Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to announce the publication on October 11th, 2006 of:
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION
THE ORGANISATIONAL, HUMAN AND KNOWLEDGE DIMENSIONS
Contributing Editor: René Jorna
With a Foreword by John Elkington
October 2006 | 384pp | 234 x 156 mm
Hardback: ISBN 1 874719 99 3 | GBP35.00 USD65.00
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To place an order for this title at a discount of 10%, or to
view/download ‘The Foreword‘ by John Elkington, ‘The Preface‘ and
‘Knowledge creation for sustainable innovation: the KCSI programme‘ by
Rene Jorna
please visit the Greenleaf website at:
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com/catalogue/innovation.htm
You can also request a review copy or inspection copy from this site -
see the home page:
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com
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HOW SUSTAINABLE IS INNOVATION?
Problematically, most contemporary patterns of innovation in human
social systems and organisations are not sustainable. This prevents
people from learning effectively, from recognising and solving their
problems, and from operating in sustainable ways. It is arguably why
societies, businesses and industries around the world are so
unsustainable.
Sustainable innovation is a pattern of social learning and
problem-solving that is, itself, sustainable. The sustainability of
innovation, moreover, is linked to the sustainability of its outcomes,
which manifest themselves in what people produce and do in the world.
Sustainable innovation, then, is a necessary precondition for
sustainability in how societies and organisations function - the ways
they organise, the products and services they make, the energy and
resources they use, and the wastes they produce.
As challenges such as demographic pressures, ethnic tensions,
terrorism, global poverty, pandemics and abrupt climate change force
their way into mainstream politics and business, so we see growing
interest in innovation, entrepreneurial solutions and, critically,
issues such as how to ensure successful solutions replicate and scale.
Sustainable Innovation aims to illustrate that shift. Instead of simply
focusing on environmental and technological matters, it views and
evaluates innovation-for-sustainability in terms of the human, social
and management challenges and responses.
It argues that a just, efficient and sustainable balancing of these
elements is best achieved by the development of new knowledge, and by
the evolution of better means both of embedding that emerging knowledge
in organisations and institutions, and of managing the relevant flows
of information, knowledge and wisdom. The book stresses that claims
that a particular product, production process or service are
sustainable usually assume that an appropriate balance has been
achieved between people, planet and profit. However, calculating the
sustainability of such things, let alone of complex systems such as
enterprises or economies, can be impossible. Instead of
‘sustainability’, the book favours the use of terms such as ‘making
sustainable’, emphasising that in dynamic operating environments
organisational processes are changing constantly, whether or not they
are under effective strategic control by management. Innovation, too,
is dynamic by definition. Sustainable Innovation argues that there must
be a constant focus on the triple bottom line of economic, social and
environmental value creation during the innovation process.
Sustainable innovation is a new challenge for organisations. It is a
process that should permeate the whole organisation, in terms of its
members, its tasks, its coordination mechanisms and its procedures.
Waste or pollution should not be seen as the reason for further
intervention downstream, but as an end-of-the-pipe effect, which could
be organisationally cured upstream. Developed from the Dutch research
programme ‘Knowledge Creation for Sustainable Innovation’, this book
presents empirical research and cases to develop a theory of
sustainable innovation that is based on management of knowledge,
knowledge and cognition and innovation approaches.
Sustainable Innovation suggests that knowledge and innovation will be
the key drivers of social and corporate sustainability in the years
ahead. It will be essential reading for managers and researchers in
areas such as sustainability, innovation, knowledge management and
organisational learning.
Table of Contents
Foreword
John Elkington
Preface
Part A: Sustainable innovation: the organisational, human and knowledge
dimension
1 Knowledge creation for sustainable innovation: the KCSI programme
René J. Jorna
2 Innovation: many-headed and certainly important
René J. Jorna and Jan Waalkens
3 Sustainability: from environment and technology to people and
organisations
René J. Jorna and Niels R. Faber
4 Levels of description, kinds of entities and systems
René Jorna and Henk Hadders
5 Organisation: artefact and principle
René J. Jorna and Laura Maruster
6 Knowledge as a basis for innovation: management and creation
René J. Jorna
Part B: Instruments and models
7 A method for the identification of stakeholders
Janita F.J. Vos and Marjolein C. Achterkamp
8 A cognitive map of sustainability: a method for assessing mental
images
Derk Jan Kiewiet
9 Knowledge systems and reasoning with cases (and rules)
Henk Hadders and René J. Jorna
Part C: The organisational (business) projects
10 Biosoil: sustainable remediation
Else J.M. Boutkan and René J. Jorna
11 KunstStoffenHuis and synthetics innovation within the small business
sector
Cees van Dijk, Koos Zagema and Han van Kasteren
12 Know what you’re blending! a tool for a sustainable paper industry
Niels Faber and Kristian Peters
13 Philips and the long road towards social sustainability
Floortje Smit and Niels R. Faber
14 Knowledge systems for sustainable innovation of starch potato
production: achieving more with less
Niels R. Faber and Rob van Haren
15 Sustainability of knowledge within mental healthcare: knowledge
infrastructure, knowledge management and learning
Henk Hadders and Derk Jan Kiewiet
16 The University Medical Centre Groningen. Sustainable innovation in
postgraduate medical education: a knowledge and learning approach
Marjolein C. Achterkamp and Jan Pols
17 Grontmij: cooperation in the light of sustainability
Janita F.J. Vos and Nico J. Rommes
18 Sociocracy and the sustainability of knowledge: Reekx, ATOL and
Endenburg Elektrotechnics
René J. Jorna and Nico Rommes
Part D: Theory and practice: results from the organisational projects
19 The focus of innovation: what have we established?
René J. Jorna
20 Business (organisational) practices: recurring themes of
sustainability
René J. Jorna
21 Business practice: recurring themes in and around knowledge
René J. Jorna and Henk Hadders
22 Further steps towards a systematic perspective on sustainability
Niels R. Faber, René J. Jorna and Jo van Engelen
23 Assessing and determining social sustainability: an onset and an
attempt
Niels R. Faber, Laura Maruster and René J. Jorna
About the author
René Jorna is full professor in Knowledge Management and Cognition at
the Faculty of Management and Organisation of the University of
Groningen. He studied Analytic Philosophy and Logic (Master in 1981)
and Experimental Psychology (Master in 1982) and did his PhD in 1989 in
Cognitive Science on knowledge representation. His research and
publications address cognition, semiotics, knowledge management,
sustainable innovation, knowledge technology and decision support
systems especially related to planning and scheduling. In 1990 he
published Knowledge Representation and Symbols in the Mind (Tübingen:
Stauffenburg) and in 1994 Semiotic Aspects of Artificial
Intelligence(Berlin: Walter de Gruyter). From 1990 to 1995 he was
manager of a large research project on planning and scheduling
(DISKUS), which resulted in commercial software and five dissertations.
From 2001 until 2004 he was programme manager of the NIDO project on
Sustainable Innovation. In 2006 the book Planning in Intelligent
Systems was published (with van Wezel and Meystel; John Wiley). He
supervises seven PhD projects on sustainable innovation, planning,
scheduling and cognition and social simulation.
*********************************
To place an order for this title at a discount of 10%, or to
view/download ‘The Foreword‘ by John Elkington, ‘The Preface‘ and
‘Knowledge creation for sustainable innovation: the KCSI programme‘ by
Rene Jorna
please visit the Greenleaf website at:
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com/catalogue/innovation.htm
You can also request a review copy or inspection copy from this site -
see the home page:
http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com
*********************************
Alternatively, please contact:
Jayney Bown
Greenleaf Publishing Ltd
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Nursery Street
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UK
+44 (0)114 282 3475 - Telephone
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sales@greenleaf-publishing.com
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