Failures and success of the accord reached at the Copenhagen Summit 2009
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",isbn:"978-1-83968-460-9",printIsbn:"978-1-83968-459-3",pdfIsbn:"978-1-83969-232-1",doi:null,price:0,priceEur:0,priceUsd:0,slug:null,numberOfPages:0,isOpenForSubmission:!0,hash:"babca2dea1c80719111734cc57a21a4c",bookSignature:"Dr. Amin Talei",publishedDate:null,coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/10404.jpg",keywords:"Water Budget, Ground Measurement, Satellite Data, Empirical Models, Physical Models, Data-Driven Models, Artificial Neural Network, Neuro-Fuzzy Systems, Genetic Programming, Irrigation Management, Drought, Aquifer Management",numberOfDownloads:null,numberOfWosCitations:0,numberOfCrossrefCitations:null,numberOfDimensionsCitations:null,numberOfTotalCitations:null,isAvailableForWebshopOrdering:!0,dateEndFirstStepPublish:"October 29th 2020",dateEndSecondStepPublish:"November 26th 2020",dateEndThirdStepPublish:"January 25th 2021",dateEndFourthStepPublish:"April 15th 2021",dateEndFifthStepPublish:"June 14th 2021",remainingDaysToSecondStep:"2 months",secondStepPassed:!0,currentStepOfPublishingProcess:3,editedByType:null,kuFlag:!1,biosketch:"A pioneering researcher in developing hydrological models using adaptive neuro-fuzzy systems, a pioneering researcher in tropical biofiltration systems, appointed head of the Civil Engineering Discipline in Monash University Malaysia.",coeditorOneBiosketch:null,coeditorTwoBiosketch:null,coeditorThreeBiosketch:null,coeditorFourBiosketch:null,coeditorFiveBiosketch:null,editors:[{id:"335732",title:"Dr.",name:"Amin",middleName:null,surname:"Talei",slug:"amin-talei",fullName:"Amin Talei",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/335732/images/system/335732.jpg",biography:"Associate Professor Amin Talei joined Monash University Malaysia in January 2013 and currently is the head of Civil Engineering discipline. 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Venkateswarlu",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/371.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"58592",title:"Dr.",name:"Arun",surname:"Shanker",slug:"arun-shanker",fullName:"Arun Shanker"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"878",title:"Phytochemicals",subtitle:"A Global Perspective of Their Role in Nutrition and Health",isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"ec77671f63975ef2d16192897deb6835",slug:"phytochemicals-a-global-perspective-of-their-role-in-nutrition-and-health",bookSignature:"Venketeshwer Rao",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/878.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"82663",title:"Dr.",name:"Venketeshwer",surname:"Rao",slug:"venketeshwer-rao",fullName:"Venketeshwer Rao"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}},{type:"book",id:"4816",title:"Face Recognition",subtitle:null,isOpenForSubmission:!1,hash:"146063b5359146b7718ea86bad47c8eb",slug:"face_recognition",bookSignature:"Kresimir Delac and Mislav Grgic",coverURL:"https://cdn.intechopen.com/books/images_new/4816.jpg",editedByType:"Edited by",editors:[{id:"528",title:"Dr.",name:"Kresimir",surname:"Delac",slug:"kresimir-delac",fullName:"Kresimir Delac"}],productType:{id:"1",chapterContentType:"chapter",authoredCaption:"Edited by"}}]},chapter:{item:{type:"chapter",id:"17414",title:"Sustainability by Interrelating Science, Society and Economy in Embedded Political Economy – an Epistemological Approach",doi:"10.5772/17749",slug:"sustainability-by-interrelating-science-society-and-economy-in-embedded-political-economy-an-epistem",body:'Sustainability is a far wider concept than in the environment context. Besides, when ecology is invoked to establish sustainability the concept assumes a wider field of ethical and social evaluation. Such an evaluative domain involves embedding among a wide field of interactive subsystems. The systems learn by synergy and unify in the midst of the good things of life. The learning and choice of the good things of life through the interactive systemic synergy conveys the essential meaning of ethicality. Systemic learning as an embedded phenomenon in a unification framework of human ecological setting establishes the substantive meaning of sustainability (Hawley, 1986). Indeed, the South Commission (1990, p.13) defines development as such an embedded process in the following words: "To sum up: development is a process of self-reliant growth, achieved through participation of the people acting in their own interests as they see them, and under their own control."
Yet the context of learning by synergy is not prevalent in this definition of development. The process of choice by participating individuals in the light of their own interests could very well be a ruthless experience in competition and self-interest -- if not of individuals then of collusive groups. In the sustainability debate we find such a conflict to be entrenched. Consider the conflict between global corporation and small enterprises. One complains of the other for their individual impediments to growth (Barbier, 1986). Yet it is a fact that enterprises must necessarily survive within the reality of markets, an institutional regulatory framework, and participatory mechanism (Kim & Mauborgne, 2005). Besides, there is also the conflict between the present and future generations, whereby the magnitude of financial and physical resource allocation problem between the present and future generations remains indeterminate. The savings problem is unresolved in the intertemporal case (Phelps, 1989).
In fact, there is no participation between the present and far future generation. These two are not contiguous, and hence cannot co-determine, participate and interrelate. Thereby, there does not exist a discounting for such indeterminate future preferences and the resource allocation linked with such out-of-bound resource allocation points beyond overlapping generations (Choudhury, 2011). Consequently, the expressed ethical problem of intertemporal resource allocation to maximize the associated discounted utilities of future non-overlapping generations fails in the methodological problem of valuation of a resource bundle. Only the mystical shade of ethical feeling at the cost of ethical reality prevails (Inglott, 1990). Neither the South Commission Report nor the Brundtland Report on sustainable development addresses the intergenerational ethical problem of resource allocation even though a certain form of collusive participation involving community, national and social collusion, namely between the North and the South, is emphasized. Globalization as a result assumes the façade of conflict and individuating transnational cultural identities (Sklair, 2002).
The theme of sustainability invoked in this paper is premised on the episteme of unity of knowledge and its impact on unified social reconstruction. This approach involves a substantive methodology and a specific perspective of application. The research investigation in the epistemological basis of sustainability by synergistic learning process involves an endogenous ethical symbiosis. It is extensively embedded in ever-expanding domains of social activities for the common good of all. We explain below the underlying methodology as such a complex learning process.
Three principal undertakings comprise the objective of this paper. Firstly, we will establish the epistemic methodological formal expression for the model of unity of knowledge and the sustainability criterion under the emergent symbiotic system perspective. The internal dynamics of the inter-systemic embedded domains in the study of sustainability with endogenous ethical dynamics between science and society including the global economic order will be explained in the context of political economy. The idea of political economy in this context will be explained in terms of the epistemic dynamics of unity of knowledge and its symbiotic process of systemic learning between social and scientific, hence socio-scientific, diversity. Secondly, the emergent methodological formalism of sustainability will be contrasted with other ones of similar types in received literature. This is a deeply epistemological issue on the theme of selecting the correct premise for unity of knowledge, thereby defining the unified world-system as a social construction enabled by invoking the episteme of unity of knowledge. Thirdly, we will apply the emergent sustainability worldview to the institutional political economy of the Copenhagen Summit on Climatic Change.
This section defines and explains some key terms and concepts that are to be used in the construction of the generalized system model of unity of knowledge as the episteme and its application to the theme of sustainability.
Sustainability\n\t\t\t
In mainstream literature of economic development, sustainability is defined as the growth and progress of the economy in keeping with non-inflationary economic advancement in real output. Economic development is also construed as the conveying of the fruits of such growth for the benefit of labor and enterprise big and small, and the attainment of environmental preservation and social justice derived from the consumption, production and distribution of goods and services to all of the present and future generations.
In this paper, sustainability is the entirety mentioned above. But the attainment of such a compendium of wellbeing is not taken in the sense of economic optimization of these possibilities. Rather, the paper addresses sustainability as learning process established by organic complementary interrelations between the good things of life. Indeed, such an idea of complementarities out of choices of the good things of life is the meaning of wellbeing. We will expand on this idea below.
Ethics
In received literature ethics is understood as humanly driven behavior to attain utilitarian objectives that may be collectively derived though they exist as individual objectives. The foundation of such an understanding of ethics is the rational process that emanates distantly in the metaphysical moral law, but is utterly changed to assume a humanistic character.
In this paper, the meaning of ethics is equivalent to the learning process premised on the evaluation of an existing degree of unity of knowledge in the examined system of sustainability. This is then followed by the formalism of social reconstruction to gain the state of complementarities between the variables representing the good things of life. These bundles of variables as vectors are like Rawls\' primaries (Rawls, 1971). Thus the following chain of relations prevails in the understanding of ethics in the context of our explanation of sustainability:
The meaning of ethics so understood is similar to how Nozick (2001) explains ethics in his following words (p. 240):
Our actions are mutually connected when my actions are connected with yours and yours with mine. Frequently, the actions of different people are mutually connected and the outcomes are nontrivially affected. This is the background that gives rise to ethics.
Episteme\n\t\t\t
We adopt the meaning of episteme given by Foucault (trans. Scheffler, 1972, p. 191) as follows:
By episteme we mean the total set of relations that unite, at a given period, the discursive practices that give rise to epistemological figures, sciences, and possibly formalized systems The episteme is not a form of knowledge (connaissance) or type of rationality which, crossing the boundaries of the most varied sciences, manifests the sovereign unity of a subject, a spirit, or a period; it is the totality of relations that can be discovered, for a given period, between the sciences when one analyses them at the level of discursive regularities.
In a like sense of the concept of episteme in this paper, we mean by episteme the totality of the ontological and phenomenological precept and formalism premised on the epistemology of unity of knowledge. This primal concept is followed by its inductive capability out of the deductive premise. This primal precept of unity of knowledge denotes the episteme. It is subsequently followed by the entire system of learning experiences in evolving processes of unity of knowledge. The episteme of unity thereby induces the variables and entities of sustainability.
Functional ontology and epistemology
Ontology according to Heidegger (trans. Hofstadter, 1988, p. 128; Kant) is encapsulated in this passage:
Transcendental knowledge relates not to objects, not to beings, but to the concepts that determine the being of beings. ‘A system of such concepts would be called transcendental philosophy.’ Transcendental philosophy denotes nothing but ontology.
Yet in our paper ontology assumes a functional, i.e. an engineering meaning (Gruber, 1993). In this perspective, the universe assumes a mathematical form in which symbolization acts as reflective soul of reality of specific issues and problems, of the nature of the universe that we want to study as a world-system. The universe and sustainability as continuous learning by epistemic unity in it across ‘everything’ (Barrow, 1991) is a mathematical semiosis (Heiskala, 2003) of the socio-scientific order. Thus we will use the meaning of functional ontology as opposed to the metaphysical conception of ontology to mean the formalism of a specific idea. This is the being of becoming of an idea, which means (functional) ontology in this paper.
According to the functional meaning of ontology, the theory of knowledge (epistemology) and the ontological principle are made up of two parts that encircle and evolve in the continuum of knowledge, time, space dimension. These two parts are firstly, the epistemic derivation of unity of knowledge from a primal premise. Secondly, such an epistemic knowledge flow develops the concrescence (Whitehead, trans. Griffin & Sherburne, 1978, pp. 20-30) of the world-system of unified forms representing the ontological formalism of the socio-scientific order. Sustainability as explained earlier in the domain of organic complementarities (i.e. participation = organic unity) res extensa is the cause and effect circularity of the above-mentioned two parts across continuum of systems and over time.
In light of the above definition and explanation of ontology and the ontological principle of being and becoming, epistemology, the theory of knowledge, and ontology as theory of functional forms as description of the dynamics of being and becoming of the socio-scientific universe – its semiosis -- are juxtaposed. Episteme as totality of the phenomenological content of meaning emerges from epistemology (idea) and leads to functional ontology; and (‘and’ -- this meaning here is taken in the sense of mathematical intersection) ontology leads into evolutionary epistemology across continuum of systems and knowledge, time and space dimension. Such is the consequential vintage of sustainability. See below for further explanation on this dynamics of creativity.
Socio-scientific world-system
The epistemological-ontological delineation of the model emergent from expression (1) is of the universal and unique type in respect of its possibility for explanation and application to the widest possible domain of systems, issues, and problems res extensa. (Descartes, trans. Commins & Linscott, 1954, p. 176). Hence, despite the diversity of problems addressed for systems under consideration, the meta-model of epistemic unity and sustainability remains invariant. That is because the primal cause, the consequential effect, and the recursive and evolutionary continuity of the same relations are uniquely premised on knowledge simultaneously with its induction of variables, entities and events. The totality of such diversity of systems and events by knowledge induction of a unified order is the idea of the unified world-system. The fact that such unifying systems span across all domains -- the meaning of universality by virtue of the epistemic role of unity of knowledge -- causes science, ecology, society and economy to interact, integrate and evolve by organic symbiosis. The resulting embedding domain is the wider field of social valuation comprising our scope of political economy.
Political economy\n\t\t\t
Political economy is a discipline of thought -- but not the pedagogical study -- of power and conflict in states of production, ownership and distribution. These activities together assume a meaning of systemic concrescence in embedding political economy. The domains of science, society and economy are now integrated together out of systemic interaction and the learning spaces of evolutionary epistemological dynamics.
Staniland (1985, p. 33) invokes reference to Lionel Robbins on the concern with the scientific (epistemological) as opposed to the institutional (pedagogical) approach to the definition of political economy in the following words: “Lionel Robbins acknowledged that the logical basis of welfare economics was flawed, that it was impossible to arrive at a scientific definition of the general good from an examination of individual preferences. But governments had to make judgments about such matters, and values were inescapably involved in such judgments. Therefore Robbins proposed dividing the field into ‘political economy’, which dealt with such important but essentially unscientific matters, and ‘economic science’, which would continue the central, normatively neutral tasks of analyzing the facts of economic behavior”
The understanding and application of the theme of political economy are different in this paper. We define political economy in the scientific framework of interaction, integration and evolutionary epistemology of unity of knowledge caused by the convergence to unification of ‘everything’ according to the methodology of learning processes res extensa differentiating truth and falsehood. The scientific universality and uniqueness of this methodology are preserved while bringing together what in the above quote means unscientific institutionalism. Scientific formalism of the meaning of institutionalism is fired by its own dynamics of preferences, structures and creative futures. The resulting symbiotic worldview is the essential characteristic of our definition of political economy. Within such a worldview is subsumed the opposing study of conflict and cooperation on the theme of production, consumption, ownership and distribution of wealth and resources, and all the opportunities that emerge there from.
On such a systemic spanning perspective of the field of political economy the organic model of interrelationship between epistemology and development (Koizumi, 1993) can be adopted to explain our systemic and unification concept of political economy. It integrates ‘everything’ within a modeled framework of human reality partitioned between truth and choices of the good things of life on the one side; and falsehood and differentiation of life on the other side.
Evolutionary learning process
The meaning of process in the sense of the ontological principle rests on the principle of being and becoming (Prigogine, 1980). Process breeds sustainability by virtue of the unified nexus of organic relations between diversity. This idea of sustainability and learning process is represented in expression (1). In this regard, Whitehead (op cit, p. 80) writes: “The philosophy of organism extends the Cartesian subjectivism by affirming the ‘ontological principle’ and by contrasting it as the definition of ‘actuality’. This amounts to the assumption that each actual entity is a locus for the universe.”
The consequence interrelating epistemology and functional ontology along the reproduction of knowledge and its constructed world-system of unity of knowledge is the essential meaning of learning. Sustainability is borne by and of itself in continuum of the knowledge, time, and space dimension. The universe takes its form and reshaping in such a continuity and systemic continuum of organic forms and their inter-relations.
To configure the study of the learning process and the forms of sustainability and ethics embedded in it this paper brings out definitive functions inherent in the meaning of evolutionary epistemology. The idea is emphatically explained by Campbell (1974, pp. 413-463): “The central requirement becomes an epistemology capable of handling expansions of knowledge, breakouts from the limits of prior wisdom, scientific discovery.” In our paper such a permanent characteristic of learning process assumes a universal and unique socio-scientific construction.
Interaction
Interactions arise from the diversity of organic relations and their immanent forms that agencies, entities, variables and their relations assume in the study of specific problems, subject to pervasive inter-organic complementarities. Imbuing interactions with their legitimacy emanates from the epistemic foundation of unity of knowledge, whereby the immanent organisms – human and non-human ones – are construed as being pairs of complements. Yet the idea of pairing is one of unity between the good things of life. Oppositely, pairing in modes of competition is the permanent characteristic of the domain of organic competition. Thus a logical contradiction arises from the former kind of unified worldview and the latter kind of social Darwinism (Darwin, 1985, p. 115).
The meaning of interaction in the sense of sustainability by virtue of the learning process means the initial recognition of the legitimacy of paired complementarities as the sure sign of unity of knowledge that is embedded in the systemic domains of diversity. In the social Darwinian sense the contradictory explanation of interaction is worded as Natural Selection by way of competition, marginalism, and association among similar organisms that compete to dominate.
Integration
Integration necessarily breeds as the consequence of interaction. Integration is the process-determined stage of realized unity of being out of its becoming through the interactive process. Integration marks order out of diversity of interactions that search for symbiosis. Integration follows interactions because only discursive, relational and divergent learning situations can yield to consensual order in the socio-scientific domain, and similarly to symbiosis in the inanimate domain of \'everything\'. Any consensus that precedes interactions conveys a denial of freedom of participation. Participation is essential in forming a unified world-system by the episteme of unity of knowledge.
How does integration arise out of a system of interaction? In the social domain the bundle of interactions denote possibilities of unity of knowledge in respect of particular issues that altogether interrelate to unify together in forming a mapping of the possibilities onto the unified ensemble (Hubner, 1985). In the physical domain, biological diversities unify together to form unified bundles of types conforming to specific categories. But central to such interaction leading to integration is the fact that knowledge remains the be-all and end-all of the unification process, and hence of the learning process defining sustainability across the knowledge, time and space dimension of reality.
Consequently, inter-systemic diversity is able to unify in the knowledge-relational sense to form the organizational structure of the diverse entities that now become unified -- not by forms in the primal, but by the basis of knowledge. Two examples are given here:
The unification of the North and South geopolitical world-systems into a unified world order is the good form of globalization (Behrman, 2003). So-called Darwinian biological primates converge with human beings in terms of the knowledge organization to share coexistence of the planet earth. Such a process is different from the type of social Darwinism of the selfish gene (Dawkin, 1976).
The above-mentioned are examples of sustainability reflected in entities, but not by the evolution of species by way of competition and replacement of survival of the fittest. Sustainability here means the knowledge that enables coexistence to participate and to share in the resources of the planet earth.
The principle of pervasive complementarities is thereby the simulated normative consequence of improving on all relations of the positivistic nature, either of competition or coexistence. The endemic social reconstruction in the transformation of unwanted positivistic situations into simulated normative possibilities of complementarities, hence unity of being, is a function of knowledge. The episteme of unity of knowledge establishes the functional ontology of knowledge through the social derivation of knowledge flows. These knowledge-flows form the laws and preferences of the socio-scientific order at large. The consequential representations of the resulting world-system are thus knowledge-induced. These induced entities and relations are now capable of learning further on, as explained by expression (1). The result is generating sustainability across continuous learning processes in knowledge, time, and space dimension.
Evolution
Evolution is a function of knowledge-flows causing the bursting of new knowledge-flows from the previously attained ones through the process of learning in unity of knowledge across specific experiences. Such experiences occur at specific points of the knowledge, time and space dimension. Evolutionary epistemology arising from the sequential process of interaction leading to integration is thereby continuous across continuum of knowledge, time and space dimension.
We need to ask how evolution arises from (interaction to integration) and cannot arise in any other juxtaposition. In the knowledge, time and space dimension of the learning world-system, knowledge precedes the occurrence of event. Hence knowledge in its foundational epistemic stage, subsequently followed by the simulation of derived knowledge-flows by means of the discursive mechanism, is firstly a spatial experience. It is then followed by its evolutionary continuity over time.
The knowledge-formation stage of the learning continuum, hence evolutionary epistemology in the continuum of space at a point of time marks the interaction-integration dynamics. This stage of knowledge formation and the simulation process at a given point of time thus establishes the continuum phenomenology (knowledge-induced transformation at a point of time). Next the interaction-integration continuum of phenomenology is protracted over time.
Sustainability thereafter continues by the joint protraction of (interaction-integration) over time, forming thus the logical and cognitive forms across continuums of timal continuity. This phase of continued learning marks emergence of domains of evolutionary epistemology in the res extensa of systems, entities, variables and relations. On such a coevolutionary phenomenological experience in continuum and over time, namely, the representation of the total dynamics over knowledge, time and space dimension pertaining to the episteme of unity of knowledge and its unification relationship with the world-system writes Primavesi (2000, p. 110): “… the evolutionary possibility of our interacting peacefully, fruitfully and happily with other organisms cannot be ruled out”.
The feature of continuous and discrete timal coevolutionary learning processes is found in Nozick\'s argumentation (2001, p. 43). But we remove the relativism of truth in Nozick by the permanence of truth existing as exogenous foundation outside time-space, though truth de facto relates with time-space events to actualize evolutionary epistemology and forms of the world-system. In our terms therefore, truth as knowledge of the foundational episteme is not relativistic. It is the cement in the overarching totality between the derived and discoursed knowledge-flows and the unifying world-system actualized out of social transformation.
Thus epistemic knowledge is the exogenous factor of cause in space-time dimension of the world-system. This is the fundamental origin of sustainability. Without this strong implication we disagree with Nozick who says, "Our theory places truth within space-time". Obviously, the meaning of epistemic knowledge is different between the relativistic knowledge, which to us means temporal knowledge-flows. But such knowledge-flows are foundationally derived by the combination of absolutist truth based on text and history of the good things of life, and the discourse of the enlightened society. Braudel (1995) referred to this kind of worldview as the consciousness of history of the long dure. Now in regards to expression (1), sustainability takes a multidimensional meaning. It involves in it res extensa the socially converged structures of science, society, and economy; hence of the embedding political economy as the coordinated unified, interactive, integrative and evolutionary system that we have pronounced.
In the coevolutionary phase of the learning process there is no binding prediction for the evolutionary processes to be definitely truth-knowledge directed. It is possible that contradictory scenarios of evolutionary epistemology can emerge and continue, or they can revert again to the socially constructed path of change. An example is that of the absolutist episteme of unity of knowledge (truth) disintegrating into Darwinian evolutionary processes (Popper, 1988), and then again reverting to the autopoiesis of Gaia, which refers to “the dynamics, self-producing and self-maintaining network of production processes within live organisms” (Primavesi, p. 2).
A note needs to be made on the nature of absolutism contra relativism in the truth-knowledge amalgam. Unlike the many speculative philosophers of all times, in our paper there is no relativism of truth and the epistemic knowledge. We make the argument that, if this was the case then the world and reality would descend into an endless spiral of void and nothingness. There is no basis; everything remains relative, changeable, and hence unfounded. Now to emanate two streams of truths from disparate epistemic origins means the reign of perpetual competition, marginalism and differentiation of existence. In this kind of reality there cannot prevail coexistence, coordination, unity and sustainability. Unfortunately, such a competing and marginalizing dichotomous worldview is the basis of all of western science of nature and society. The resulting political economy then is seen as the study of conflict and competition between unsustainable opposed groups that oppositely claim power over the production, consumption, distribution and ownership of wealth.
Contrary to the idea of relativism of truth, the absolutism of the unitary episteme means irreducibility of certain laws and the socio-scientific implements derived there from by a regressive method of argumentation and belief. Such a truth that is solely premised on the episteme and functional nature of the precept of oneness is absolutely inexorable, implacable. Socio-scientific sustainability now becomes uniquely and universally attainable by means of the extension of unity across nexus of cohering systems res extensa.
In the end, there is no relativism of truth. At the epistemic level the identity of topological mappings causes Truth > Epistemic Knowledge of Oneness > Truth, in the sense of equivalence of relations denoted by >.[1] - Contrarily, if 1 and 2 are relational, then say, 12 . In the denumerable case of all numbered topological mappings of variables as mentioned above, it is possible to find an associated non-zero and non-identity scalar factor , such that 12 = .I , with I as the identity set. Consequently, 1 and 2 are only near relational inverses of each other with a convergence towards , but with an -scalar margin of identity. The conclusion is that with 1 and 2 as disparate knowledge, both of them are encompassed by the law (topology) of . Therefore, Truth. Besides, Truth is epistemic Knowledge because it has functional essence displayed by the topological mappings emanating from and routing through 1 and 2. Thus, Truth Knowledge. But Truth Knowledge . Thereby . Hence, self-references. Likewise, the epistemic Truth Knowledge self-references (Choudhury & Zaman, 2009). This is the temporal consequence of sustainability as the learning process over continuum and in continuity of the knowledge, time and space dimension. The topological subsets in this sustainability concept is the embedding of science, society, economy in political economy with its relational power of ethicality gained by learning, i.e. interaction, integration and coevolutionary epistemic unity.The special case is that of the metaphysical ontology of \'being\' in unity as Truth equivalent to Knowledge, when =0. That is error in relative relationalism is zero. Then 12 = . We now term 1 and 2 as Truth and Falsehood, respectively. Thereby, Truth and Falsehood or Relative Truths become perfectly disjoint. In the end altogether, sustainability is attainable at a margin of deflection (error) in our mundane experience; sustainability as the perfection of Truth and Knowledge in the epistemic sense remains optimally attained. Consequently, the world-system established on the basis of the epistemic unity of being and becoming does not stand on the relativity of truth. In the mundane sense only, as in the case of science, society, economy embedding in political economy, evolutionary knowledge is simulated by discursive learning on the premise of the epistemic unity and its unified social reconstructions.
Wellbeing
Unlike utility and welfare functions, which are neoclassical concepts of optimum economic objective criteria for the individual and household, and community and government, wellbeing is a simulative objective criterion function. It conceptualizes and measures the degree to which organic complementarities, reflecting unity of knowledge in the systemic organic relations between the good things exist, or simulative social reconstructions can be improvised.
The social welfare function of welfare economics is defined as a mathematical mapping from the domain of socially selected states to their outcome in the social space. Such a functional map has the following mathematical properties to make it viable for analytical work (Quirk and Saposnik, 1968, pp. 105-108): Social choices comprise vector-bundles X1 and X2, such that either X1 is preferred to X2 or vice-versa, or these are indifferent to one another at the individual level. These directions of social choices at the individual level are mapped on to the social level while the axioms of economic rationality are preserved. That is preferences remain unchanged along the mapping from the individual to the social level. Transitivity of preferences over bundles of goods (variables) in rational choice at the individual level is preserved at the social level as well.
Social welfare function involving the preservation of the properties of the mapping from the individual to the social level needs a dictator to impose attainment of social welfare level by a given set of social choices. Irrelevant preferences hold for a subset of society, where a truncated form of the welfare function can be extended to the whole of society (Hammond, 1987). It is equally possible to replicate the social welfare function in terms of bundles of social choices, e.g. economic growth, distributive justice, employment and price stability, or in terms of individual utility functions in terms of these variables individually chosen. They are then aggregated socially.
Thus, the principal rationality property of individual utility function and its effect on private choices to make up aggregated order-preserving social choices, namely by means of the postulate of marginal substitution and exogenous preferences and ethical implication, remain in tact both at the individual and social levels. This is the idea of pervasive substitution and marginalism, scarcity of resources, economic rationality in choices, non-dynamic preferences and full information (or bounded rationality as in Simon (1957)). Consequently, the idea of sustainability in the sense of social embedding of interacting, integrating and creatively evolutionary systems is never prevalent in mainstream conception and applications of science, society and economics.
On the other hand, wellbeing function is a mapping from the social space of states with endogenous ethical induction of the variables on to the space of social outcome as measured by the degree of complementarities between the social choices of the good things of life as they are represented in the social variables with ethical induction. In the social wellbeing space ethics is parametrically estimable for which simulation possibilities exist to arrive at better social reconstructions.
A social wellbeing function does not stand alone. It is there for purposes of evaluation of the prevalent state that can lead into simulated states of social reconstruction. Hence the social wellbeing function is estimated and simulated with respect to a system of circular causation interrelations between the variables, all of which are endogenously ethically induced.
There is no substitution between the variables and functional inputs (e.g. consumer utility indexes) in the wellbeing function, as it is otherwise found in the case of the welfare function. The implication of these two properties is this: There is permanent substitution between social choices in the welfare function; and pervasive complementarities or social reconstruction of social choices in the wellbeing function. Sustainability explained by the embedding of science, society and economy in the social political economy by way of continuous learning process in unity of knowledge as the episteme is never a possibility in the order of substitution between possibilities. Possibilities are always to be complemented for augmenting knowledge-flows and their material inductions as ethically-induced resources for human development and reproduction of resources, rather all kinds of resources for life-sustenance.
With the continuous augmentation of resource as the result of the growth of knowledge-flows and their induction of social variables into evolutionary discovery of possibilities, the contrary core postulate of scarcity in received economic theory, or Darwinian conception of biology and anthropology, and optimization concepts of scientific theories are all replaced by the theory of coevolutionary symbiosis. A theory for this kind of dynamics is uniquely and universally explained by the Interaction-Integration-Evolutionary (IIE) phases of the learning processes, as explained earlier.
While the problem of sustainability is seen in the eyes of scarcity in the case of mainstream common understanding by science, society and economics (Coombs, 1990; Martinez-Alier, 1987), scarcity is abandoned in a logical way in the sustainability concept of complementary learning processes (Daly et al, 1992). The postulate of diminishing marginal returns to scale of received economic and social theory does not exist in the knowledge-induced learning space and its model of organic unity of knowledge (Romer, 1986). Yet coexistence is the possibility, unlike the evolutionary process models of Darwinian type of social choice (Myrdal, 1987) and science (Hull, 1988).
Indeed, knowledge for participation and sharing is power. When knowledge-flows continue under this epistemic framework of induced possibilities, the latter artifacts become the bastion of rediscovered resources ad-infinitum. Now the wellbeing function becomes exclusively an objective criterion of learning processes and interactive-integrative-evolutionary (IIE) systems premised on epistemic unity of knowledge.
Therefore, pervasive complementarities are inherent in the systemic interrelations between the variables chosen to describe the wellbeing function. The feedback relations that emanate from the estimation followed by the simulation of the wellbeing function in terms of the interrelations between the variables that are pervasively complementary to each other form a system of circular causation relations.
The system of circular causation relations are used for dual purpose. Firstly, they are estimated by using positivistic data from the \'as is\' state of the sustainability problem under examination. The unity dynamics of being and becoming towards attaining a semblance of social reconstruction of a unified world-system requires coefficients to be simulated into better values to exhibit inter-variable complementarities. This simulated change in the coefficients convey the idea of social reconstruction or social simulation from a positivistic order of \'as is\' reality into a normative aspired transformation for an \'ought-to-be\' better world of sustainability. The latter world-system is gained by unity of knowledge induced in its unity of the problem under study. In such a context, the social political economy takes its meaning of embedding between the synergies of science, society and economy (Choudhury, 2003, 2007). The conformable meanings of systemic globalism and globalization follow. See later.
Social (re-) construction
The empirical and applied part of the theory of unity of knowledge on the issues and problems of the world-system res extensa is established by the estimation followed by simulation of the wellbeing function, subject to the system of circular causation relations.
Schema of social reconstruction out of estimated leading to simulation
For further details see the next section. The meaning of social reconstruction is that of normatively recommending structural change, biodiversity, policy diversity, and program developments for sustaining a coexisting, participatory and endogenously knowledge-induced world-system of possibilities. The result is simulation of social wellbeing towards attaining better states out of the fallen states of marginalism, differentiation and resource paucity that mainstream idea of sustainability otherwise conveys through its constricted models of science, society and economy.
Despite the process-oriented structure of the learning world-system for sustainability, the foundational episteme, theory, dynamics and consequences of our wellbeing simulation subject to circular causation results are opposed to the dialectical process-oriented worldview of mainstream political economy. The dialectical process of the unification dynamics is based on unity of knowledge as the power enabling sustainability. The dialectical process of conflict and power in mainstream science, society and economy studies do not establish a unified world-system. Even the idea of consciousness attained by creative evolution and learning in the framework of unity of knowledge, time and space dimension is opposed to the idea of consciousness and the universe in space-time dimension. The latter form is conveyed by Quantum Physics (Kafatos & Nadeau, 1990), Relativity Physics (Einstein, trans. Lawson, 1960), and political economy (Wallerstein, 1998).
The following figure shows the template of social reconstruction from ‘as- is’ to ‘as-it-ought-to-be’ social state. Further details on the social reconstruction perspective are given in the next section on the construct of the learning-process model of sustainability.
The various characteristics, definitions and explanations of critical terms presented in the preceding sections are now assembled in the following model representation of the learning process of unity of knowledge and the knowledge-induced unified world-system. The precept of unity of knowledge that grounds the entire study of sustainability in its embedded social sense is pervasive in the model shown by expression (2).
Firstly, there is unity at the foundational epistemic origin by way of enunciating the law. This primal stage is denoted by [S{}] {; given the epistemic law, (,S)}. The epistemic law denoted by (,S) defines the conception formed by knowledge-flows that are socially discoursed. Knowledge-flows that set up the conception of the derived worldview are denoted by ordinally assigned {}-values in the discursive forums of science, society and economy embedding. S is the mapping of the epistemic Law into functional discourse, and onwards into material and cognitive concrescence of reality.
The functional ontology f(.) denoting logical formalism unravels extended unity between the knowledge-induced variables pertaining to the problem under study. The knowledge-induced variables are denoted by {x()}. The networked and participative nature of causality between the knowledge-induced variables is denoted by the vector of relations, f(,x()).The bold notations denote vectors.
The limiting value of in the discursive {}-space is the result of yet another unity process of learning, the critical characteristics of the learning process in unity of knowledge. It comprises the total phase of Interaction, Integration coming together and leading up to the point of creative Evolution to establish sustainability by continuity across continuums of systems.
Unity of the knowledge-induced world-system with particularity of the problems under investigation is shown by the evaluation of the wellbeing function W(x()). Unity between the variables and evaluation of systemic unity of the induced world-system under study is sought at any stage of learning by simulating W(x()), subject to circular causation relations between the f(,x()-relations.
Thus the principle of pervasive complementarities between the variables explained by their interrelations in the circular causation system establishes the measured degree of unity between the variables in the problem under investigation. The principle of pervasive complementarities (hence systemic participation) is an empirical representation of unity of the knowledge-induced cognitive phenomena.
Unity is also shown by the recursive nature of coevolutionary learning processes that carry evolutionary epistemology involving (N, xN(N), f(N, xN(N)) across new knowledge-flows and their induced forms subscripted by N. Now there come about expanding organic unity (symbiosis) across systemic continuums and continuity of knowledge, time and space dimension.
The formal model of learning process in unity of knowledge and the knowledge-induced world-system is now formalized in expression (2).
Our interest in this paper being on sustainability as a medium of social reconstruction, we therefore focus our review of the literature on the process modeling of systemic learning. This is a new field of inquiry and properly belongs to the area of systems and cybernetics (Choudhury & Hossain, 2007, 2010). Though we make a brief coverage of a review of the literature in this field, our focus lies on the Gaia concept of process-oriented change leading to sustainability as an embedding concept of participative worldview (Primavesi, op cit).
Along the lines of the Gaia concept of sustainability as embedded participative formalism in science and society, there are the important works of Maturana and Varela (1998), Margulis (1998), Lovelock (1990, 2000). These authors have a unique message regarding the symbiosis of our relational existence that is reflected in their version of the microbiological Gaia. The common message is well-expressed as one of physical and relational coexistence contra bloody competition and marginalizing power of the strong over the weak, as per social Darwinism.
The important note in this theory is paid to microcosms that form the large scale universe of macrocosm. It is in this area that the Gaia shares a distinctive commonness with the learning worldview of epistemic unity of knowledge. But the epistemic worldview we propound in this paper is not constricted by material limitation as exhibited, explained and delimited by the microbiological phenomenon. The micro-organism of knowledge, mind and matter do continue to play important cohesive roles in defining the social political economy as a world-system embedding of the organic interrelations between science, society and economy. This kind of organic unity in diversity of subsystems also conveys the idea of globalism (and globalization) that we will refer to below. The microcosmic order indeed is at the core of the building blocks that rise accumulatively in emergent hubs of interactively integrated and evolved entities.
There is no macrocosmic order as a system separate from the microcosmic one. There is no microcosmic disaggregating of the macrocosmic order into microcosmic entities. There is no lateral addition of the microcosmic subsystems and their variables into a microcosmic totality. There is only a complex aggregation and organization of coordinated forms from the microcosmic level to the macrocosmic level. Everything borrows such a complex systemic and cybernetic meaning of symbiosis, change, freedom and organization resting on the fundamental episteme of unity of knowledge.
At the present time, a gentle flow of papers is appearing in the systems and cybernetic treatment of complementary learning phenomenon. Despite this intellectual advancement in a new field, it is noted that the concept of complementarism is not understood as organic unity of being through the process of becoming in unity of knowledge.
Prigogine (op cit) formulates the idea of cognitive being and becoming in view of the idea of interrelatedness, as in social phenomenon and biological thermodynamics in the following way: Entropy is the inevitable property of change over time. This causes systems of chemical interaction to become highly unstable. Chemical states can be discerned only with probabilistic laws (Boltzmann\'s law of thermodynamics). When applied to the theme of sustainability, which involves biological and ecological processes of change, consideration of entropy is of much interest. According to the probabilistic nature of entropy in the process of change over time, sustainability becomes a phenomenon in entropy. Sustainability is thereby never attained except with a degree of probability attached to the states of perturbations around an equilibrium point. In the broader sense of the term such evolutionary equilibrium characterized by perturbations and increasing entropy describes dissipative states of the thermodynamic world. Likewise, there occur probabilistic states of dissipated sustainability in the natural order system. We can extend this explanation to the social and economic world of perturbations and process (Georgescu-Roegen, 1971).
Yet this is not the conclusion of our paper in which the epistemic origin of unity can lead into probabilistically determined evolutionary equilibriums of perturbation, but still a state of reverse-entropy can be gained (Choudhury et al, 1998). The resulting state of sustainability with knowledge-induction is a heightened state of denseness in equilibrium. Hence points are gravitated towards dense equilibrium points. The distanced points of dissipative energy away from the dense equilibrium points are reduced in number. Consequently, there exists a high probability of attaining sustainability around densely gravitated knowledge-induced equilibriums that are evolutionary in nature. This is the case of reverse entropy in accordance with the model of bifurcations in fields that are gravitated towards the densely equilibrium points.
Yet bifurcations occur profusely in such learning fields by virtue of the diversity of states that occur out of interactions. Examples of such states in political economy are risk and production diversifications leading to resource augmentation, investments and production; and thereby enabling ownership and distribution of resources, income and wealth. Consumption too, following product diversification, becomes diversified. All of the above consequences taken together, though with bifurcation between possibilities of wellbeing, yield effective sustainability by way of systemic embedding.
The model of knowledge-formation by way of Hegelian type dialectics is process-oriented. Carchedi (1991) presents such a model of dialectics in respect of the Marxian concept of money and goods across stages of social transformation. The resulting Money-Commodity-Money model (MCM), on which Heilbroner (1986) expounds his version of a Marxian dialectical model of the monetarist political economy emulates the dialectical dynamics in it. Money now is seen as a process of financial resource accumulation that arises by recycling a quantity of money back and forth between capital accumulation and interest rates creating intertemporal savings.
The learning model of epistemic unity of knowledge also displays dialectical dynamics (Choudhury, 2009b). But the dialectics is premised on the renewal of knowledge-flows and the induced wellbeing of variables of the unified world-system. Money and output, and thereby production, consumption, ownership and distribution are all together symbolic variables that are unified together by recursive causality between them. Consequently, the MCM model explains the evolutionary dynamics of unification by interrelationship between money and the real economy in the wellbeing function that is simulated subject to the circular causation relations in the variables. Now money as an independent and exogenous economic variable loses its meaning.
Sztompka (1991) presents a dialectical model of social evolution in the learning space of the Marxist type. Yet the human consciousness in this model is derived from the premise of rationalism as the episteme. In this regard Sztompka writes (p. 115) : "Our model is certainly \'anthropocentric\'; it is founded on the assumption that the irreducible component of society, its only ultimate ontological substratum, is people. Therefore we cannot but seek the ultimate, primary mover of society in their traits and properties – in brief, in human nature." Consequently, power and conflict become the defining characteristics of the society that Sztompka describes. The case is similar to Carchedi\'s description of Marxist political economy. The normative implication of such a model is that sustainability remains a failed hope. Such a dismay is expressed emphatically by Heilbroner (1991, p. 20 ) in his following words: “Thus to anticipate the conclusions of our inquiry, the answer to whether we can conceive of the future other than as a continuation of the darkness, cruelty, and disorder of the past seems to me to be no; and to the question of whether worse impends, yes.”
In the episteme of unity of knowledge in our paper, the social order is a unified systemic whole. Society is the result of integrative preferences of participating individuals and groups, communities and nations. The integrative preferences arise out of their interactive preferences through the medium of discourse and self-institution-market circular causal interrelationships. Preferences are thereby dynamic, evolutionary and complex in nature, though they are guided into symbiosis by the consciousness of self-organization, institutions, science, society and economy.
In respect of the theme of sustainability and complex aggregation of preferences, Hawley\'s model (op cit) of human ecology stands out as an example. Ecology is explained as a system of organizations inter-relating the human organizational world-system and the environmental world-system. To this I will add the significant place of markets and institutions, ethics and behavior in the ecological convergence process to its well-definition as a human system and a cybernetic field of study. This is also how Johannessen (1998) presents his idea of organizations as social system in search of a system and cybernetic theory of adaptive behavior.
Hawley presents the characteristics of his human ecological model as comprising three significant properties. These properties agree with the procedural aspects of the learning model of epistemic unity of knowledge that we propound in this paper.
Firstly, the adaptation stage is one of recognizing diversity of interactions between the members; likewise participating and complementary entities. These can also be taken as formal representations of states by means of mathematical and statistical variables.
The second stage is Hawley’s maximum stage of adaptation. In the case of the learning-process epistemic worldview this stage is signified by integration in the holistic sense, consensus in the social sense, and equilibrium in the scientific sense. There is no optimum in the learning process of continuous simulation of knowledge and its induced possibilities. Only evolutionary equilibriums exist, like Thurow’s (1996) punctuated equilibriums and Grandmont’s (1989) temporary equilibrium.
Hawley’s third stage of human ecology model is resumption of the first two stages by continued development and burst of new information. Subsequently, the renewed capacity for the movement of material artifacts continues.
Hawley ascribes these three stages as the adaptive, growth, and evolutionary stages. When placed in the framework of knowledge-sharing of the epistemic origin, the learning model is in agreement with Hawley’s. But Hawley’s model is limited to the environmental and social ecological dimensions.
Even with large extant of stochastic variations and uncertainty in the ecological order, either of the biological type -- hence environment and systemic globalism -- or of the type of embedded political economy, hence globalization (Thurow, op cit), the worrisome concern is voiced, as by Maurer (1999, p. 23). On the emergent problem of complexity Maurer writes, “The inability to determine causality ultimately arises from a lack of information about the system being considered”. This problem is then associated with Maurer’s concern with stochastic largeness of the population size, intensive variability caused by inter-member causality, and uncertainty in the behavior of the population membership.
These large-scale complexity problems are resolved in the case of the empirical description of the epistemic learning model -- at least theoretically. The system of circular causation relations based on evolutionary epistemology configures the evolving system in processes. Processes and the empirical evaluation of causality within time-periods depend on the availability of knowledge and its unifying impact on the ecological members. The limits to this kind of evolutionary and overarching systemic configuration are due to the constraints on the availability of systemically generated information along evolutionary processes, lack of appropriate computer-assisted algorithm, and indeterminacy of formalism for the functional ontology of the system, beyond a discursive approach to qualitative modeling of stochasticity.
Globalism is the phenomenology of intensively interactive, integrative and evolutionary domains of all forms of systems spanning conceptual ones and entire human experience. Such is also the idea of system ensemble advanced by Hubner (op cit) in respect of his theory based on a criticism of linear understanding of history and science. Is globalism in its systemic, evolutionary and unifying perspective a semblance of postmodern thought that bases it worldview on non-foundationalism? I raise the modern-postmodern contrasting ideal in reference to the IIE perspective explaining globalism by raising the following question (Choudhury, 1999, p. 3): "What is post-modernity in the context of a changing world order in respect to its economic, social and scientific dimensions? To answer this question one needs to fathom the complexity of interrelationships among human systems. A perspicuous explanation of such a vast web of systemic interrelationships had hitherto remained unexplained in the methodology of modernism. Post-modernity is a response to this modernist incompleteness. It is seen as a methodological questioning of the individualistic worldview of capitalist economic theory underlying modernity by a process-oriented possibility in human experience". Our epistemological explanations in this paper have amply established the direction of post-modernist thought in the framework of the episteme of unity of knowledge and its impact on the unified world-system.
Globalization that is of the capitalist genre is either of the following kinds of interactively aggregated world-system: Either the individual rational preferences, even though of individualized groups, aggregate in the linear way to establish a utilitarian society and economy and the attenuating scientific formalism, or the interactive aggregation of such preferences occur as dialectical evolution of power and hegemony for governance ad-infinitum. The episteme of unity of knowledge is absent for a conscious understanding of a relational world-system. This idea of methodological individualism is pervasive in the globalism of science, society and economy, hence in the capitalist political economy of globalization. In the sciences as well, Herman Weyl (2009, p. 202-203) voices his concern regarding the episteme of unity of knowledge: “Being and Knowing, where should we look for unity? I tried to make clear that the shield of Being is broken beyond repair. …. Only on the side of Knowing there may be unity.”. The dichotomy of being and becoming remains in this kind of scientific thought.
But globalization if conceptualized, established, and pursued by a globally accepted ethical standard (Commission on Global Governance, 1995) need not be a denigrated human experience. The preferences of interacting participants in unifying globalism remain entrenched in complexity. Globalization is now an experience in globalism with a human face. It is expressed by convergence to the commonly determined ethical goals. International discourse and consensus, paradigmatic shift, and awareness to raise consciousness in and of \'everything\' become the determining and sustaining factors of globalization with a human experience (Dunning, 2003). We turn now to one such global experience for the wellbeing of the human race and the ecological entirety spanning intergenerational future.
Copenhagen Summit 2009 is where representatives from 192 nations assembled to conduct UN Climate talks with the objective of achieving a binding document towards saving the planet from climatic problems and the fallouts of climate change. The summit concluded at a document called ‘Copenhagen Accord’ after seeing sharp differences between rich and poor countries, as also differences amongst the highest polluting nations.
What have been portrayed as the positive developments at the summit are fund mobilization from industrialized nations to meet the challenges of climate change for developing countries to the tune of $100 billion by the year 2020. This is expected to cope with adverse climate changes, drought and floods. Also a short-term fund of $30 billion over 3 years by 2012 has been provided for adapting to climate changes and shifting to clean energy. A method of verification of greenhouse gas emission cuts has been agreed upon. Countries are to list actions taken to cut global warming pollutants by specific amounts. A target has been set to limit average temperature increase to below 2 degrees centigrade.
Provisions of Accord | Failures |
$100 billion fund mobilization for developing nations by 2020; $30 billion short term funds over 3 years beginning 2010 for developing nations; adopting a method of verification of green house gas polluter cuts; target set to contain average global temperature rise by 2 degree C; countries to list actions taken to cut carbon emissions; industrialized nations under Kyoto 1997 to face possible sanctions upon failure to meet emission-cut targets; | no binding carbon emission cuts on industrialized nations and big polluters; no trajectory to contain global warming no plan for protection of world’s rain forests; no agenda for containment of large-scale deforestation of Indonesia and Brazil; USA not covered under Kyoto 1997 and hence not under sanction threat for failure to meet emission-cut targets; |
Failures and success of the accord reached at the Copenhagen Summit 2009
The accord though failed to conclude on binding greenhouse gas emission cuts to reach the target of 2 degree centigrade. The agreed upon cuts in July 2009 fall short of avoiding dangerous effects of adverse climate change. Method of verification was the key demand from the USA and was not acceptable to China. Industrialized nations covered under Kyoto Protocol 1997 can face possible sanctions, if failing to meet the emission cuts and the USA is not covered under the Kyoto 1997. No plan has been drafted to protect the world’s rain forests vital for healthy climate. There was no payment for 40 poor tropical countries to protect their woodlands. Non-industrial pollution by way of deforestation for logging, cattle-grazing and crops has made Brazil and Indonesia third and fourth largest carbon emitters after China -- and USA was not highlighted.
Having tabled the salient features of the Copenhagen Summit 2009 in terms of failures and the accord contours, we will now examine the functionality of Consultative Participatory interactive, integrative and evolutionary (IIE) learning process by simulating the Copenhagen Summit of December 7-18, 2009 as Copenhagen Consultative Participatory Summit 2009.
The under-mentioned points form the foundation of the psychological setup of an envisioned Copenhagen Consultative Participatory (IIE) discourse:
Knowledge-building as a learning process is at the core of the IIE-learning process and is conceptualized on a particular pragmatic axiom.
IIE-learning process admits of ‘impossibility of certainty of knowledge’; learning is simulacra of possibilities.
There is absoluteness of the epistemic stock of knowledge, viz., unity of knowledge to form the substance or theme of the Summit.
The vastness of unknown knowledge cannot be fully exhaustible in our worldly learning experience.
The method of optimality is replaced by evolutionary learning form of simulation of values and realistic targets.
Transparency, accountability, judicious responsibility and broad-based development as the standard for conduct of decision-making and decision-taking prevail, or are aimed for.
Realization of unity of knowledge and unity of systems through participatory development, pervasive complementarities, and circular causation organic linkages is the method.
A degree of unity of systems and knowledge as criteria for wellbeing is evaluated.
Ensuring wide representation and broad participation for large interactions and consensus for eventual implementation is institutionally necessary.
The participants of our proposed Copenhagen Consultative Participatory Summit would then work with a consciousness that permeates towards realization of the epistemic organic unity in the systems. The theory of political economy of institutionalism does not underestimate the role of psychology in socio-scientific and economic study. These reckon the intention and attitude of shared participation as a component IIE-process variable.
We argue that the natural systems are interacting with the world-systems, even as the natural systems and the world-systems are interacting among themselves as well. These result in intra- and inter- systemic synergies leading to organic symbiosis. Yet, environmental issues and ecological factors have been rendered exogenous at strategic policy designing for economic growth and development in Copenhagen Summit. In the Consultative Participatory type Copenhagen Summit, the entities representing technology, production, geo-political strategies, and capturing of markets are made to mutually interact.
The proposed Copenhagen Consultative Participation in this paper would have the in-built IIE-learning process. The knowledge-building proposals in such a Copenhagen Consultative Participatory institution would follow the methodological function of the IIE-recursive learning process. At each round of the discourse, the entities would be interacting with the epistemic premise of unity of knowledge. Under repeated recursive discourses on the serious concerns of climate change, the devastating repercussions are addressed in the light of the complaints of the developing countries and the historical faults of developed nations.
At Copenhagen Consultative Participatory body each round of discourse is having a mechanism to recall the episteme of organic unity. The knowledge deduced and the simulated levels of common wellbeing of the participating entities and the corresponding variables in this regard would go through a circular causation knowledge-gaining process.
The interactive, integrative and evolutionary form of learning in unity of knowledge in our proposed Copenhagen Consultative Participatory institutional model is shown in Figure 2.
This paper has broken new grounds on the theme of social reconstruction of globalization by examining the epistemological roots of thought, model conceptualization and application underlying the science, society and economy embedding. The theme of social political economy in this epistemic sense was laid down in a synergistic model of embedding
A representation of the proposed Copenhagen Consultative Participatory Summit 2009
between the interacting, integrative and evolutionary domains of human activities. The substantively new idea of political economy in this social sense was thus established. Such a definition recognizes the traditional one on conflict and power in the ownership, distributional and production of resources. But it extends to the moral and ethical foundation of unity of knowledge and its epistemic influence on the construction of politico-economic issues under study. The theme of globalization was thus placed in the midst of this worldview.
The paper also formulated a non-mathematical textual version of a model of extensive participation. The premise of unity of knowledge and its structural representation in the global world-system involving science, society and economics were thus explained. Such a path towards moral and ethical reconstruction of the social question was considered as the way towards a new social contract under globalization with human face.
The application of the model of unity of knowledge and its discursively driven organic participation to the case of the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change was done. In this way the future model of global political economy with embedded synergy in it was exemplified for political and institutional consideration.
Today, information has become the main component of what we produce, do, buy, and consume. Having an economic value in almost all products and services that meet the needs of today’s societies, it has been now obligatory for individuals and organizations to obtain information technologies and to actively use them in both work and social life domains. Hence, in the current information age, where information is seen as power, this situation has made it imperative for organizations to become increasingly information-based and to benefit from information technologies in many processes and activities.
The intensive use of information technologies in many functions and processes has also required some changes in organizations [1]. This is due to the fact that information technologies, unlike traditional technologies, do not only change the technical fields but also affect the communication channels, decision-making functions and mechanisms, control, etc. [2]. Consequently, one of the most striking developments is on organizational structures that are becoming increasingly flattened and horizontal. Relatedly, information technologies have begun to take over the role of middle management, which supports decision-making processes of senior management and has reduced the importance of this level [3, 4, 5]. Similarly, while information technologies enable managers to obtain faster, more accurate, and more information [6, 7, 8], it also provides lower-level managers with more information about the general situation of the organization, the nature of current problems, and important organizational matters [9, 10, 11, 12].
Moreover, information technologies also have an important potential in determining whether organizations have a mechanical or an organic structure [13]. Within the mechanical organizational structures, people do not have much autonomy, and behaviors expected from employees are being careful and obedience to upper authority and respect for traditions. In such organizations, predictability, consistency, and stability are desirable phenomena. In contrast, people in organic structures have more freedom in shaping and controlling their activities, and being enthusiastic, creative, and taking risks have important places among the desired behaviors [14].
Accordingly, information technologies begin to influence the cultural values of the organization over time, through these transformations they create on organizational structures, processes, and operations. In other words, the fact that organizational structures are mechanical or organic causes the formation of diverse cultural values in organizations [15]. Therefore, the desired cultural values in mechanical organizations are quite different from those in organic structures [1, 16, 17]. In this context, this chapter deals with the influences of information technologies on cultural characteristics of organizations along with the reflections of the use of these technologies on organizational structures and their functioning.
When we look at studies on the relations between organizational culture and information technologies, we generally see the studies on the effects of culture on technology adaptation or use [18, 19, 20, 21], as well as on the effects of certain specific information technologies and applications (e.g., e-mail use, group support practices, etc.) on some aspects of any organizational culture [22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31]. However, the number of studies that consider the use of information technologies as a “whole” and that address “why” and “how” its effects on organizational culture occurred is still limited. And so, this chapter aims to examine and discuss the overall effects of the usage and intensity of information technologies established in organizations on the cultural life within.
In this context, the chapter plan is as follows: Firstly, the basic concepts related to information and information technologies are included. Emphasis is placed on the meaning differences between knowledge and information, and their connections to information technologies are tried to be explained briefly. Secondly, the effects of information technologies on organizational structure are given particular attention. The reason for this is that as a system of values, beliefs, assumptions, and practices [32], organizational culture encompasses many features closely related to structures of organizations. Thirdly, possible links between organizational structure and organizational culture are included. Fourthly, important theoretical approaches and studies on the relationships between information technologies and organizational culture are provided. Finally, by deepening a bit more and by emphasizing key points, some important arguments are discussed.
In the literature, the concepts of information and knowledge are sometimes expressed by a single term, “information.” However, although the concepts of knowledge and information are intertwined, they are two different concepts that have different meanings and describe different phenomena. The reason for this is that knowledge is also included in the concept of information as it is transformed into a commodity when it begins to be processed, stored, and shared by information technologies.
Becoming the basic elements of today’s economic, social, and cultural systems, information is obtained in a certain hierarchy. The images are at the beginning of the process, and the process is completed with a hierarchical staging in the form of data, information, and knowledge, respectively [33]. Image is located in the first step of the process. Humans copy the picture of any object and event they previously perceived by sensory organs. When faced with a similar phenomenon in the later stages of life, these pictures in the mind are redesigned. We call these pictures of realities occurring in the human mind as images [33]. The next stage, the data, contains symbols that represent events and their properties. For this reason, data are expressed as figures and/or facts without content and interpretation [34]. Information that constitutes the next stage of the process and is mixed with knowledge and used interchangeably is expressed as a reporting of one system’s own status to another system [33]. In information, associated data are combined for a specific purpose. Therefore, we can explain information as meaningful data [35]. Knowledge, on the other hand, is defined as personalized information that allows people to fully and accurately grasp what is happening around them and manifests itself in the form of thoughts, insights, intuition, ideas, lessons learned, practices, and experiences [36]. According to Kautz and Thaysen [37] who stated that knowledge is found only in the people’s minds, knowledge is, therefore, a subjective formation. In other words, knowledge is the form of information enriched with interpretation, analysis, and context [38]. However, here, it should be emphasized again by highlighting a very important issue that knowledge is also accepted as information when this knowledge begins to be processed, stored, shared, and used over information technologies. Therefore, after this, when talking about information, one should consider not only the information created by the data brought together in a meaningful way but also the knowledge shared and used over information technologies.
On the other hand, information technologies, used as the most important tool of generating value today, are defined as the technologies that enable processes such as recording and storing data, producing information through certain operational processes, and accessing, storing, and transmitting this produced information effectively and efficiently [39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46]. The term information technologies is used to cover computer and electronic communication technologies, as they are now inseparably intertwined in literature and everyday use and are generally used in this way [47]. In this context, data processing systems, management information systems (MIS), office automation systems, executive support systems, expert systems, intranet and extranet, electronic mail (e-mail), group applications (groupware), database management systems, decision support systems, artificial intelligence, and telecommunication systems can be given as examples of information technologies [33, 48, 49].
Towards the end of the twentieth century, the rapid changes with the impact of developments in information technologies led to the emergence of customer satisfaction-based, learning, knowledge-based, and constantly changing organizations [50]. The fact that organizations have become considerably information-based and benefit from information technologies intensively in their activities and processes has made also the changes in their organizational structures mandatory [1]. Accordingly, the effects of information technologies on organizational structure will be summarized under the subtitles of differentiation, centralization, and standardization/formalization, which are the three main components of organizational structure [15].
Differentiation within an organization occurs in three ways: Specialization/division of labor, horizontal and vertical differentiation, and hierarchy and size [15]. Specialization refers to the amount of different expertise or types of work [51, 52]. Specialization generally increases the number of subunits and makes it harder to understand the larger structure that people contribute to with their skills and expertise [53]. Information technologies have the potential to reduce this tendency by providing more access to information and experts at this point. In this way, access to information resources provides synergy [54].
Vertical and horizontal differentiation refers to the amount of hierarchical levels in an organization [55]. Information technologies, with the support of problem solving and decision-making, lead to the emergence of more flattened organizational structures as they require fewer levels within the hierarchy [56]. Since information technologies give employees in lower positions more autonomy to harmonize their activities, this can allow them to find and try better methods while performing their work. In this context, we can increasingly see that organizational structures have become horizontal and strengthened and that virtual organizations have begun to emerge as the most cost-effective structure [17].
In terms of hierarchy and size, Heinze and Stuart [4] argue that the mid-level management staff is unnecessary, increases bureaucracy, reduces efficiency, and has no function in organizations any more. Since most of the tasks performed by mid-level executives can be fulfilled by computers, both less costly and faster, information technology has begun to take over the role of mid-level management, which supports the decision-making process of senior management [5]. Sharing the same opinion, Fulk and DeSanctis [57] also stated that the largely witnessed situation in modern organizational designs is the reduction of intermediate-level managers and administrative support.
Centralization points to the extent to which decision-making power within an organization is scattered or centered [58]. Due to increasing local and global competition, many companies have started to leave their strategic decision-making task further down the organization to benefit from the expert people with more precise and timely local knowledge [10]. Information technologies affect these efforts directly in two ways. Firstly, information technologies increase local knowledge by contributing to obtaining closer information about market trends, opportunities, and customers. Secondly, information technologies can create synergies for organizations because, thanks to information technologies, communication and coordination between distributed decision makers, central planners, and senior managers can be realized more effectively and efficiently [59].
However, whether information technologies will lead to centralization or decentralization is a very controversial question. Regarding centralization, it enables managers to acquire faster, more accurate, and more information, reduces uncertainty, and allows them to make decisions that they cannot make before [6, 7, 8]. Conversely, by the use of other forms of information technologies (e.g., electronic bulletin boards), decentralization provides more information to lower- and mid-level managers about the general situation of the organization and the nature of current matters and problems [9, 10, 11, 12]. Raymond et al. [60] argued that because information technologies facilitate the use and transmission of information by all levels and units in the organization, it enables top management, which is the decision authority, to be disabled in certain areas and the decentralization of control. Thach and Woodman [61] maintained that this is due to the fact that as a result of sharing information at lower levels with the help of information technologies, this power of senior management has decreased to a certain extent, and the knowledge and participation of the staff in organizational matters have increased.
The literature shows that information technologies allow both centralization and decentralization. Researchers are in the agreement that information technologies make it possible for organizational managers to leave their decision-making power to a large part of the hierarchical levels without compromising the quality and timeliness of the decision [62, 63]. Keen [64] combined the concepts of centralization and decentralization and used the term “federated organization” in which organizations do not have to choose either because information technologies simultaneously allow centralization-decentralization [64, 65].
Formalization is the process of detailing how activities are coordinated for organizational purposes in order for employees and organizational units to respond routinely to recurring situations [51, 66]. Formalization involves rules, instructions, shared values, and norms [67]. In fact, formalization is based on the objective of more efficiency and less uncertainty [13].
Information technologies provide the ability to reduce the negative effects of formalization by facilitating the documenting and retrieving of information on organizational occurrences and endeavors that make behaviors and processes more consistent through formalization [63]. The more information technologies assist in reducing search times and preventing downtime, the more the administrative cost of formalization decreases and the productivity increases, which ultimately benefits the path to innovation [68].
Different organizational structures lead to the development of different cultural values [15]. The fact that the structure which an organization has established to control its activities and is defined as a formal system consisting of duties and authority relations is mechanical or organic causes the emergence of completely different cultural values, rules, and norms [69]. While mechanical structures are vertical, highly centralized, and almost everything in them are standardized, organic structures are horizontal, decentralized, and based on mutual adaptation [14]. People feel relatively less autonomous in vertical and centralized organizations, and being careful, obeying the upper authority, and respecting traditions are among the desired behaviors. Therefore, in a mechanical organizational structure, there are cultural values where predictability and stability are important [69]. In contrast, in horizontal and decentralized organizations, people can freely choose their own activities and control them. Creativity, courage, and risk-taking are given importance as desired behaviors. Therefore, organic structures contribute to the formation of cultures that value innovation and flexibility [15].
Organizational structure is also important for the development of cultural values that support integration and coordination. In a structure with stable task and role relations, sharing of rules and norms is more since there will be no communication problems and the information flow will be fast [70]. In organizations where the sharing of cultural values, norms, and rules is at a high level, the level of performance also increases [15]. Particularly in team or matrix structures where face-to-face communication is intense, the sharing of these cultural values and common reactions to the problems develop more rapidly [9].
Whether an organization is centralized or not causes different cultural values to emerge. In decentralized structures, authority is divided into subordinate levels, and an environment is created for the formation of cultural values in which creativity and innovation are rewarded [13]. Employees are allowed to use the organization’s resources and work in projects that they want, by spending some of their time in these projects, thus contributing to the production of innovative and creative products and services [15]. The structures of such organizations constitute the cultural values that give their employees the message “as long as it is in the interest of the organization, it is okay to do things in an innovative and the way you want.”
Conversely, in some organizations, it may be more important for employees not to decide on their own and all activities to be followed and controlled by their superiors. In such cases, a centralized structure is preferred to create cultural values that will ensure accountability and obedience [71]. Through norms and rules, all employees are expected to behave honestly and consistently and inform their superiors about wrongs or mistakes, because this is the only acceptable form of behavior within these structures [72].
Since working on the factors that determine the consequences of the adoption and use of information technologies, researchers have focused on people’s beliefs, values, assumptions, and codes of conduct. As a result, they have given names to this research field such as “socio-technical systems,” “social system,” “social structure,” and most recently “culture” [73]. For example, Markus and Robey [23] using “social elements” and Barley [26] using “social system” or “social structure” tried to explain this phenomenon. When examined more closely, it is seen that the details that these authors emphasize while depicting the case are the assumptions, beliefs, and values that exist in common among the group members, and this corresponds to the definition of organizational culture.
Research examining the relationships between information technologies and values, beliefs, and norms belonging to a particular group has gone through certain stages and used rich and complex research models to explain the relationships in each of these stages [74]. In the first studies on information technology applications, it has been suggested that information technologies cause changes in various organizational phenomena including structural features and thus have certain effects on organizations [74]. For instance, in some studies on adoption of groupware software, several researchers have used this deterministic approach to describe how groupware use affects communication and collaboration among employees and their productivity [27, 28]. These studies assume that certain results will certainly emerge after the adoption of information technologies, without considering the motives or activities that shape the use of information technologies by managers and employees. Like much more deterministic studies, these authors often assumed that information technologies would have predetermined influences on the adoption of information technologies, regardless of the environment in which information technologies were applied, how they were applied, and the users’ specific behaviors and particular purposes.
The second group of views concerning the relationships between organizational culture and information technologies includes the fact that information technologies are seen as a tool that can be used for any change that managers desire to make in organizational practices [22]. In studies in this approach, researchers believe that there is a wide range of possibilities to identify changes in organizational culture, structure, processes, and performance [22, 75]. Researchers from this tradition presume that with the right choice of information technologies and appropriate system design, managers can achieve whatever goals they desire.
These works were mostly adopted in the 1980s and reflect a perspective that managers think can manipulate organizational culture in the way they want. Often called “management and control,” “a functional or instrumental approach” to organizational culture, this methodology has caused serious debate in the literature [76]. This approach attributes great powers to the management level in this regard, which conflicts with anthropologists’ views that culture cannot be consciously controlled and goes much deeper to understand it [76]. Robey and Azevido [77] also do not accept the rational thought on the assumption that culture can be manipulated directly in this way.
Studies with this rational perspective in the information technology literature assume that managers can use information technologies as a leverage to make changes in the norms of behavior, strategy, structure, and performance among members within the organization. For example, in studies on group support systems (GSS), we find managers’ beliefs that they can use collaborative technologies to create a more cooperative organizational culture. This perspective was not accepted by Karsten [78] and some experimental research on GSS [30, 79]. Organizational necessity is no longer accepted, as it is viewed by information technology researchers as an overly simple approach [23, 80].
Researchers who take another approach suggest that information technologies and organizational culture can interact with each other to produce various results [22, 23]. These results can be in the form of adoption and effective use of information technologies (if there is a harmony between organizational culture and information technologies) or user reluctance, refusal, or sabotage (if no fit). Researchers who have been working on information systems since the 1980s have focused on understanding information technology features and functionality that cause effective or problematic information technology applications and the interaction between users’ values, assumptions, and other elements of organizational culture. In this regard, Romm et al. [81] argued that many forms of information technologies comprise cultural assumptions embedded within themselves and these assumptions may conflict with existing values of a particular organization. The authors argued that these embedded assumptions present information technologies as a “cultural boundary” and that a cultural analysis should be made to predict compliance or incompatibility. The authors in this approach warn managers to think of organizational culture as a binding limitation in information technology applications. In a warning by Pliskin et al. [76], managers are advised not to try to change the culture of the organization. Regarding this issue, Orlikowski [30] cites Lotus Notes (a group software) application at Alpha Corporation, a consultancy company. In this example, this system, which was established by the CEO of the company only with the benefits to be obtained, did not create the expected effects, became unsuccessful, and disappointed due to reasons such as no cultural analysis and inadequate training. Employees responded to the use of Notes with resistance and refrained from using it. The reason for this was that the employees in this organization, which had a competitive culture where information was seen as a power, avoided sharing information with others. As a result, this incompatibility between the collaborative culture that Notes had in itself and the competitive culture of the organization in question had failed this application of information technologies.
In a different approach, it is stated that information technologies and culture are not fixed and they are more flexible in terms of change [23, 75]. Managers in this approach may set specific goals for the use of information technologies, but actual results of the use of information technologies are not deterministic, and results cannot be predicted or controlled even under the best conditions [23]. The effects of information technologies are not deterministic because technology has interpretable flexibility considering that it can have different meanings for different employees. Similar technology can be interpreted in a different way by distinct people, based on certain assumptions, beliefs, and values. Robey and coauthors [24, 25], for instance, showed that it would be an empty attempt for organizational managers to try to intentionally manipulate the effects of these technologies, since there are many ways that diverse employees can configure a particular technology in different social environments.
Gopal and Prasad [31] also achieved similar results in their work on group support system (GSS), claiming that for researchers seeking fixed laws or regulations on how information technologies affect user behaviors, this would be an impossible goal to pursue. Conversely, the results of using information technologies depend on the symbolic meanings that information technologies have for a particular user. This work of Gopal and Prasad [31] expresses similar results with the work of Barley [26] and Robey and Sahay [25]. The authors stated that the symbolic meanings of certain technologies for users affect their perceptions of information technologies and their specific behaviors.
In the light of the above-mentioned approaches, arguments, and important studies in the literature, it will be useful to discuss some important points by deepening a little more and by emphasizing the key features related to the concepts of information, information technologies, and organizational culture.
First, organizational culture is a complex phenomenon that develops and changes in a historical process [32, 82, 83]. Thus, although it might seem like a plain and simple concept, organizational culture includes many subdimensions and processes. When considered as a complex pattern of these interactions of many factors with each other, it is also a difficult process to identify the direct and indirect effects of information technologies on organizational culture within this cluster of relationships and interactions. Moreover, culture is not a phenomenon that changes and develops in a short time and is therefore open to manipulations of managers. On the contrary, from this point of view, it is not possible to easily achieve control over cultural changes, and it is necessary to go much deeper [76]. So, it is not rational to expect that the rapid developments and changes in information technologies will cause changes in cultural characteristics at the same speed. In this sense, it could be inaccurate to seek direct relationships between two phenomena in question, whose rates of change are quite different.
Second, for cultural changes, there must also be changes in the basic assumptions, beliefs, and values on which the culture is built [84]. It would be misleading to expect little or intensive use of information technologies to cause changes in these rooted assumptions. For the desired changes in these basic assumptions, beliefs, and values, it is necessary to design the structure accordingly, to recruit employees who are qualified for the targeted culture, and to set ethical values and property rights to employees in accordance with this culture [15]. In this sense, information technologies may only catalyze the contribution of organizational structure to organizational culture.
Third, there are many and different types of hardware and software that fall under the scope of information technologies. It is not logical to accept all of them as homogeneous technologies in all aspects (with the same functions and features, similar usage areas, standard conditions they are applied, similar intentions, and behaviors of all users), and it can be, therefore, misleading to carry out research under a single “IT” concept from this perspective. The reason for this is that, as stated in the sections above, cultural features of each information technology application or product embedded in it might be different. The interactions between the cultural characteristics of the environment in which information technologies are applied and the unique cultural contents of information technologies may cause different results on the culture of the organization.
Fourth, contrary to what is believed, some of cultural features that we anticipate to support information technology applications and products may be interpreted otherwise by diverse people contingent on different assumptions, beliefs, and values. In fact, Robey et al. [24, 25] showed that managers cannot control the effects of these technologies, since different users can configure a particular technology in numerous ways in different social environments. Also, Gopal and Prasad [31] argued that this would be an impossible achievement for researchers looking for fixed laws or regulations on how information technologies affect user behaviors.
Fifth, information technologies were defined above as technologies that enable processing, storage, and sharing of information. The key concept in this definition is “knowledge-based” information and not the technology itself. Therefore, what makes information technologies essential and important is the information itself. According to the definition of knowledge, the most significant characteristic that differentiates it from information is its being a product of the human mind [37]. Because knowledge is the interpretation of information and expresses the value produced from it, qualifying information technologies as good-bad, useful-useless, and necessary-unnecessary can be a meaningless evaluation. So, the basic thing that creates value-added for organizations is not the technology used but the information itself, which is processed, stored, and shared on this technology. In this context, even if it is the latest, most advanced, and most expensive technology in the world, if the organization does not have a qualified human resource capable of producing knowledge that will create value-added, an appropriate organizational structure and culture that will activate this creative potential, and a management approach, all investments in these technologies will also be wasted.
This chapter has aimed to examine the impacts of information technologies on organizations’ cultures, and for this purpose, a special emphasis is given to the concept of “organizational structure” within the theoretical framework presented above. The most important reason for this is that relevant literature shows that organizational culture and organizational structure are in a very close relationship. Indeed, when the question items in the Denison organizational culture scale [85], which is the most frequently used in the literature, are examined, it is possible to see that most of these items point to many features of organizational structure concerning centralization, formalization, and differentiation dimensions. Therefore, it is a very rational approach to expect that information technologies can have direct and indirect effects on organizational cultures based on the influences of information technologies on structures of organizations. However, it should be underlined that different and controversial approaches and findings in the literature mentioned above on the relations between information technologies and organizational culture generate question marks in the minds as well.
In this regard, it is already quite difficult to draw a clear picture of the impacts of information technologies on cultural characteristics of organizations. The number of studies on the subject in the literature is still very limited. Accordingly, it is necessary to underline the great need for interdisciplinary studies in this field. But still, this study argues that the main factor that determines the actual impact and value of information technologies, which have become an integral part of human life in today’s world, is the information itself rather than technology, and it should be kept in mind that information technologies can only function as a means or tool in this knowledge-based social, economic, and cultural life. In other words, the determinant of the benefits, meaning, and importance of information technologies might be the conditions created by organizational factors such as cultural environment and organizational structure where knowledge is created, developed, and used and human resources have become the most important capital element and source of wealth.
The author declares no conflict of interest.
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\\n\\nIntechOpen is granted the authority to enforce the rights from this Publication Agreement on behalf of the Author and Co-Authors against third parties, for example in cases of plagiarism or copyright infringements. In respect of any such infringement or suspected infringement of the copyright in the Work, IntechOpen shall have absolute discretion in addressing any such infringement that is likely to affect IntechOpen's rights under this Publication Agreement, including issuing and conducting proceedings against the suspected infringer.
\\n\\nIntechOpen has the right to include/use the Author and Co-Authors names and likeness in connection with scientific dissemination, retrieval, archiving, web hosting and promotion and marketing of the Work and has the right to contact the Author and Co-Authors until the Work is publicly available on any platform owned and/or operated by IntechOpen.
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\\n\\nThird Party Rights: A person who is not a party to this Publication Agreement may not enforce any of its provisions under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
\\n\\nEntire Agreement: This Publication Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties in relation to its subject matter. It replaces all prior agreements, draft agreements, arrangements, collateral warranties, collateral contracts, statements, assurances, representations and undertakings of any nature made by, or on behalf of, the parties, whether oral or written, in relation to that subject matter. Each party acknowledges that in entering into this Publication Agreement it has not relied upon any oral or written statements, collateral or other warranties, assurances, representations or undertakings which were made by or on behalf of the other party in relation to the subject matter of this Publication Agreement at any time before its signature (known as the "Pre-Contractual Statements"), other than those which are set out in this Publication Agreement. Each party hereby waives all rights and remedies which might otherwise be available to it in relation to such Pre-Contractual Statements. Nothing in this clause shall exclude or restrict the liability of either party arising out of any fraudulent pre-contract misrepresentation or concealment.
\\n\\nWaiver: No failure or delay by a party to exercise any right or remedy provided under this Publication Agreement or by law shall constitute a waiver of that or any other right or remedy, nor shall it preclude or restrict the further exercise of that or any other right or remedy. No single or partial exercise of such right or remedy shall preclude or restrict the further exercise of that or any other right or remedy.
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\\n\\nNo partnership: Nothing in this Publication Agreement is intended to, or shall be deemed to, establish or create any partnership or joint venture or the relationship of principal and agent or employer and employee between IntechOpen and the Author or any Co-Author, nor authorize any party to make or enter into any commitments for, or on behalf of, any other party.
\\n\\nGoverning law: This Publication Agreement and any dispute or claim, including non-contractual disputes or claims arising out of, or in connection with it, or its subject matter or formation, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales. The parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts to settle any dispute or claim arising out of, or in connection with, this Publication Agreement, including any non-contractual disputes or claims.
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\n\nCORRESPONDING AUTHOR'S GRANT OF RIGHTS
\n\nSubject to the following Article, the Author grants to IntechOpen, during the full term of copyright, and any extensions or renewals of that term, the following:
\n\nThe foregoing licenses shall survive the expiry or termination of this Publication Agreement for any reason.
\n\nThe Author, on his or her own behalf and on behalf of any of the Co-Authors, reserves the following rights in the Work but agrees not to exercise them in such a way as to adversely affect IntechOpen's ability to utilize the full benefit of this Publication Agreement: (i) reprographic rights worldwide, other than those which subsist in the typographical arrangement of the Work as published by IntechOpen; and (ii) public lending rights arising under the Public Lending Right Act 1979, as amended from time to time, and any similar rights arising in any part of the world.
\n\nThe Author, and any Co-Author, confirms that they are, and will remain, a member of any applicable licensing and collecting society and any successor to that body responsible for administering royalties for the reprographic reproduction of copyright works.
\n\nSubject to the license granted above, copyright in the Work and all versions of it created during IntechOpen's editing process, including all published versions, is retained by the Author and any Co-Authors.
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\n\nAll rights granted to IntechOpen in this Article are assignable, sublicensable or otherwise transferrable to third parties without the specific approval of the Author or Co-Authors.
\n\nThe Author, on his/her own behalf and on behalf of the Co-Authors, will not assert any rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to object to derogatory treatment of the Work as a consequence of IntechOpen's changes to the Work arising from the translation of it, corrections and edits for house style, removal of problematic material and other reasonable edits as determined by IntechOpen.
\n\nAUTHOR'S DUTIES
\n\nWhen distributing or re-publishing the Work, the Author agrees to credit the Monograph/Compacts as the source of first publication, as well as IntechOpen. The Author guarantees that Co-Authors will also credit the Monograph/Compacts as the source of first publication, as well as IntechOpen, when they are distributing or re-publishing the Work.
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\n\nAll payments shall be due 30 days from the date of issue of the invoice. The Author or whoever is paying on behalf of the Author and Co-Authors will bear all banking and similar charges incurred.
\n\nThe Author shall obtain in writing all consents necessary for the reproduction of any material in which a third-party right exists, including quotations, photographs and illustrations, in all editions of the Work worldwide for the full term of the above licenses, and shall provide to IntechOpen, at its request, the original copies of such consents for inspection or the photocopies of such consents.
\n\nThe Author shall obtain written informed consent for publication from those who might recognize themselves or be identified by others, for example from case reports or photographs.
\n\nThe Author shall respect confidentiality during and after the termination of this Agreement. The information contained in all correspondence and documents as part of the publishing activity between IntechOpen and the Author and Co-Authors are confidential and are intended only for the recipients. The contents of any communication may not be disclosed publicly and are not intended for unauthorized use or distribution. Any use, disclosure, copying, or distribution is prohibited and may be unlawful.
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\n\nThe Author and Co-Authors confirm and warrant that the Work does not and will not breach any applicable law or the rights of any third party and, specifically, that the Work contains no matter that is defamatory or that infringes any literary or proprietary rights, intellectual property rights, or any rights of privacy.
\n\nThe Author and Co-Authors confirm that: (i) the Work is their original work and is not copied wholly or substantially from any other work or material or any other source; (ii) the Work has not been formally published in any other peer-reviewed journal or in a book or edited collection, and is not under consideration for any such publication; (iii) Authors and any applicable Co-Authors are qualifying persons under section 154 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988; (iv) Authors and any applicable Co-Authors have not assigned, and will not during the term of this Publication Agreement purport to assign, any of the rights granted to IntechOpen under this Publication Agreement; and (v) the rights granted by this Publication Agreement are free from any security interest, option, mortgage, charge or lien.
\n\nThe Author and Co-Authors also confirm and warrant that: (i) he/she has the power to enter into this Publication Agreement on his or her own behalf and on behalf of each Co-Author; and (ii) has the necessary rights and/or title in and to the Work to grant IntechOpen, on behalf of themselves and any Co-Author, the rights and licences in this Publication Agreement. If the Work was prepared jointly by the Author and Co-Authors, the Author confirms that: (i) all Co-Authors agree to the submission, license and publication of the Work on the terms of this Publication Agreement; and (ii) the Author has the authority to enter into this biding Publication Agreement on behalf of each Co-Author. The Author shall: (i) ensure each Co-Author complies with all relevant provisions of this Publication Agreement, including those relating to confidentiality, performance and standards, as if a party to this Publication Agreement; and (ii) remain primarily liable for all acts and/or omissions of each Co-Author.
\n\nThe Author agrees to indemnify IntechOpen harmless against all liabilities, costs, expenses, damages and losses, as well as all reasonable legal costs and expenses suffered or incurred by IntechOpen arising out of, or in connection with, any breach of the agreed confirmations and warranties. This indemnity shall not apply in a situation in which a claim results from IntechOpen's negligence or willful misconduct.
\n\nNothing in this Publication Agreement shall have the effect of excluding or limiting any liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by applicable law.
\n\nTERMINATION
\n\nIntechOpen has the right to terminate this Publication Agreement for quality, program, technical or other reasons with immediate effect, including without limitation (i) if the Author and/or any Co-Author commits a material breach of this Publication Agreement; (ii) if the Author and/or any Co-Author (being a private individual) is the subject of a bankruptcy petition, application or order; or (iii) if the Author and/or any Co-Author (as a corporate entity) commences negotiations with all or any class of its creditors with a view to rescheduling any of its debts, or makes a proposal for, or enters into, any compromise or arrangement with any of its creditors.
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\n\nIntechOpen’s DUTIES AND RIGHTS
\n\nUnless prevented from doing so by events beyond its reasonable control, IntechOpen, at its discretion, agrees to publish the Work attributing it to the Author and Co-Authors.
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\n\nIntechOpen agrees to offer free online access to readers and use reasonable efforts to promote the Publication to relevant audiences.
\n\nIntechOpen is granted the authority to enforce the rights from this Publication Agreement on behalf of the Author and Co-Authors against third parties, for example in cases of plagiarism or copyright infringements. In respect of any such infringement or suspected infringement of the copyright in the Work, IntechOpen shall have absolute discretion in addressing any such infringement that is likely to affect IntechOpen's rights under this Publication Agreement, including issuing and conducting proceedings against the suspected infringer.
\n\nIntechOpen has the right to include/use the Author and Co-Authors names and likeness in connection with scientific dissemination, retrieval, archiving, web hosting and promotion and marketing of the Work and has the right to contact the Author and Co-Authors until the Work is publicly available on any platform owned and/or operated by IntechOpen.
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\n\nThird Party Rights: A person who is not a party to this Publication Agreement may not enforce any of its provisions under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
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\n\nWaiver: No failure or delay by a party to exercise any right or remedy provided under this Publication Agreement or by law shall constitute a waiver of that or any other right or remedy, nor shall it preclude or restrict the further exercise of that or any other right or remedy. No single or partial exercise of such right or remedy shall preclude or restrict the further exercise of that or any other right or remedy.
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\n\nNo partnership: Nothing in this Publication Agreement is intended to, or shall be deemed to, establish or create any partnership or joint venture or the relationship of principal and agent or employer and employee between IntechOpen and the Author or any Co-Author, nor authorize any party to make or enter into any commitments for, or on behalf of, any other party.
\n\nGoverning law: This Publication Agreement and any dispute or claim, including non-contractual disputes or claims arising out of, or in connection with it, or its subject matter or formation, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales. The parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts to settle any dispute or claim arising out of, or in connection with, this Publication Agreement, including any non-contractual disputes or claims.
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