Thinking, talking, doing: integrated research and the professionalisation of sciencesociety connecti - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 21
About This Presentation
Title:

Thinking, talking, doing: integrated research and the professionalisation of sciencesociety connecti

Description:

... social factors; and across the spectrum from knowledge generation to its ... Political engagement. Academic change. Orientation to the future. Strategic thinking ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:42
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 22
Provided by: doi66
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Thinking, talking, doing: integrated research and the professionalisation of sciencesociety connecti


1
Research Topics in Sustainable Development
Seminar Center for International
Development Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University October 27, 2003
  • Thinking, talking, doing integrated research
    and the professionalisation of science-society
    connections
  • Lorrae van Kerkhoff
  • National Centre for Epidemiology and Population
    Health

2
Summary
  • Background snapshots
  • Overview of case studies
  • Overview of findings
  • Professionalisation speculations on where were
    heading

3
Integrated research is??
  • Agenda 21 (UNCED, 1992)We need to be
    Supporting new scientific research programmes
    to complement and encourage synergies between
    traditional and conventional scientific knowledge
    and practices and strengthening interdisciplinary
    research related to environmental degradation and
    rehabilitation
  • UNESCO (1999) the relationship between
    scientific research and practical benefits is
    much more diverse and complex today than in the
    past, and frequently involves many players other
    than researchers. The progress of science must
    be defended through its relevance and
    effectiveness in addressing the needs and
    expectations of our societies.

4
Integrated research is??
  • Kinzig et al. (2001)
  • Interdisciplinary research will represent one of
    the frontiers of scientific inquiry in the 21st
    century, as scientists elucidate the dynamics of
    complex interdependent social and natural
    systems. A fundamentally new level of
    integration in research across disparate fields
    is required.
  • Board on Sustainable Development, NRC
    (2000)Sustainability science will therefore have
    to be above all else integrative sciencescience
    committed to bridging barriers that separate
    traditional modes of inquiry. It will need to
    integrate across styles of knowledge creation,
    bridging the gulf that separates the detached
    practice of scholarship from the engaged practice
    of engineering and management.

5
Integrated research is??
  • Land and Water Australia, 2001
  • A perennial challenge for most agencies in
    natural resource management is that of
    integration across issues and programs across
    different scales of activity across different
    jurisdictions across ecological, economic and
    social factors and across the spectrum from
    knowledge generation to its transformation and
    utilisation.
  • Chief Scientists Report, 2000
  • Integrating the innovation system across all
    points can increase the chance of generating more
    products and processes that enhance our
    lifestyle. The innovation system is dependent on
    strong links between all players, government,
    industry and research performers.

6
Integrated research is??
  • Within and beyond science
  • Interdisciplinary, inter-organizational
  • Cross-institutional
  • Supply- and demand-driven
  • Science that is relevant and useful
  • (and well funded)
  • Policy and action well informed by science

7
Beyond inspiration
  • How do practitioners think / talk about
    integration?
  • Theoretical perspectives tend to focus on
    barriers and boundaries
  • How do they conceptualise the detail?
  • How do the concepts compare to actual practice?
  • Where are they useful? Not useful?
  • What else is going on?
  • What can we learn?

8
The case studies
  • Two cases Cooperative Research Centres
  • CRC for Coastal Zone, Estuary and Waterway
    Management
  • CRC for Greenhouse Accounting
  • Mandate to integrate
  • Among researchers
  • With stakeholders
  • Different policy contexts
  • Local regional
  • National international

Participants should form collaborative
relationships within an integrated research
program. Participants should not divide the
research program into discrete projects that are
carried out solely by individual participants,
pursuing their own separate objectives. (CRC
Program, 1999).
The degree to which key user groups, including
industry, have been integrated into the CRC as
core participants (CRC Program, 2001)
9
Talk of integrated research
  • Talk of concepts technical
  • Interdisciplinarity
  • Models
  • Processes
  • Talk of practice social
  • Negotiation
  • Teamwork
  • Identity

10
Reconciliation in practice
  • Commitment to action
  • On the ground
  • Political engagement
  • Academic change
  • Orientation to the future
  • Strategic thinking
  • Opportunities
  • Processes

11
(Conceptual) tools of the trade
  • Action contexts
  • Different ways of influencing action / effecting
    change
  • Trajectories
  • Distinguished by basic orientations (Whats
    certain? important?)
  • Multi-layered
  • Permeable, allows for interweaving

12
(Conceptual) tools of the trade
  • Action and trajectories zones of change

Zone of change 1
Trajectory 1
Shared zone of change
Trajectory 2
Zone of change 2
Time
13
(Conceptual) tools of the trade
  • 4 dimensions of science
  • Individual creativity
  • Collegial peer review
  • Role in society
  • Role in social change

14
Science and action
  • Four steps
  • Mapping the terrain scientific skills
    policy arenas
  • Assessing context negotiable? not
    negotiable?
  • Positioning research negotiated strategic
  • Research design and conduct

15
Designing and doing research
  • Ethos
  • Greenhouse CRC to provide research outputs for
    greenhouse emissions accounting at the national
    and project level.
  • Coastal CRC to bridge the gaps between science,
    the community and policy making organisations.

16
A process
Identify scientific skills
Identify relatedaction arenas
Can scientific and action interests be negotiated?
Strategic positioning Account for policy
circumstances
Negotiated positioning Negotiate complementary
research
no
yes
Design and conduct relevant research programs and
projects conventional, participatory,
interdisciplinary, etc.
17
Professionalisation
  • An analogous case strategic planning
  • Shift from intuitive to formalised approaches
  • Coordination, control, rationality in dealing
    with turbulent conditions
  • Orientation towards external environment and
    partners
  • Engaging with the future

18
Risks of codifying
  • Mintzberg (1990)
  • Commitment
  • (In-) flexibility
  • Conservatism
  • Defines and reinforces categories,
  • Incremental change
  • Mechanistic, linear
  • Self-reflection ? self-justification?

19
The rain or the dance?
  • Quinn (1980) cited in Mintzberg (1990)
  • A good deal of the corporate planning I have
    observed is like a ritual rain dance it has no
    effect on the weather that follows, but those who
    engage in it think it does. Moreover, it seems to
    me that much of the advice and instruction
    related to corporate planning is directed at
    improving the dancing, not the weather.

20
What kind of change is this?
  • Shift in emphasis
  • Incremental
  • Compatible with prevailing scientific practice
  • Focus on skill-building
  • Shift in values
  • Profound
  • Significant break from tradition
  • Focus on challenging the system
  • Which strategy should we adopt?

21
The process
Identify scientific skills
Identify relatedaction arenas
Can scientific and action interests be negotiated?
Strategic positioning Account for policy
circumstances
Negotiated positioning Negotiate complementary
research
no
yes
Values?
Design and conduct relevant research programs and
projects conventional, participatory,
interdisciplinary, etc.
Incremental?
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com