Seminar: The nature of socio-technical systems
MSc (mechanical engineering) Maarten Ottens is with the Delft
University of Technology, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management,
Department of Philosophy, doing PhD research on the nature of
socio-technical systems.
May 22.-29. he is visiting the research unit:
Cadastral Development, of Department of Development and Planning in the
context of the European research project Modelling Real Property
Transactions, COST G9.
The purpose of the visit is to discuss Non-technical
aspects in modeling the cadastral system.
Ottens describes his research as follows:
The interplay between social and technical elements is
subject
of my research on so called socio-technical systems. In (Ottens et
al., 2005) a socio-technical system is conceived as composed of the
following element types: Actor, Technical element, and Social element,
(and with social I refer to non-technical, i.e. legal, organizational,
economical, conventional). The relations among
these elements can be conceived as either Physical, Functional,
Intentional or Normative. In my philosophical research to the
nature of these socio-technical systems, I take an analytical
conceptual approach based in empirical research (Kroes and Meijers,
2000).
For the empirical part I do several case studies, [for example on
physical transportation, and including also] the cadastral
system. Although most systems are not based on a social institution
like ownership, .., they also need to deal with the relations between
technical and social elements. In studying the cadastral system
I can use the knowledge obtained in other fields to reflect on the
cadastral system.
The agenda of the week states the following items of discussion within
the Cadastral Development unit:
- We will position us amongst current research towards
socio-technical systems with regard to the Cadastral
system (de Man, 2004, Comber et al., 2003).
- We will study the social elements in the system using (Ottens,
2005,
Stubkjaer, forthcoming) and results from the
STSM on legal modeling in Stockholm, and
- We will work on modeling the Cadastral system as
socio-technical system using the model presented in (Ottens et al.,
2005)
The seminar, kindly
hosted by the Danish Centre for
Philosophy and Science Studies, will present a status for a wider
audience, hoping for
fruitful comments and discussions.
Maarten Ottens presentation is available here
References:
Comber, A., Fisher, P. and Wadsworth, R. (2003) Actor-network
theory: a suitable framework to understand how land cover mapping
projects develop? In Land Use Policy, 20, 4, pp. 299-309. Link
Gregersen, B; Johnson, B H; Segura, O (2004) Institutions and
learning capabilities in a development perspective. In: The DRUID
Summer Conference 2004 on "Industrial Dynamics, Innovation and
Development" Link
Kroes, P. A. and Meijers, A. W. M. (Eds.) (2000) The empirical
turn in the philosophy of technology, JAI/Elsevier Science, Amsterdam
etc.
Lemmen, C., Molen, P. v. d., Oosterom, P. v., Ploeger, H., Quak, W.,
Stoter, J. and Zevenbergen, J. (2003) A modular standard for the
Cadastral Domain In proceedings The 3rd International Symposium on
Digital Earth Brno, Czech Republic.
de Man, E. (2000) Institutionalization of Geographic Information
Technologies: Unifying Concepts? Cartography and Geographic
Iinformation Science 27(2) 139 - 151 Link
de Man, E. (2004) And if Geospatial Data Infrastructures were
fragmented and splintering? In proceedings GISDECO 2004 Johore,
Malaysia. Link
Ottens, M. M. (2004) The Cadastral System as Socio-Technical
System. In: Proceedings Standardization in the Cadastral Domain (Eds,
Oosterom, P. v., Schlieder, C., Zevenbergen, J., Hess, C. and Lemmen,
C.) Bamberg, Germany. Link
Ottens, M. M. (2005) Valuation of Real Estate: Conventions and
Institutions (working paper) Delft.
Ottens, M. M., Franssen, M. P. M., Kroes, P. A. and Poel, I. v. d.
(2005) (forthcoming) Modelling infrastructures as socio-technical
systems In Int. J. Critical Infrastructures, X, X, pp. x-x. Link
Stubkjær, E. (2004) Cadastral Modeling - Grasping the
objectives. In: Proceedings Standardization in the Cadastral Domain
(Eds, Oosterom,
P. v., Schlieder, C., Zevenbergen, J., Hess, C. and Lemmen, C.)
Bamberg, Germany. Link
Stubkjær, E. (forthcoming) Cadastral Modeling - Grasping
the objectives. In CEUS, Link
Erik Stubkjær, Head, Unit of Cadastral Development, est@land.aau.dk, 2005-04-29