West Midlands Planning Authorities' Conference, "A Developing Strategy for the West Midlands: Second Annual Report by the West Midlands Regional Study Joint Monitoring Steering Group" (Book Review)
Complexity and social change Two case studies in technology
SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN057280 / BLDSC - British Libra... more SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN057280 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo
This article examines the tension between the democratic right of public participation on specifi... more This article examines the tension between the democratic right of public participation on specific environmental issues, guaranteed by European Law, and the degree to which it is being challenged in the UK as a consequence of recent approaches to energy infrastructure planning. Recent trends in UK government policy frameworks seem both to threaten effective public participation and challenge EU planning strategy, in particular those outlined in the Aarhus convention. The research outlined in this study involves an assessment of the changing context of planning and energy policy, in addition to recent changes in legislation formulation in the UK. The research findings, derived from an extensive interview process of elite stakeholders engaged in policy and legislation formulation in the UK and the EU provide a new categorisation system of stakeholders in energy policy that can be utilised in future research. The article concludes with a second order analysis of the interviewee data an...
Cultural appropriation, as both concept and practice, is a hugely controversial issue. It is of p... more Cultural appropriation, as both concept and practice, is a hugely controversial issue. It is of particular importance to the arts because creativity is often found at the intersection of cultural boundaries. Much of the popular discourse on cultural appropriation focusses on the commercial use of indigenous or marginalized cultures by mainstream or dominant cultures. There is, however, growing awareness that cultural appropriation is a complicated issue encompassing cultural exchange in all its forms. Creativity emerging from cultural interdependence is far from a reciprocal exchange. This insight indicates that ethical and political implications are at stake. Consequently, the arts are being examined with greater attention in order to assess these implications. This article will focus on appropriation in literature, and examine the way appropriative strategies are being used to resist dominant cultural standards. These strategies and their implications will be analyzed through the ...
There is a paradox in the relationship between the social world and the natural world. This relat... more There is a paradox in the relationship between the social world and the natural world. This relates to the fact that the social world is part of nature yet different from it in being, to some degree, aware that it is a part of the natural world. This paradox included, there are a number of important reasons for considering social theories of complexity or complexity theories of the social. Principally amongst these is the impact it has on the understanding of the type and nature of networks, how they emerge and how they sustain themselves. This essay will examine in detail the implications of complexity thinking for social science in order to establish the basis for rethinking the nature of networks.
The Paul Principal emerged through a series of stages, beginning with an attempt to match the par... more The Paul Principal emerged through a series of stages, beginning with an attempt to match the paradoxical logic of the Peter Principal, but located within the nexus of consumption culture and the marketing basis for the promotion of the goods and brands that drive these consumption practices. The initial formulation, presented as a mere starting point by the author, merely suggested the following relationship between promotion and disappointment: mirroring the apparent paradox of the Peter Principal for human resources, for the various markets of consumer resources, in a world where everything is heavily marketed (i.e. over promoted), any good or service you experience for the first time as a consumer must disappoint if it has been promoted to its maximum. This article assesses this claim and attempts to collectively reformulate the principal with Masters level students as an exercise in "learning by doing" theory building.
How Social Campaigns Fail to Change the World: A Review of the Key Themes in the Literature
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016
This paper examines the barriers to developing the engagement around specific social problems and... more This paper examines the barriers to developing the engagement around specific social problems and campaigns and, if particular barriers in creating effective social movements around them to mobilise researches, awareness and people in order to address these problem. This review will present a series of concepts categorised around a small number of relevant themes, concluding with a reflection on the nature of success.
Academic disciplines are competing over territory in a colonial struggle to ensure that their too... more Academic disciplines are competing over territory in a colonial struggle to ensure that their tools, methods and paradigms are being used to explain the changing world. This article examines the central marketing concept -- the marketing mix -- in order to examine the place of social and cultural elements within marketing and business in addressing the ideological consequences of the influence of economics and psychology in conceptualising consumption and markets.
Is the Best Way to Predict the Future to Invent It?
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015
Changes in technology or technique necessarily lead to unexpected consequences. The degree to whi... more Changes in technology or technique necessarily lead to unexpected consequences. The degree to which these consequences impact on decision-making, interaction, communication, work practices, and a range of other issues relevant to business management, varies considerably. However, with an increase and acceleration of such changes both internally and externally to business organisations, the control of such change is becoming impossible and the issue of managing change, more difficult. In this paper I outline some of the underlying issues for understanding the process of change and the impact of increased innovation and change on issues of management.
With the expansion of capability of information and communication technologies and the platforms ... more With the expansion of capability of information and communication technologies and the platforms and networks they imply, research and education services have become truly global, both in terms of the resources available to researchers and departments, but also in terms of the potential recipients of research and education services. As a consequence, the roll of communications within Higher Education has altered dramatically within the past decade. Additional incentives, for example in the UK Research Excellence Framework "impact" or increased competition for research funding, stakeholder inclusion or student enrolment, mean that communications are no longer considered an optional extra, but are central to the viability of a successful and sustainable organisation. This paper presents a detailed case study of the communications strategy developed and implemented for the
Sustainable Production, Aid and Assistance: Examples and Cases
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015
The emergence of social media and the immediate dissemination of images depicting the impact of p... more The emergence of social media and the immediate dissemination of images depicting the impact of poverty, crises and catastrophes, mean that problems related to resource allocation are visible on a global scale and thus visible to those with the ability to leverage a transfer of resources to address such problems. Foreign aid exists in multiple forms and a variety of strategies have been and are being devised to foresee and address potential problems in order to prevent such crises from occurring or mitigate the more harmful effects when a threat occurs. Among these strategies is the use of foreign aid to provide resources to support local enterprise, sustainable business and develop appropriate innovation practices within communities lacking in such infrastructure. These strategies will be considered under the umbrella term “sustainable production” and this paper will identify and evaluate some of the key strategies with a potential to address problems through foreign aid provision
The Challenge of Climate Change: Key Themes in Active Engagement
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014
This paper presents four themes that pose a particular challenge for presenting climate change is... more This paper presents four themes that pose a particular challenge for presenting climate change issues in a constructive way so that policy makers can engage with a variety of different interests in developing effective strategies that are fair, transparent and stand the best chance of mitigating climate change risks. A short conclusion will attempt to link these themes. The essay will conclude with 13 characteristics of social campaigns to address the problem of decision making and decision taking in climate change mitigation.
The Seductive Powers of Innovation: Steampunk Themes in Rethinking the Concept of Artificial
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014
This paper represents an attempt to exemplify a theoretical approach developed in relation to key... more This paper represents an attempt to exemplify a theoretical approach developed in relation to key concepts developed by Gilles Deleuze and themes from complexity, as applied to innovation. The paper addresses the processes involved in the invention(s) of the computer, particularly focussing on Charles Babbage’s computer, and its innovation as a transformative technology. The paper attempts to develop an assemblage with which to understand the process of experimentation and modification that take place within the creation of new technology. The paper argues that innovation provides a seductive mode of reconfiguring social and technological relationships, which, when combined with complexity paradigms, provide a politics oriented towards a future dominated by hybrid entities.
The assemblage of British politics’ breaking point
Journal of Consumer Culture
This paper investigates the UKIP Breaking Point advertisement, which appeared prominently during ... more This paper investigates the UKIP Breaking Point advertisement, which appeared prominently during the Brexit referendum campaign and used a documentary photograph of Syrian refugees, implying that they were migrating to Britain. We chart the assemblage through which the transformation of the image occurred: starting as Jeffrey Mitchell’s documentary photograph, charting news of the journey of a group of refugees, but becoming appropriated as an advertising image and ultimately an expression of political notoriety. The controversy generated by the advertisement serves as an example of advertising's meaning becoming a source of unpredictable contestation as different interests clash to define the image’s ‘real’ meaning. Rather than take advertising as a managed process, with meaning directly encoded and carefully crafted by producers, a cultural politics of advertising perceives advertisements as comprised of raw material whose meanings are ambiguous, negotiable and politically cha...
Modelling Energy-Environment-Economy Interdependencies: A Comparative Analysis of Ten E3 Models
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2011
Abstract: Understanding the interdependencies between energy, environmental issues and economic i... more Abstract: Understanding the interdependencies between energy, environmental issues and economic issues is of fundamental importance in developing appropriate policies for decarbonising the economy. The relationships between these three factors are, however, complex and different approaches have been taken in analysing the key relationships between these factors in order to assess the implications. This paper will assess one type of approach, examining economic or econometric models that include indexes for energy, ...
Technology, Complexity and Innovation: The Lift Pump as Boundary Object, Skeuomorph and Assemblage
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014
Technology and social change are interdependent features of our everyday experience. Understandin... more Technology and social change are interdependent features of our everyday experience. Understanding the relationship between technological innovation and social innovation requires a sophisticated understanding of the many points of contact and feedback mechanisms. Often such relationships are reduced to network narratives which describe, but fail to explain these interdependencies. This paper will attempt to explain key interdependencies and exemplify them through a small number of historical innovations, principally the lift pump, in order to identify the types of assemblages required for innovation to emerge and circulate through social relationships.
The Knowledge Grid has social characteristics. In the real world, people live and work in a socia... more The Knowledge Grid has social characteristics. In the real world, people live and work in a social grid obeying social and economic rules and laws. The Knowledge Grid is a virtual social grid, where people enjoy and provide services through versatile flow cycles like cycle flows, material flows, energy flows, information flows and knowledge flows. An artificial interconnection environment can only be effective when it works harmoniously with social grids. (Zhuge 2004: 6-7)
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Papers by Paul Haynes