scholarly journals A systematic framework for the evaluation of rural telecommunications infrastructure

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thiruthlall Nepal
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Soft Systems Methodology ◽  
Critical Systems Thinking ◽  
Critical Systems ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Systems Methodology ◽  
Telecommunications Infrastructure ◽  
Rural Telecommunications

The evaluation of telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas is a complex and messy problem that involves many tangible and intangible factors. Some of them are technical in nature while others are soft, involving social, cultural and political aspects of the problem. The evaluation requires, inter alia, societal intervention, and since societies reflect a multiplicity and diversity of values and goals, the intervention should confront these realities. One such reality that can be highlighted is the fact that we are dealing with rural communities that are disadvantaged in terms of telecommunication and other service provision. This underlies the need to consider the evaluation process from multiple perspectives, explore methodologies that will facilitate participation and engagement, and include emancipation of the disadvantaged. This research proposes a framework for the evaluation of rural telecommunications in a regional context. As such, it is viewed not just as an engineering phenomenon, but also as an economic and social phenomenon. Its complexity requires the use of a mix of methods in a complementary manner. It is based on the combination of the strengths of Soft Systems Methodology by Checkland, Critical Systems Thinking following some ideas of Jackson ensuring the guaranteeing of the interests of the poor and the weak in the rural environment, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process by Saaty.

Critical Systems Perspective of Strategic Decision Making

2020 ◽  
pp. 55-80
Author(s):  
Jelena Nikolić ◽  
Dejana Zlatanović
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Critical Systems Thinking ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Strategic Decision Making ◽  
Critical Systems ◽  
Strategic Decisions ◽  
Systems Methodology ◽  
Soft Systems ◽  
Factors Affecting

Growing complexity and diversity of strategic decisions indicate the need for applying the appropriate holistic tools in strategic decision making. Thus, the chapter deals with the process of strategic decision making from the viewpoint of critical systems thinking, with emphasis on the role of values and context in strategic decision making. The main purpose is to show how systems thinking generally and critical systems thinking particularly can help decision makers involve different perceptions and values in the process of strategic decision making, as well as take into account context in which the strategic decisions are made. Considering the key internal and external factors affecting strategic decision making, the authors have selected three systems methodologies stemming from different paradigms: soft systems methodology as interpretive, team syntegrity as emancipatory, and organizational cybernetics as functionalist systems methodology. The way in which they can be combined, aimed at improving effectiveness of strategic decision making, has been presented.

scholarly journals THE EVALUATION OF VILLAGE ADMINISTRATION AS A GOVERNMENTAL AXIS TO ACHIEVE AUTONOMOUS AND PROSPEROUS VILLAGE (COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN CIAWI, BOGOR REGENCY, WEST JAVA)

ICCD ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 305-316
Author(s):  
Triyuni Soemartono ◽  
Enisar Sangun
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
National Development ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Village Community ◽  
Village Government ◽  
The Village ◽  
Ministerial Decree

The autonomy of village government offers an important role in the development of rural areas. The village government can serve as a governmental axis, which directly shapes and governs people on daily basis. Thus, national development is inseparable from the devotion of village government. Nevertheless, there are still many problems faced by the village community, which until now cannot be completely solved. These problems ranging from the limited ability of the village government in carrying out its functions and roles, slow growth and social change in village, the tendency of rural communities to passively involve in social and economic change to dependence on parties outside the village area. It is thus imperative that the implementation of an effective evaluation process of village government must be explored and strengthened. This is research is conducted to answer “how to evaluate the village government in order to achieve autonomous and prosperous village.” This research use descriptive qualitative approach, in order to interpret facts by accurately describing the nature of certain group or individual phenomena derived from the findings. It finds that Permendagri No. 81/2015 as the focal regulation on the development of village government regulates the evaluation process of village government into eight process: (1) self-evaluation, (2) assessment, (3) analysis, (4) validation, (5) review, (6) clarification, (7) ranking, and (8) ministerial decree if needed. However, the research finds that in several indicators, there need to be some improvement or a more detailed set of sub-indicators that specifically address the diversity of village’s characteristics.

scholarly journals The Urban-Rural Telecommunications Divide Endures: A Historical Perspective from Landline Telephony

Urban Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Jean-Michel Guldmann
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Telecommunications Infrastructure ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Digital Switching ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Rural Telecommunications ◽  
Rural Firms ◽  
Rural Character

The popular press and academic literature show that the urban-rural divide persists with regard to recent telecommunications technologies, such as broadband and wireless service. As was the case for landline telephony, this lack of deployment in rural areas is rooted in cost differentials and lack of agglomeration economies. This paper provides historical insights on this divide, using 1990 data on voice communications in a region located in the northeastern United States, and investigates (1) whether there are differences in telecommunications usage between urban and rural firms, (2) whether advanced telecommunications technologies provide an economic advantage to rural firms, and (3) what are the factors encouraging and inhibiting the provision of these technologies in rural areas. Exchange-level data on telephone usage by eleven economic sectors are first linked, through regression analysis, to data characterizing the exchange employment, rural character, availability of advanced technology, and geography. Rural activities turn out to use telecommunications less than urban ones in the absence of advanced technologies, but the latter tend to significantly increase usage. Next, a logit model is estimated to link the deployment of one advanced technology—digital switching—to market and geographical variables. The results tend to support the idea that an advanced telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas may be important to attract activities that make heavy use of telecommunications, but also that its provision is inhibited by the traditional rural barriers of distance and low population density.

Critical Systems Thinking and Information Technology

2011 ◽  
pp. 493-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristo Ivanov
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Soft Systems Methodology ◽  
Critical Systems Thinking ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Critical Systems ◽  
Political Ethics ◽  
Soft Systems ◽  
Analytic Psychology ◽  
Formal Science

This chapter presents a summary of some features of soft systems methodology—SSM, and of critical systems thinking—CST as they have been experienced from the point of view of the field of applications of information technology. It highlights the manner in which CST completes SSM in the context of the design of computer support in the form of HYPERSYSTEMS, and evidences some problematic aspects of the two approaches which push the practitioner into philosophical issues. One concluding hypothesis is that further developments of systems practice must be sought at the interface between formal science, political ethics, analytic psychology, and religious thought. For tutorial purposes, a great amount of literature is related to these issues.

A Systemic Framework for Facilitating Better Client-Developer Collaboration in Complex Projects

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-60
Author(s):  
Jeanette Wendy Wing ◽  
Doncho Petkov ◽  
Theo N Andrew
Keyword(s):  
Soft Systems Methodology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Software Requirements ◽  
Critical Systems ◽  
Systems Methodology ◽  
Soft Systems ◽  
Stakeholder Values ◽  
Complex Projects ◽  
System Method ◽  
Systems Practice

The article presents a framework for facilitating better collaboration between clients and developers in software requirements formulation. A mix of systems methods from soft systems methodology, critical systems heuristics and the work system method is justified through the principles of critical systems practice. It is particularly relevant for project contexts characterized by diversity of stakeholder values and significant complexity. The contribution of the article for the field of Information Systems is in the proposal of a systemic framework for promoting organizational learning about software requirements formulation. From a practical point of view it reduces the complexity of using systems thinking in software development as the selected methods are simpler to use than the whole system methodologies to which they belong.

scholarly journals Super Network on the Prairie: The Discursive Framing of Broadband Connectivity by Policy Planners and Rural Residents in Alberta, Canada

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Bakardjieva ◽  
Amanda Williams
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Departure Point ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Research Initiative ◽  
Rural Broadband ◽  
Industry Policy

This paper focuses on the case of the SuperNet, an infrastructure project designed and sponsored by the provincial government of Alberta, Canada with the objective of providing broadband connectivity to public facilities, businesses and residences in rural communities. The data were collected through individual interviews, focus groups, and town hall meetings in the course of a collaborative research initiative (The SuperNet Research Alliance) that investigated the social construction of the broadband network from multiple perspectives. The objective of the paper is to examine in parallel the discourses in which the concept of broadband connectivity acquired meaning and substance at the levels of 1) provincial government and industry policy planners and 2) the residents of the rural communities who were the intended beneficiaries of the SuperNet. Using actor-network theory as a departure point, this analysis takes stock of the framing devices employed in the two sets of discourses and of the distinctive worldviews that generated them. It looks for the meeting points and the disjunctions between the grand visions and the grounded projections underlying the positions taken by the two respective categories of actors. Differences in the interpretation and appropriation of broadband among rural Albertans themselves are discerned and related to social factors characterizing different situations within rural areas. Rural broadband connectivity thus emerges not so much as a one-dimensional access equalizer for rural people, but as a complex mediator of opportunity, participation and identity.

TURNING FARMERS INTO SOCIAL FARMER ENTREPRENEURS FOR DISADVANTAGED PEOPLE

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remus Runcan
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Physical Work ◽  
Healthy Environment ◽  
Rural And Urban Areas ◽  
Rural Development Programme ◽  
Rural And Urban

According to Romania’s National Rural Development Programme, the socio-economic situation of the rural environment has a large number of weaknesses – among which low access to financial resources for small entrepreneurs and new business initiatives in rural areas and poorly developed entrepreneurial culture, characterized by a lack of basic managerial knowledge – but also a large number of opportunities – among which access of the rural population to lifelong learning and entrepreneurial skills development programmes and entrepreneurs’ access to financial instruments. The population in rural areas depends mainly on agricultural activities which give them subsistence living conditions. The gap between rural and urban areas is due to low income levels and employment rates, hence the need to obtain additional income for the population employed in subsistence and semi-subsistence farming, especially in the context of the depopulation trend. At the same time, the need to stimulate entrepreneurship in rural areas is high and is at a resonance with the need to increase the potential of rural communities from the perspective of landscape, culture, traditional activities and local resources. A solution could be to turn vegetal and / or animal farms into social farms – farms on which people with disabilities (but also adolescents and young people with anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicide, and alexithymia issues) might find a “foster” family, bed and meals in a natural, healthy environment, and share the farm’s activities with the farmer and the farmer’s family: “committing to a regular day / days and times for a mutually agreed period involves complying with any required health and safety practices (including use of protective clothing and equipment), engaging socially with the farm family members and other people working on and around the farm, and taking on tasks which would include working on the land, taking care of animals, or helping out with maintenance and other physical work”

A SOFT SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY APPROACH TO IMPROVING THE SUPPLY CHAIN OF A CONSTRUCTION PROJECT IN GAUTENG PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-99
Author(s):  
Lewis Tsuro ◽  
Stan Hardman
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Construction Project ◽  
Soft Systems Methodology ◽  
Project Planning ◽  
Suitable Model ◽  
Senior Managers ◽  
Good Tool ◽  
Systems Methodology ◽  
Soft Systems

The Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) was developed as a set of tools for identifying and making incremental steps to improve situations with poorly defined causes or solutions. The supply chain forms a key process of any construction project; however, on any given construction site, supply chain inefficiencies could arise from many different avenues. Opinions vary, though, on which of these avenues is more important for increasing supply chain efficiencies; whether any problem even exist across the different aspects of the supply chain; as well as what steps should be taken to resolve them. It was therefore studied, here, whether SSM could be employed as a useful tool to systematically apply in the supply chains of a construction project in South Africa, for understanding and targeting the problematic situations that arise. Following thorough cyclical open-ended interviews with 17 workers, supervisors, foremen, site clerks, senior managers, and the CEO of the principal contractor at a new office park construction project in Rosebank, Johannesburg, and a thematic analysis of the data, SSM was performed to understand the existing challenges, and develop a suitable model for improvement. The study found that SSM was a good tool for understanding the ‘messy’ circumstances surrounding the chosen construction project supply chain, as well as actions that could be taken to improve the supply chain’s efficiency on site. The findings add weight to the argument that SSM could be a good tool for project managers to systematically introduce into their project planning regimens

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Critical Systems Thinking ◽  
Critical Systems ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Future Visions

The book proposes that the Cold War period saw a key debate about the future as singular or plural. Forms of Cold War science depicted the future as a closed sphere defined by delimited probabilities, but were challenged by alternative notions of the future as a potentially open realm with limits set only by human creativity. The Cold War was a struggle for temporality between the two different future visions of the two blocs, each armed with its set of predictive technologies, but these were rivaled, from the 1960s on, by future visions emerging from decolonization and the emergence of a set of alternative world futures. Futures research has reflected and enacted this debate. In so doing, it offers a window to the post-war history of the social sciences and of contemporary political ideologies of liberalism and neoliberalism, Marxism and revisionist Marxism, critical-systems thinking, ecologism, and postcolonialism.

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