Ecotones: The complex transitional zones of service (eco) systems
Date
2018
Authors
Simmonds, Hamish
Gazley, Aaron
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Naples Forum on Service
Abstract
Purpose – This paper introduces ecotones to the service (eco) system literature as a conceptual extension to the ecosystem framework, arguing that the boundaries and the relations between complex systems hold particular explicatory value as complex zones of stability and change. We further utilise the remarkable properties of ecosystems to address the complexity found in the intersections of multiple service systems and the actors who inhabit them.
Design/Methodology/approach – This conceptual paper lays out the ecotone concept before reconciling its explanatory and conceptual linkages with complex systems and recent developments in institutional and field theories and the service (eco) system concept to explore the relations between linked service (eco) systems.
Findings – The open and fluid nature of complex systems means boundaries do not separate but intimately connect systems with their environment, meaning the nature and complexity of a system is necessarily influenced by its relationships and interaction with other complex systems. Ecotones provide a useful concept as they represent the zones of transition between adjacent systems. These transitional areas support comparatively large amounts of diversity, resources and activity, creating emergent phenomena, while supporting the inhabitants (actors) of the overlapping systems and commonly inhabitants that are characteristic of and often restricted to the ecotone. Ecotones can be understood through the effects they have on their constituting systems, the feedback effects they generate, their mediation of resource flows between systems and their constituting roles in helping define the structure of systems.
We utilise the ecotone concept from natural ecosystems to build a conception of the service ecotone as complex interactional and transitional zones formed by intersections of informational, relational, technological and institutional boundaries. These intersections serve as dynamic spaces of complexity created by tensions and diversities in roles, resources and practices between resource integrating actors and value creating systems. We argue that by synthesizing the functions and dynamics of the ecotone concept we can contribute to the recent focus on institutional complexity, the limited understanding of the relations and interactions between institutional fields and different types of ecosystems and address the interactions and roles of actors within these transition zones.
Originality/value – We introduce the ecotone concept and integrate it with emerging literature influencing service theory and the general ‘zooming out’ of social-economic activity. This paper suggests service ecotones provide a conceptual tool for understanding the complex interplay between different systems that affect their emergence, composition, stability, and co-evolution. Thus, ecotones suggest new avenues for understanding the diversity and roles of actors, and how new structural properties, resources and practices come to be through the tensions, interactions and flows facilitated in these complex zones of intersection linking complex systems.
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Type
Conference paper
Book Title
Service Dominant Logic, Network and Systems Theory and Service Science: Integrating three Perspectives for a New Service Agenda
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Free Access via publisher website
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Restricted until
2099-12-31
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