Katarina Larsen

Knowledge network hubs and measures of research impact, science structure, and publication output in nanostructured solar cell research

This study on co-authorship networks in the area of nanostructured solar cells aims to contribute to a further understanding of the use of research evaluation measures of science output, impact and structure in an emerging research field. The study incorporates quantitative bibliometric methods of analysis and social network analysis in combination with a qualitative case study research approach. Conclusions drawn from the results emphasise, firstly, the importance of distinguishing between early and later phases of the evolution of a novel research field, and secondly, the application of a systemic view on learning processes and knowledge diffusion in a science-based technology field.

Public-private innovation: Mediating roles and ICT niches of industrial research institutes

Abstract Innovation processes involve diverse sets of organizations including universities, private firms, corporate research labs and public research institutes. Collaborative forms of knowledge production and innovative activity enable actors to reduce risk, specialize, and take advantage of knowledge internal and external to the own organization. This paper discusses interactions and collaborations between public and private sector innovation. This is done through an analysis of semi-public research institutes in Sweden and their roles as arenas for R&D processes involving industry, university and government in terms of funding, research and public—private innovation. Particular attention is paid to technological niches of research institutes and utilization of research findings from collaborative R&D. The results show that institutes occupy specific niches which influence their ways of transferring knowledge. It is argued that diversity among R&D performers as well as funding opportunities is paramount for innovation systems to thrive.

Technological innovation and transformation perspectives in environmental futures studies for transport and mobility

Futures studies such as technology foresight and backcasting are concerned with changes in society and technological transformation in a long-term perspective, but are also recognising the importan ...

Science and Technology Parks and the Integration of Environmental Policy

Summary This paper addresses processes of integration of environmental policy in science and technology parks (S&T parks). Drivers for environmental policy integration in two S&T park districts are explored in the framework of environmental policy opportunities, i.e. what opportunities of environmental policy integration that arise given characteristic features of the parks, such as spatial proximity, stakeholder interaction, and the park’s role in regional innovation policy. The study focuses on ICT-companies and the environmental policy opportunities arising from vertical and horizontal interaction in the park context. Rather than assuming interaction by virtue of geographic proximity, the study shows that knowledge exchange on environmental aspects to some extent is localised within the park by exchange of best practices among individual firms as well by guidelines implemented at a park level. However, drivers promoting environmental management in ICT-companies are identified both at the firm level as well as in environmental regulation and customer demands.

Introduction to Special Issue on Environmental Themes in Popular Narratives

Over the past decade, environmental themes, such as climate change and loss of biodiversity, have occupied significant space in narratives that circulate through legacy media as well as other popular channels such as online and mobile platforms, museums, films and literature. Environmental issues are de facto entangled with the politics and discourses of globalization, and such narratives are increasingly networked, connected and homogenized, multiplied and diversified. Popular narratives constitute powerful tools that shape the sociocultural context of environmental change, influence policymaking and inform public understanding to considerable degrees. Narratives portraying future scenarios and environmental transformations are used and remediated through a multitude of popular communication venues. This special collection of articles explores various constructions of the environment and environmental change mediated through virtual sites and thematic constructions in different popular venues, providing an account of how we imagine and reproduce ideas of the environment. We take popular communication here to include the entire “grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of everyday life” (Burkart & Christensen, 2013, p. 3) expressed in literature, media, film, social movements and other performances and speech acts. Several cross-cutting lenses are instrumental in seeking to grasp the complexities of how environmental themes travel through popular sites. A space-specific approach can help reveal the significance of space in considering environmental imaginaries. The actual and virtual sites and locales (e.g. museums, electronic media space, literature, film, music, archives, etc.) where narrative interventions materialize constitute spaces of narrativity. Narrated space (such as “the ocean” in a broad, and “the Arctic” or “the Ozone layer” in specific senses) signifies the site of environmental transformation. In the case of cinema, for example, this “territorial ontology that underlies the world of any film” (Ivakhev, 2013) emerges as a result of complex, multi-actor production choices and the viewers’ own implicit understandings and perception, while appearing as “given”. Due to both the networked nature of planetary scales (e.g. the Great Barrier Reef and the Arctic both being local/ized sites of global significance and human and non-human flows) and transmedial flows in today’s convergent media landscapes, a scalar conception that emphasizes the notion of scalar transcendence (Christensen, 2013) helps to further think of the actual-virtual sites and (re)mediated reach of environmental narratives and framings. The contributions to this special collection explore different narrative spaces and scales in popular science writing, zombie fiction, popular music, social media, and news media.

Co-authorship Networks in Development of Solar Cell Technology: International and Regional Knowledge Interaction

This paper examines the development of new science-based technology in the research area of nanostructured solar cells development – a science-based technology with potential for advancing renewable energy technology. As for other research areas, the production of new scientific knowledge in this particular field is not evenly spread across all geographic regions. Rather, scientific knowledge production and science-based innovation activities take place in regional nodes that often are located in metropolitan areas with a strong academic research ability and competitive private research and development. Another character of scientific knowledge production undertaken at universities is that one node (or location) of knowledge production within a certain field is connected to other locations through joint research initiatives, collaboration on technical development and mobility of researchers. In areas where advances in science-based technology are published in scientific journals, this interaction and exchange of knowledge can be analyzed through studies of the researchers’ joint publications. These two aspects (concentration of scientific knowledge production and knowledge networks between locations) motivate a regional dimension in studies of science-based technology and innovation. The focus on the regional context also incorporates the notion of cross-regional knowledge networks and mechanisms of knowledge transfer. The regional dimension is also in the core of studies in the area of geography of innovation, following the early work on geographically mediated knowledge spillovers (Jaffe 1989; Acs et al. 1991). Studies of knowledge networks have also examined the effects of knowledge spillovers in science-based technology fields (Owen-Smith and Powell 2004). This paper focuses on examining the mechanisms by which science-based technical knowledge is transferred and applies a regional lens to measures of scientific output, impact and structure. This leads to the following three components of the introduction. First, discussing some central aspects in previous work in studies of knowledge spillovers, then drawing on experiences from studies of science-based knowledge networks, and finally, outlining the scope of the study.

A survey of requirements and needs in the field of environmental technology, with special emphasis on environmental employment, in Sweden.

This paper presents the main results of a research project looking at trends on environmental technology and environmental employment in Sweden. Entitled “FEESE” (Fostering Employment in the Environment Sector in Europe), the project analysed provisions and needs in respect of environmental training among a sample of Swedish companies, which are outlined in this paper. Some recommendations which may be useful to Sweden, but which are also applicable to other industrialised countries, are also presented.

Sustainable Communications and Innovation: Different Types of Effects from Collaborative Research Including University and Companies in the ICT-Sector

This paper presents experiences from the Centre for Sustainable Communications (CESC) located at KTH – The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Since 2007, the centre has carried out research in collaboration with private firms in the information and communication technology (ICT) and media sectors as well as with public sector organizations in the city of Stockholm. The aim is to share experiences from how the partners of the centre describe benefits and effects from collaborative research. Since the centre is focusing on use of ICT and media technology, rather than technology development per se, this provides an account of a wide range of effects from university-industry collaborations and new insights into the innovation processes targeting sustainability in the ICT and media sectors. This is an important perspective of sustainable and responsible innovation that is not captured in traditional innovation surveys (counting the number of new products or patents). Areas examined here include: increased knowledge and competence, new contacts and networks, publications, methods and new technology as well as changes in business operations and behaviour targeting sustainable solutions. The results also confirm firm-level business value as a driver for sustainability and provide experiences from involving users in the quest for sustainable and responsible innovation.

Retooling Engineering for Social Justice: The use of explicit models for analytical thinking, critical reflection, and peer-review in Swedish engineering education

The present scenario in design of electrical/electronic component is getting more compact sizes, which results in heat generation. This excessive heat generation will reduced the life of component. To overcome this problem there is a need of effective cooling system. Extended surface heat sink is popularly used heat sink technique. To improve efficiency of it there is number of conventional methods available but only few methods such as changing the shape of the baffle cross section, changing the arrangement of the baffles and its inclination with walls and using high conductivity metallic foam (aluminum foam) material has got good result individually. Metallic foam baffles are enhancing the heat transfer rate as compare to the solid baffle. Pressure drop across the channel is less if comparing with solid one. The turbulence occurred due to porosity is good enough to increase the rate of heat transfer. This article is based on comprehensive review of work carried out in this technology.