scholarly journals Collaboration, creativity, conflict and chaos: doing interdisciplinary sustainability research

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1711-1721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose Cairns ◽  
Sabine Hielscher ◽  
Ann Light
Keyword(s):  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
Sustainability Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The University

Abstract How do the social dynamics within interdisciplinary research teams shape sustainability research? This paper presents a case study of interdisciplinary research projects at the University of Sussex, as part of a programme aimed at encouraging collaborative work to address intersections between the Sustainability Development Goals. Using data gathered during a series of participatory workshops at the start and end of the projects, combined with non-participant observation and analysis of project discussions during the lifetime of the projects, we examine the diverse ways in which research teams configure themselves to navigate the terrain of interdisciplinary sustainability research and the kinds of social and discursive dynamics that shape projects. In particular, we relate the emergence of distinct project team configurations to diverse problem framings, and aspirations for collaboration within these teams. We examine some of the challenges facing researchers attempting to work in these ways, and explore implications of these dynamics for knowledge production for sustainability. We conclude by drawing out and addressing some of the challenges for institutions funding and supporting interdisciplinary sustainability research.

scholarly journals Extending Geodemographics Using Data Primitives: A Review and a Methodological Proposal

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 386
Author(s):  
Jennie Gray ◽  
Lisa Buckner ◽  
Alexis Comber
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Feature Space ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Multiple Time ◽  
Current State ◽  
Cluster Label ◽  
Static Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
Using Data

This paper reviews geodemographic classifications and developments in contemporary classifications. It develops a critique of current approaches and identifiea a number of key limitations. These include the problems associated with the geodemographic cluster label (few cluster members are typical or have the same properties as the cluster centre) and the failure of the static label to describe anything about the underlying neighbourhood processes and dynamics. To address these limitations, this paper proposed a data primitives approach. Data primitives are the fundamental dimensions or measurements that capture the processes of interest. They can be used to describe the current state of an area in a multivariate feature space, and states can be compared over multiple time periods for which data are available, through for example a change vector approach. In this way, emergent social processes, which may be too weak to result in a change in a cluster label, but are nonetheless important signals, can be captured. As states are updated (for example, as new data become available), inferences about different social processes can be made, as well as classification updates if required. State changes can also be used to determine neighbourhood trajectories and to predict or infer future states. A list of data primitives was suggested from a review of the mechanisms driving a number of neighbourhood-level social processes, with the aim of improving the wider understanding of the interaction of complex neighbourhood processes and their effects. A small case study was provided to illustrate the approach. In this way, the methods outlined in this paper suggest a more nuanced approach to geodemographic research, away from a focus on classifications and static data, towards approaches that capture the social dynamics experienced by neighbourhoods.

scholarly journals Internally Incentivized Interdisciplinarity: Organizational Restructuring of Research and Emerging Tensions

Minerva ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikko Salmela ◽  
Miles MacLeod ◽  
Johan Munck af Rosenschöld
Keyword(s):  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Scientific Output ◽  
Green Technology ◽  
Academic Careers ◽  
Organizational Restructuring ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The University ◽  
Internal Funding

AbstractInterdisciplinarity is widely considered necessary to solving many contemporary problems, and new funding structures and instruments have been created to encourage interdisciplinary research at universities. In this article, we study a small technical university specializing in green technology which implemented a strategy aimed at promoting and developing interdisciplinary collaboration. It did so by reallocating its internal research funds for at least five years to “research platforms” that required researchers from at least two of the three schools within the university to participate. Using data from semi-structured interviews from researchers in three of these platforms, we identify specific tensions that the strategy has generated in this case: (1) in the allocation of platform resources, (2) in the division of labor and disciplinary relations, (3) in choices over scientific output and academic careers. We further show how the particular platform format exacerbates the identified tensions in our case. We suggest that certain features of the current platform policy incentivize shallow interdisciplinary interactions, highlighting potential limits on the value of attempting to push for interdisciplinarity through internal funding.

Social Norms and the Relationship Between Cigarette Use and Religiosity Among Adolescents in the United States

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Gryczynski ◽  
Brian W. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Reference Group ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Association ◽  
Protective Effects ◽  
Cigarette Use ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
The Social ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Social Learning Processes

This study investigated the social dynamics that underlie the negative association between religiosity and cigarette use among U.S. adolescents. Using data from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the authors used a theory-based conceptual model (vicarious learning networks [VLN]) to examine the role that key reference group norms play in the religiosity—smoking relationship. This relationship is partially mediated by parents’ and close friends’ perceived disapproval for smoking. However, religiosity maintains a strong negative association with smoking. Consistent with the VLN model, cigarette use varied substantively based on reference group normative configurations. To the extent that the protective effects of religiosity arise from its influence in structuring the social milieu, some of religiosity’s benefits could potentially be leveraged through interventions that promote healthy norms among reference groups within the social network. The VLN model may be a useful tool for conceptualizing the transmission of health behavior through social learning processes.

The Nightly Round: Space, Social Capital, and Urban Black Nightlife

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Anthony Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Spatial Mobility ◽  
The Social ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Spatial Isolation ◽  
Urban Blacks ◽  
Black Lesbians ◽  
Using Data

Using data generated from participant observation and semistructured interviews, I consider the ways in which nightlife, or what might be imagined as the nightly round—a process encompassing the social interactions, behaviors, and actions involved in going to, being in, and leaving the club—is used to mitigate the effects of social and spatial isolation, complementing the accomplishment of the daily round. Through an analysis of the social world of the Spot, I argue that understanding the ways in which urban blacks use space in the nightclub to mediate racial segregation, sexual segregation, and limited social capital expands our current understanding of the spatial mobility of urban blacks as well as the important role of extra–neighborhood spaces in such processes. Further, I highlight the ways that urban blacks use space in the nightclub to leverage socioeconomic opportunities and enhance social networks. While I found that black heterosexual and lesbian and gay patrons used space in similar ways at the Spot, black lesbians and gays were more likely to use the club as a space to develop ties of social support.

scholarly journals Analysis of Implementation of Elementary School Teachers Competence in Sungai Raya

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Maha Lastasabuju Basafpipana Habaridota
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Elementary School Teachers ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Professional Competencies ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Public Elementary School ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collection Data ◽  
Using Data

This study aims to determine the analysis of the implementation of the competence of public elementary school teachers in Sungai Raya subdistrict, Kubu Regency. The study was conducted in Sungai Raya Subdistrict with 29 elementary school teachers. Data collected are pedagogical, personal, social, and professional competencies using data collection tools in the form of interview sheets, non-participant observation sheets, and documentation. Data analysis uses a checklist matrix technique with several stages, namely: data collection, data reduction, data display, drawing conclusions. The results showed that: First, the implementation of pedagogical competencies by public elementary school teachers in Sungai Raya Subdistrict, Kubu Raya District, was interpreted that the teacher's ability to educate reached an average of 3.37 with a good category. Second, the personality competency of public elementary school teachers in Sungai Raya Subdistrict, Kubu Raya Regency, averaged 3.30 in the good category. Third, the social competency of public elementary school teachers in Sungai Raya District is an average of 3.37 with a good category. The four professional competencies of public elementary school teachers in Sungai Raya District reach an average of 3.30 in the good category. The results of this study, it is suggested to be a reference for similar research related to teacher competencies, which should be part of the teacher to dedicate himself to serve especially elementary school teachers in Sungai Raya District Kubu Raya District.

scholarly journals Se nos ha ido, como el rayo, Luz Marina.

2021 ◽  
pp. 353-358
Author(s):  
Antonio García García ◽  
Juan Francisco Ojeda Rivera ◽  
Francisco José Torres Gutiérrez
Keyword(s):  
Urban Geography ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The University ◽  
The City

Luz Marina García Herrera, professor at the University of La Laguna, colleague, teacher and friend, passed away in June 2020. A reference in Spanish Urban Geography, her contribution to the debate on the shaping of the city and the social dynamics inherent to it has opened up timely and necessary lines of work. She anchors her background in the interpretation of urban social processes under capitalism, focusing on key issues such as marginal developments, gentrification mechanisms or different facets of urban segregation. In addition she also approaches other issues in which we have been able to share time and space with her. Among them the constant and changing conditioning between physical and social environments in the city and consequences, or the reading of public spaces, their use and appropriation keys, as an indicator of cohesion as well as an instrument for the transformation of specific realities. All of this, and even more his commitment and his profound humanity, which we are proud to have learned from, motivate these lines.

scholarly journals Repensando la enseñanza de la sustentabilidad.

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-70
Author(s):  
Martha Virginia Gonzalez Medina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Social Commitment ◽  
Joint Actions ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Type ◽  
Interpersonal Barriers ◽  
The University ◽  
Do So

The social commitment to educate and teach under the approach of sustainability requires a change: to stop reducing Nature to a simple commodity and what changes, strategies and resources to use to train future professionals under a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and critical approach . The University of Guadalajara faces a great challenge, as an institution it must assume commitments and joint actions as an institution of higher education to train a new type of professionals; carry out modifications in all the study plans of the different careers; train their professors, which implies facing institutional and interpersonal barriers relying on collaborative work with other universities, companies, government and NGOs under a social commitment. Although the need for these changes is recognized and it is desired to do so, it is necessary to design the course of action to carry them out.

Overcoming linguistic barriers in Portuguese higher education: The case of international African students

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 189-214
Author(s):  
Ana Raquel Matias ◽  
Paulo Feytor Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Host Community ◽  
African Countries ◽  
African Students ◽  
Linguistic Barriers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Portuguese Higher Education ◽  
The University

This article reflects about the contextual and theoretical assumptions of the project ‘Trovoada de Ideias: Linguistic and social inclusion of students from Portuguese-speaking African countries in Portuguese higher education’, an ongoing action research on Portuguese academic language teaching involving students who speak different varieties of Portuguese. By adopting a multidimensional inclusion approach (simultaneously linguistic, cultural and social), the ultimate aim is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the factors of (in)comprehension between students fluent in different norms of Portuguese and the university host community in Portugal, and consequently, building a frame for improving higher education institutions responses to multicultural challenges implied in the social dynamics of language variation.

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