revealed to be profoundly political. Actors with local remits curate urban constellations to render them receptive to smart city agendas while pursuing their contextually defined goals and often resisting those imposed from elsewhere.

Environmental governance of a Belt and Road project in Montenegro – National agency and external influences

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an ambitious effort to increase trans-continental connectivity and cooperation mainly through infrastructure investments and trade. On the one hand, this globally unparalleled initiative is expected to foster economic growth, but on the other hand, it can have substantial environmental implications. The BRI creates new challenges and opportunities for environmental governance as new actor constellations emerge in BRI host countries to plan and construct large infrastructure projects. Although China has outlined its vision of building a “green Belt and Road”, it remains unknown how it unfolds on the ground.As an example of a BRI project with clear environmental implications, we present a case study of the Bar-Boljare highway in Montenegro. Based on expert interviews, we elucidate the complex web of actors and contractual arrangements involved, and demonstrate how internal and external actors exert influence on domestic environmental governance in this EU candidate country in the Western Balkans. We find that Montenegro has substantial agency over the environmental governance of this BRI project, but shows little concern over the environmental impacts of the project. Environmental issues could have been prevented during the spatial planning phase, but important governance instruments such as the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) were of limited effectiveness due to its fast and late completion, lack of assessment of alternative routes, and the limited enforcement of the provisions therein. International institutions like the EU or UNESCO have drawn on their normative power in environmental governance to demand greater environmental safeguards from Montenegrin authorities. This case is illustrative of a larger set of BRI projects which run the risk of falling short on sustainability due to a lack of environmentally sound and transparent planning and implementation.

Responsibilities for just transition to low-carbon societies: a role-based framework

ABSTRACT Low-carbon transitions in industrialised societies will have significant social, economic and environmental impacts, raising concerns of justice. Calls for urgent transitions evoke a question about the roles of different actors in advancing transitions and ensuring they are just. While the responsibilities for emission mitigation have been long discussed, responsibilities for making a just transition have not. The question about responsibilities is particularly pressing because of the diverse constellation of actors involved in climate action, including diverse forms of non-state actors from city-level and business alliances to grassroots activists. We examine the responsibilities of state and non-state actors in the decarbonisation process, asking: what role do different actors play regarding the justice impacts of climate action? We combine sustainability transition studies and political philosophy on roles and responsibilities to create a role-based framework for just transition-related responsibilities of different actors at different spatial scales.

Organic pioneers and the sustainability transformation of the German food market: a politically structuring actor perspective

PurposeThis paper examines the socio-ecological co-evolution and transformation of organic pioneers and the organic food market from a politically structuring actor perspective. It aims to identify strategies and activities used to contribute to the change of structures in the organic market and how the companies, in turn, reacted to the structural influence of the changing environment to position their company successfully in the market.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on interviews with four managing directors who were responsible over several decades for the strategic corporate management of the pioneer companies they founded as (or converted to) organic. Content analysis was used to analyse the data.FindingsStrategic challenges regarding building up, maintaining and using resources, shaping actor constellations, and professionalising management are explained. The analysis demonstrates that also small pioneers have the possibilities and scope to influence and change markets and structures.Originality/valueThe results are significant for developing sustainable transformation strategies for markets, considering the interaction of the micro and meso-levels over time and the role of small businesses that might be struggling with growth and loss of values. The study answers recent calls in the literature to empirically investigate sustainability transformations from a practice perspective and gain insights into the roles of corporate actors.

The digital ecosystem information framework: Insights from action design research

Digital ecosystem (DE) is a dynamic configuration of informational organisms, individual and organisational actors, which interact in the digitally networked and federated environment. Traditional approaches are challenged by the need for handling information in complex DE where information flows beyond the boundary of a single actor. This article presents the informational organism-interaction centric digital ecosystem information (DEi) framework for information operations, management, and governance. The DEi framework emerged based on the insights obtained through the application of well-known thematic network analysis and abstraction, reflection and learning techniques to 15 action design research projects across nine different industry partners in Australia. The DEi framework includes 27 topics that are organised into nine key knowledge and three focus areas. The DEi framework can be used by researchers and practitioners as a resource for designing digital information capabilities as appropriate to their context.

Violent farmer–herder conflicts in Ghana: constellation of actors, citizenship contestations, land access and politics

ABSTRACT This paper presents evidence from two cases in Ghana (Agogo and Gushiegu) to examine why farmer–herder conflicts escalate into violence. It argues that aside from resource competition, and crop damage, there are multi-faceted and dynamic processes and factors involved. The cases show that such violent conflicts can be explained by a constellation of actors, politics, land access and citizenship contestations. Many actors are important in this escalation. Local citizenship discourses and framing of conflicts are intricately linked to struggles over access to land and resources through which actors mobilize for violence. Both farmers and herders see cattle owners, chiefs, politicians, local groups and government officials as responsible for mobilizing and inciting violence and clandestinely using politics and citizenship in access to resources. At the same time, farmer–herder conflicts generate internal struggles between those who have interests in cattle (herders/businessmen and chiefs/elders) and those who have no such interests (young first-comer “cattleless” farmers).

Customer ecosystems: exploring how ecosystem actors shape customer experience

PurposeThis study aims to characterize how ecosystem actors shape customer experience (CX). The study also proposes implications for managers and research regarding the customer ecosystem, its actors and actor constellations in the context of CXs.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative study is conducted among activity tracker users to identify how actors within their ecosystems shape CXs. Data include 28 in-depth interviews and ten self-reported diaries.FindingsThis study delineates six actor categories in the customer ecosystem shaping CX within and beyond the service. The number of actors and their importance to the focal customer in various actor constellations form individual-, brand- and socially driven ecosystems. These customer ecosystem types show how actors combine to drive CXs.Research limitations/implicationsResearchers should shift their attention to experiences emerging in the customer’s lifeworld. A customer ecosystem highlights the customer-centered actor configuration emergent within the customer’s lifeworld. It is self-constructed based on the customer’s reference point.Practical implicationsManagers should aim to locate, monitor and join the customer’s lifeworld to gain more insight into how CXs emerge in the customer ecosystem based on customer logic.Social implicationsCustomers are not isolated actors simply experiencing service; rather, they construct idiosyncratic actor constellations that include various providers, social groups and peers.Originality/valueThis paper extends the theory on CXs by illustrating how the various actors and actor constellations forming the customer ecosystem shape CXs.

Women Labour Models and Socialist Transformation in early 1950s China

AbstractThis article investigates Chinese women labour models (or labour heroines) of the early 1950s as actors and symbols of socialist transformation. It centres on the example of Shen Jilan (1929–2020), who was one of the most prominent women labour models of the time. Shen rose to fame through her struggle for equal pay for equal work in her native village, became a delegate to China's National People's Congress, and even participated in the Third World Congress of Women in Copenhagen in 1953. The article critically engages with the concept of “state feminism” and proposes a shift in focus from state–society relations to work as a means to understanding the transformation of women's lives under socialism. Socialist society was a society of producers and work shaped people's daily lives; it was central to identity formation and constituted the regulating mechanism of social relations. Indeed, women labour models, together with related categories of working women, came to typify the new Chinese woman, who was integral to and symbolic of socialist modernity. They epitomized communist theory about women's participation in production being the mechanism of their liberation. The article has three main parts, each of which addresses a different level (local, national, international), different constellations of actors and agency, and different aspects of the relationship between working women and socialist transformation. By tracing Shen Jilan's activities in various contexts, the article reveals the complexity, contradictions, multilayered nature, and also incompleteness of socialist transformation.

Fostering Transitions Towards Sustainability? The Politics of Bioeconomy Development in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil

The concept of bioeconomy is increasingly gaining attention in South America as a potential strategy to foster sustainability transitions. As bioeconomy development is intertwined with often contested questions of natural resource governance, it is important that the promotion of bioeconomy takes place in an inclusive manner. In three case studies from Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil we examine who takes up the concept, what interests are reflected in this and the implications for socio‐environmental concerns. This points to two interrelated aspects which demonstrate variations in inclusiveness: the constellation of actors who drive bioeconomy visions, and the scope of issues covered.

The Dawn of the AI Robots: Towards a New Framework of AI Robot Accountability

Business, management, and business ethics literature pay little attention to the topic of AI robots. The broad spectrum of potential ethical issues pertains to using driverless cars, AI robots in care homes, and in the military, such as Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems. However, there is a scarcity of in-depth theoretical, methodological, or empirical studies that address these ethical issues, for instance, the impact of morality and where accountability resides in AI robots’ use. To address this dearth, this study offers a conceptual framework that interpretively develops the ethical implications of AI robot applications, drawing on descriptive and normative ethical theory. The new framework elaborates on how the locus of morality (human to AI agency) and moral intensity combine within context-specific AI robot applications, and how this might influence accountability thinking. Our theorization indicates that in situations of escalating AI agency and situational moral intensity, accountability is widely dispersed between actors and institutions. ‘Accountability clusters’ are outlined to illustrate interrelationships between the locus of morality, moral intensity, and accountability and how these invoke different categorical responses: (i) illegal, (ii) immoral, (iii) permissible, and (iv) supererogatory pertaining to using AI robots. These enable discussion of the ethical implications of using AI robots, and associated accountability challenges for a constellation of actors—from designer, individual/organizational users to the normative and regulative approaches of industrial/governmental bodies and intergovernmental regimes.

Managerial Accounting for Decision-Making and Planning

Managerial Accounting for Decision-Making and Planning

Prioritizing behaviour alongside regulations in Amsterdam’s planning projects

ABSTRACT Project-specific actor constellations and relationships shape contemporary planning practice. The existing literature predominantly focuses on the flexibility of regulations in planning projects and largely ignores the behaviour of involved governance actors. Here, we argue that the nuances of relationship dynamics between public and private sector actors deserve increased scrutiny. Based on in-depth interviews with public planners and project managers, and private developers and investors involved in Amsterdam’s urban development, and a case study of a major redevelopment project, we have coined a new term: ‘behavioural flexibility’. Behavioural flexibility highlights how relationships extensively affect how actors trust and communicate with one another, and how their goals align. Combined, these factors strongly impact planning outcomes as they determine how actors eventually behave in projects by either being supportive and constructive or unhelpful and obstructive. The findings call for an assessment of ‘indicative actor relationships’ as an alternate starting point for planning projects.

Characterising strategic collaboration of large Swiss municipalities

ABSTRACT By analysing legislative programmes of all Swiss municipalities having more than 20,000 inhabitants (in 2018) and in two different time periods (2010 and 2020), this study examines the general place of collaboration in municipal strategies, by paying attention to the various public fields and degree of complexity in terms of actor constellations. As in real life, collaboration occupies also an important part of the large Swiss municipal governments’ strategic reflections. Yet, a certain gap exists regarding the weight given to public fields. Indeed, politically selling fields seem to get more place in legislative programmes than in real life. Collaboration, such as planned in municipal strategies, involves a large diversity of actors and thereby achieves a certain complexity which clearly goes beyond the intermunicipal level. The degree of complexity does not evolve over time but inhabitants become a strategically more important collaborative actor for municipalities.