Skip to main content

The Sociotechnical Systems of Energy and Carbon Emissions in Housing

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Simulation-Based Analysis of Energy and Carbon Emissions in the Housing Sector

Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology ((GREEN))

  • 457 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter identifies the most suitable modelling approach to conceptualise the complex sociotechnical systems of housing energy consumption and carbon emissions. Before the review of literature for modelling techniques of STS, the chapter reviews literature on the systems-based approach of scientific inquiry as the theoretical knowledge base underpinning the STS. This is mainly to give the philosophical background of STS. The chapter then conducts a literature search, and the review results reveal that the domain of application of STS has been mainly in the area of human–computer interaction studies, information technology, software engineering, engineering (general), business and management, medicine, and a host of others. This chapter of the research book also analyses the modelling techniques for STS. The chapter further probes the techniques for their capability in capturing the research problem under investigation in the book against a set of criteria.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Appelbaum SH (1997) Socio-technical systems theory: an intervention strategy for organizational development. Manag Decis 35(5/6):452

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Bacon PJ, Cain JD, Howard DC (2002) Belief network models of land manager decisions and land use change. J Environ Manage 65(1):1–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Banathy B (2000a) A taste of systemics. In: The first international electronic seminar on wholeness of a special integration group of the international society for the systems sciences. Available at: http://www.newciv.org/ISSS_Primer/asem04bb.html

  4. Banathy B (2000b) The evolution of systems inquiry. In: The first international electronic seminar on wholeness of a special integration group of the international society for the systems sciences. Available at: http://www.newciv.org/ISSS_Primer/seminara.html

  5. Bergman N, Haxeltine A, Whitmarsh L, Köhler J, Schilperoord M, Rotmans J (2008) Modelling socio-technical transition patterns and pathways. J Artif Soc Soc Simul 11(3):7

    Google Scholar 

  6. Blockley D (1998) Managing proneness to failure. J Conting Crisis Manage 6(2):76–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bromley J, Jackson NA, Clymer OJ, Giacomello AM, Jensen FV (2004) The use of Hugin to develop Bayesian networks as an aid to integrated water resource planning. A report on the MERIT (Management of the Environment and Resources using Integrated Techniques) EU Framework V funded project, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford

    Google Scholar 

  8. Cai YP, Huang GH, Yang ZF, Tan Q (2009) Identification of optimal strategies for energy management systems planning under multiple uncertainties. Appl Energy 86(4):480–495

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Cain JD, Jinapala K, Makin IW, Somaratna PG, Ariyaratna BR, Perera LR (2003) Participatory decision support for agricultural management. Sri Lanka. Agric Syst 76(2):457–482

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Callon M (1986) The sociology of an actor-network: the case of the electric vehicle. In: Callon M, Law J, Rip A (eds) Mapping the dynamics of science and technology: sociology of science in the real world. Macmillian, London, pp 19–34

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Callon M, Latour B (1981) Unscrewing the big Leviathan: how actors macrostructure reality and how sociologists help them to do so. In: Knorr-Cetina K, Cicourel AV (eds) Advances in social theory and methodology: toward an integration of micro- and macro-sociologies. Routledge and Kegan Paul, Boston, pp 277–303

    Google Scholar 

  12. Capra F (1996) The web of life: a new scientific understanding of living systems. Anchor Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  13. Carley KM (2002) Computational organizational science and organizational engineering. Simul Model Pract Theory 10(5–7):253–269

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Carroll N, Whelan E, Richardson I (2010) Applying social network analysis to discover service innovation within agile service networks. J Serv Sci 2(4):225–244

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Carroll N (2012) Service science: an empirical study on the socio-technical dynamics of public sector service network innovation. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Limerick

    Google Scholar 

  16. Cartelli A (2007) Socio-technical theory and knowledge construction: towards new pedagogical paradigms? Issues Inform Sci Inform Technol 4:1–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Clayton AMH, Radcliffe NJ (1996) Sustainability—a systems approach. Earthscan Publication, London

    Google Scholar 

  18. Coyle RG (1997) System dynamics modelling: a practical approach. Chapman and Hall, London, UK

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  19. Van Dam KH, Lukszo Z, Srinivasan R (2009) Agent-based decision support for failure-prone networked infrastructures. Int J Crit Infrastruct 5(4):323–339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Decleris M (1986) Systemic theory. Komotini, Sakkoulas, Athens

    Google Scholar 

  21. Dwyer C (2011) Socio-technical systems theory and environmental sustainability. In: Proceedings of SIGGreen workshop. Sprouts: working papers on information systems. Available at: http://sprouts.aisnet.org/11-3

  22. Feng YY, Chen SQ, Zhang LX (2013) System dynamics modelling for urban energy consumption and CO2 emissions: a case study of Beijing, China. Ecol Model 252:44–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Fernández C, Ley E (2002) Bayesian modelling of catch in a north-west Atlantic fishery. J Roy Stat Soc: Ser C (Appl Stat) 51(3):257–280

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  24. Freeman L (2006) The development of social network. Empirical Press, Vancouver

    Google Scholar 

  25. Geels FW (2004) From sectoral systems of innovation to socio-technical systems—Insights about dynamics and change from sociology and institutional theory. Res Policy 33(6–7):897–920

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Geels FW, Kemp R (2007) Dynamics in socio-technical systems: typology of change processes and contrasting case studies. Technol Soc 29(4):441–455

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Gibson JJ (1979) The ecological approach to visual perception. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA

    Google Scholar 

  28. Gill J (2002) Bayesian methods: a social and behavioral sciences approach. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  29. De Greene KB (1988) Long wave cycles of sociotechnical change and innovation: a macropsychological perspective. J Occup Psychol 61(1):7–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Hitchcock G (1993) An integrated framework for energy use and behaviour in the domestic sector. Energy Build 20:151–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Hughes TP (2000) The evolution of large technological systems. In: Martin BR, Nightingale P (eds) The political economy of science, technology and innovation: Elgar reference collection. International library of critical writings in economics, vol 116

    Google Scholar 

  32. Iivari J, Hirschheim R (1996) Analyzing information systems development: a comparison and analysis of eight information systems development approaches. Inf Syst 21(7):551–575

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Jarman A, Kouzmin A (1990) Decision pathways from crisis: a contingency-theory simulation heuristic for the challenger shuttle disaster (1983–1988). Contemp Crises 14(4):399–433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Jayanesa HAH, Selker JS (2004) Thousand years of hydraulic civilization: some sociotechnical aspects of water management. World Water Counc, 225–262

    Google Scholar 

  35. Jennings NR (2000) On agent-based software engineering. Artif Intell 117(2):277–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Jensen FV (2001) Bayesian networks and decision graphs. Springer, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  37. Johnson J (2008) Science and policy in designing complex futures. Futures 40(6):521–537

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Katz D, Kahn R (1966) The social psychology of organizations. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  39. Kavgic M, Mavrogianni A, Mumovic D, Summerfield A, Stevanovic Z, Djurovic-Petrovic M (2010) A review of bottom-up building stock models for energy consumption in the residential sector. Build Environ 45:1683–1697

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Kohler N, Hassler U (2002) The building stock as a research project. Build Res Inf 30(4):226–236

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Li YF, Li YP, Huang GH, Chen X (2010) Energy and environmental systems planning under uncertainty—an inexact fuzzy-stochastic programming approach. Appl Energy 87:3189–3211

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Lock S (2004) The management of socio technical systems using configuration modelling. Hum Syst Manage 23(1):29–47

    Google Scholar 

  43. Lock S (2005) Strider: configuration modelling and analysis of complex systems. In: Proceedings of the 21st IEEE international conference on software maintenance (ICSM), 26–29 Sept 2005, pp 495–504

    Google Scholar 

  44. Marques FC, Dal Soglio FK, Ploeg JD (2010) Constructing sociotechnical transitions towards sustainable agriculture: lessons from ecological production of medicinal plants in Southern Brazil. In: Proceedings of innovation and sustainable development in agriculture and food, Montpellier, 28–30 June 2010

    Google Scholar 

  45. Masys AJ (2006) Understanding climate change through modelling and simulation: a case for verification, validation and accreditation. In: Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE EIC climate change technology conference, EICCCC 2006, Ottawa, ON

    Google Scholar 

  46. McIntosh BS, Jeffrey P, Lemon M, Winder N (2005) On the design of computer based models for integrated environmental science. Environ Manage 35(6):741–752

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. McNeese MD, Perusich K, Rentsch JR (2000) Advancing sociotechnical systems design via the living laboratory. In: Proceedings of the XIVth triennial congress of the international ergonomics association and 44th annual meeting of the human factors and ergonomics association, ‘ergonomics for the new millennium’, pp 610–613

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Mhalas A, Kassem M, Crosbie T, Dawood N (2013) A visual energy performance assessment and decision support tool for dwellings. Visual Eng 1:7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Motawa IA, Banfill PF (2010) Energy-efficient practices in housing—a system dynamics approach. In: Proceedings of 18th CIB world building congress: TG62—built environment complexity, Salford, UK, May 2010, pp 44–56

    Google Scholar 

  50. Natarajan S, Padget J, Elliott L (2011) Modelling UK domestic energy and carbon emissions: an agent-based approach. Energy Build 43:2602–2612

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Ogunlana S, Lim J, Saeed K (1998) Desman: a dynamic model for managing civil engineering design projects. Comput Struct 67(5):401–419

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Olla P, Atkinson C, Gandceha R (2003) Wireless systems development methodologies: an analysis of practice using actor network theory. J Comput Inf Syst Fall 44:102–111

    Google Scholar 

  53. Panagiotakopoulos PD (2005) A systems and cybernetics approach to corporate sustainability in construction. Ph.D. thesis, School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

    Google Scholar 

  54. Patnayakuni R, Ruppel C (2010) A socio-technical approach to improving the systems development process. Inf Syst Front 12(2):219–234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Ramanna S, Skowron A, Peters JF (2007) Approximation space-based socio-technical conflict model, vol 4481. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  56. Ritchey T (2011) Wicked problems—social messes: decision support modelling with morphological analysis, vol 17. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  57. Rohracher H (2003) The role of users in the social shaping of environmental technologies. Innov Eur J Soc Sci 16(2):177–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Ropohl G (1999) Philosophy of socio-technical systems. Soc Philos Technol 4(3). Available at: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v4_n3html/ROPOHL.html

    Google Scholar 

  59. Shah AP, Pritchett AR (2005) Work-environment analysis: environment centric multi-agent simulation for design of socio-technical systems, vol 3415. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  60. Shipworth D (2006) Qualitative modelling of sustainable energy scenarios: an extension of the Bon qualitative input–output model. Constr Manage Econ 24(7):695–703

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Shipworth D (2005) Synergies and conflicts on the landscape of domestic energy consumption: beyond metaphor. Paper presented at the ECEEE summer study, Mandelieu La Napoule, France

    Google Scholar 

  62. Sinclair MA (2007) Ergonomics issues in future systems. Ergonomics 50(12):1957–1986

    Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Skyttna L (2006) General systems theory: problems, perspective, practice. World Scientific Publishing Company

    Google Scholar 

  64. Smajgl A, Izquierdo LR, Huigen M (2008) Modeling endogenous rule changes in an institutional context: the Adico sequence. Adv Complex Syst 11(2):199–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  65. Sterman J (1989) Testing behavioural simulation models by direct experiment. Manage Sci 33(12):1572–1592

    Article  Google Scholar 

  66. Sterman J (1992) System dynamics modelling for project management. MIT, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  67. Sterman J (2000) Business dynamics: systems thinking and modelling for a complex world. Irwin McGraw-Hill, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  68. Sutcliffe A, Chang W, Neville RS (2007) Applying evolutionary computing to complex systems design. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern Part A Syst Hum 37(5):770–779

    Article  Google Scholar 

  69. Thissen WA, Herder PM (2003) Critical infrastructures: challenges for systems engineering. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on systems, man and cybernetics, pp 2042–2047

    Google Scholar 

  70. Turner B (1978) Man-made disasters. Wykeham Publications, London

    Google Scholar 

  71. Van Dam KH, Lukszo Z (2006) Modelling energy and transport infrastructures as a multi-agent system using a generic ontology. In: Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE international conference on systems, man, and cybernetics (SMC), The Grand Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan, pp 890–895

    Google Scholar 

  72. De Waal A, Ritchey T (2007) Combining morphological analysis and Bayesian networks for strategic decision support. ORiON 23(2):105–121

    Google Scholar 

  73. Walker GH, Stanton NA, Salmon PM, Jenkins DP (2008) A review of sociotechnical systems theory: a classic concept for new command and control paradigms. Theor Issues Ergon Sci 9(6):479–499

    Article  Google Scholar 

  74. Waterson P (2009) A critical review of the systems approach within patient safety research. Ergonomics 52(10):1185–1195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  75. Williams R, Edge D (1996) The social shaping of technology. Res Policy 25:865–899

    Article  Google Scholar 

  76. Wilson JR, Farrington-Darby T, Bye R, Hockey GRJ (2007) The railway as a socio-technical system: human factors at the heart of successful rail engineering. Proc Inst Mech Eng Part F 221(1):101–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  77. Wu Z, Xu J (2013) Predicting and optimisation of energy consumption using system dynamics—fuzzy multiple objective programming in world heritage areas. Energy 49:19–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  78. Yahja A, Carley KM (2005) WIZER: an automated intelligent tool for model improvement of multi-agent social-network systems. In Proceedings of the eighteenth international Florida artificial intelligence research society conference, FLAIRS 2005—recent advances in artificial intelligence, pp 44–49

    Google Scholar 

  79. Zadeh L (1979) A theory of approximate reasoning. Halstead Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  80. Zwicky F (1969) Discovery, invention, research—through the morphological approach. The Macmillan Company, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Gbolagade Oladokun .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Oladokun, M.G., Aigbavboa, C.O. (2018). The Sociotechnical Systems of Energy and Carbon Emissions in Housing. In: Simulation-Based Analysis of Energy and Carbon Emissions in the Housing Sector. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75346-1_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75346-1_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-75345-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-75346-1

  • eBook Packages: EnergyEnergy (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics