
Richard TaylorStockholm Environment Institute (SEI) · Oxford Centre
Richard Taylor
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Publications (48)
Participatory methods for researching human–environmental interactions seek detailed inputs on all manner of issues, but the outputs are often only understandable to the technically literate. On the other hand, participatory methods that involve the co-design of structured outputs (maps, models, games, stories, etc.) can be used to represent and in...
International climate finance plays a key role in enabling the implementation of adaptation measures. However, while there is a common metric for gauging the effectiveness of finance for mitigation – greenhouse gas emission reduction per unit of funding – no corresponding metric exists for adaptation. Instead, assessments of what works best in adap...
We surveyed members of the adaptation community about their views on high-end climate change—here defined as global average temperature increase exceeding 2 °C at the end of the century—at consecutive conferences in 2016 and 2018. Most strikingly our surveys show that a majority of the community disagrees that the Paris Agreement has reduced the po...
As cities in East Africa keep growing, so too will demand for charcoal – the region’s preferred urban fuel – placing increasing pressure on rural landscapes where it is produced. How can charcoal production and supply be made sustainable? What are the implications of sustainable charcoal policies and practices for achieving a low-carbon pathway and...
Being dependent on fossil fuels, Indonesia faces challenges in incorporating renewables into its energy supply, which hampers to achieve the NDC target of 26% emission reduction. We investigate how biogas could contribute to a low-carbon transition pathway as cooking fuel, especially through the national mid-term development planning. Using mixed-m...
In the literature on innovation and organizational learning, there is a wide consensus about the relevance of learning activities. Specifically, they occur both individually (as producers will increase their knowledge simply “by doing”) and collectively (as producers and other stakeholders involved will learn “by interacting”). Therefore, in these...
The European Union (EU) is increasingly connected to the rest of the world via flows of people, capital, goods and resources, exposing it to the potential impacts of climate change occurring outside its borders, in addition to impacts occurring on and between EU countries themselves. However, there is currently no peer-reviewed literature that desc...
This chapter empirically shows how rigorous and transparent methods can be used to both maintain the integrity of 'softer' data while including it in 'holistic' assessments. It also shows that 'messiness' can be resolved adequately and structured so that qualitative data can be looked at more objectively. The chapter looks at the development of sui...
This chapter draws together an overall understanding of the social‐natural‐technical policy frameworks within which emBRACE work can be considered. It explains some of the discursive background to the ideas coalesced within the emBRACE framework. The chapter also explains why deciding upon policy interventions to support community resilience presen...
This chapter presents results from a study in the small alpine community of Badia (South Tyrol/Italy). Badia was selected as an emBRACE case study as its population had recently experienced the effects of a large landslide event, which took place in December 2012, causing damage to buildings and leading to partial evacuation. The chapter illustrate...
The chapter begins by briefly describing two contrasting simulations: the iconic system dynamics model publicised under the Limits to Growth book and a detailed model of first millennium Native American societies in the southwest of the United States. These are used to bring out the issues of abstraction, replicability, model comprehensibility, und...
Despite recent academic criticisms, resilience is proving a useful concept for understanding the socio-economic drivers behind community responses to risk. In a range of European cases, the emBRACE project applied a wide definition of community resilience inspired by Sustainable Livelihoods Approachs (SLA), Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), and Disa...
Resilience has been studied in a number of disciplines, predominantly in psychosocial and ecological sciences. Although there are striking similarities in their approaches, the psychosocial tradition has centered on the family and its immediate surroundings, whereas the social-ecological approach has focused on macrosystems that stop at the family...
This paper describes a participatory and collaborative process for formalising qualitative data, using research from southeast Cameroon, how these results can provide input to an social simulation model, and what insights they can provide in better understanding decision-making in the region. Knowledge Elicitation Tools (KnETs) have been used to su...
Resilience is a framework widely used to help address questions in disaster risk reduction (DRR) research, policy and practice. There is increasing demand for understanding this at the community scale. The paper builds on integrative research case studies of hazard management and community resilience (CR)-building projects in the North of England a...
Complex social-ecological systems (SES) are not amenable to simple mathematical modeling. However, to address critical issues in SES (e.g., understanding ecological resilience/amelioration of poverty) it is necessary to describe such systems in their entirety. Based on empirical knowledge of local stakeholders and experts, we mapped their conceptio...
Why Read This Chapter?
To get an overview of the different ways in which simulation can be used to gain understanding of human societies and to gain insight into some of the principle issues that impinge upon such simulation, including the difficulties these cause. The chapter will go through the various specific goals one might have in doing such...
The creation of an innovation niche depends on the interaction of three mechanisms involving: converging expectations, networking among the innovation actors, and learning about the novelty through efficient knowledge creation and diffusion. Such mechanisms define the key characteristics of a network affirms (i.e. the innovation niche), and the int...
Between 2011 and 2012, a regional baseline assessment to analyse vulnerability was conducted in five landscapes of the Congo Basin as part of the ‘Climate Change and Forests in the Congo Basin: Synergies between Adaptation and Mitigation (COBAM)’ project. This briefing note summarises the results for the Tri-National de la Sangha (TNS) landscape. S...
This article presents an agent-based (AB) model designed to investigate the emergence of innovation niches. The novel contribution of this paper is to assess whether the introduction of institutional agents of change (referred to as spreaders), whose sole activity is to persuade firms to switch from the dominant technology (i.e. the regime technolo...
In this brief note we reply to César García-Díaz and Diemo Urbig who reviewed our book on Knowledge Diffusion and Innovation (Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, 2010). We take this opportunity to reaffirm our personal view on several relevant issues, such as the need for a holistic view in economics, the adoption of a pragmatic heuristic approach...
The creation of an innovation niche depends on the interaction of three mechanisms involving: converging expectations, adequate level of individual and network power and efficient knowledge creation and diffusion (Lopolito and Morone, 2010). Such mechanisms define the key characteristics of a network of firms (i.e. the innovation niche), and the in...
In this paper, we develop a theoretical model able to capture some of the main features that govern knowledge sharing and
innovation. We pursue our target developing an agent-based model in which the social network of interactions is specified
as a knowledge resource, and knowledge integration is seen as the process by which the resource can be app...
'The book uses state-of-the-art theorizing about a topic that has attracted a lot of attention in the past five years or so. It provides a very useful review of the literature, and is very well written and on a novel topic. I especially liked the methodological rigour in the exposition of the model, yet at the same time the text remains accessible...
Agent-based modelling (ABM) can be used to integrate knowledge from different domains. explore the consequences of different decisions in a formal. Analytical system. And as a basis for engaging a variety of stakeholders when collecting necessary data, checking the validity of the model and interpreting the results. Participatory validation provide...
This paper aims to study, by means of a laboratory experiment and a simulation model, some of the mechanisms that dominate
the phenomenon of knowledge diffusion in the process that is called ‘interactive learning’.We examine how knowledge spreads
in different networks in which agents interact by word of mouth. We define a regular network, a randoml...
This chapter discusses qualitative and quantitative approaches to informing and validating ABMs. Research is introduced which addresses the question of how new e-commerce technology is leading to restructuring of value chains. A case study was undertaken within a major international organisation, focusing on exploring those issues identified as int...
This chapter introduces a formal model of a complex knowledge integration process named "thinking along." Here, the firm is modelled as a working environment consisting of agents arranged into work-practices, which provide the context for their interactions. The objective of the simulations reported here is to compare two different practice structu...
This chapter introduces a formal model of a complex knowledge integration process named ‘thinking along’. Here the firm is modelled as a working environment consisting of agents arranged into work-practices, which provide the context for their interactions. The objective of the simulations reported here is to compare two different practice structur...
Knowledge Diffusion and Networking in the Organic Production Sector: A Case Study
Recent uncertainty throughout the food system has put pressure on European farmers, now facing economic globalisation, changing consumer preferences, and a new legal and regulatory framework. Under these new circumstances, policy‐makers must identify new strategies fo...
This paper aims to understand some of the mechanisms which dominate the phenomenon of knowledge diffusion in the process that is called ‘interactive learning’. We examine how knowledge spreads in a network in which agents have ‘face-to-face’ learning interactions. We define a social network structured as a graph consisting of agents (vertices) and...
This paper aims to understand some of the mechanisms which dominate the phenomenon of knowledge diffusion in the process that is called ‘interactive learning’. We examine how knowledge spreads in a network in which agents interact by word of mouth. The social network is structured as a network graph consisting of agents (vertices) and connections (...
We introduce a formal model of a complex knowledge integration process named 'thinking along'. Based on the empirical analysis of Berends et al. (2004), the concept 'thinking along' describes how peers' interactions in the workplace often consist of 'temporary cognitive work with regard to a problem of someone else'. In this paper, we use an agent-...
This paper investigates the question of how new e-commerce technology is changing the organisational structure of value chains. The research presented in this paper illustrates a new methodology that unites qualitative and quantitative approaches, by undertaking a detailed case study within a major international organisation. The focus is upon expl...
This paper aims to understand some of the mechanisms which dominate the phenomenon of knowledge diffusion in the process that is called ‘interactive learning’. We examine how knowledge spreads in a network in which agents interact by word of mouth. We define a social network structured as a graph consisting of agents (vertices) and connections (edg...
This paper investigates the importance of proximity (both relational and geographical) for partnership formation in innovation systems, in which there is an assumed tacit aspect to knowledge flows. Once presented our rationale for an agent-based modelling approach to understand these phenomena, we describe the model where we define two types of age...
A central theme of the Knowledge and Regional Economic Development Conference is that of the geographical dimensions of knowledge and innovation. In this paper we are going to investigate the importance of geographical proximity for partnership formation in innovation systems, in which there is an assumed tacit aspect to knowledge flows. Once the t...
INTRODUCTION In the literature on innovation and organisational learning, the focus on informal learning has become increasingly evident. This trend is based on the recognition that informal learning is the dominant mode of learning in smaller and locally operating firms, as well as being important for large corporations. Typically, in small organi...
In this deliverable we first present a general description of the theoretical framework within which the model is developed. Subsequently, we present a detailed specification of the social network model paying due attention to specification of various actors, their social interaction rules and the niches formation process. The relevance of stakehol...
This paper argues that organic growing is associated with high levels of agricul-tural and ecological diversity, and should be understood as 'complex systems of culture' compared to conventional farming. The objective of this paper is to use a framework of complexity theory to investigate the ability of organic systems to meet the contemporary chal...