scholarly journals Realising potentials for arts-based sustainability science

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Heras ◽  
Diego Galafassi ◽  
Elisa Oteros-Rozas ◽  
Federica Ravera ◽  
Luis Berraquero-Díaz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Arts Based Research ◽  
Hybrid Approaches ◽  
Plastic Arts ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Sustainability Research ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Literary Narrative

AbstractIn recent years, a profusion of methods, practices, and experiences has emerged in the interface between arts and sustainability science. Drawing from two strong currents within sustainability science, namely, the emphasis on transdisciplinary approaches and the need to move towards societal transformations, such hybrid approaches seemingly contribute with unique methods to sustainability research. Despite repeated claims from sustainability scientists about art’s role in sustainability transformations, joint analyses with artists and practitioners are still rare. We conveyed a collaborative and exploratory workshop with scientists, artists, and practitioners from the fields of education, public engagement, and activism to identify the potentials for arts-based sustainability research. Participants were invited to facilitate and trial various artistic practices from disciplines of performative, literary, narrative, audio-visual and plastic arts. In this paper, we present five key areas identified in the workshop, where arts-based methods can significantly contribute to sustainability research: embracing more-than-cognitive aspects of knowledge, improving communication, grappling with power dynamics, shifting relationships to nature, and facilitating futures visioning. Workshop participants also identified challenges related to power dynamics, tensions across paradigms, and implementation conditions, providing insights into how to leverage arts’ potential to respond to global environmental challenges while boosting societal transformations. We then discuss research questions identified that address challenges and limitations for arts-based research in sustainability. Overall, these results suggest there are yet untapped resources and experiences within the field of arts-based sustainability science. (Audio-visual abstract available on S1)

scholarly journals Tracing power in transdisciplinary sustainability research: an exploration

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Livia Fritz ◽  
Franziska Meinherz
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Process Design ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Societal Change ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
Sustainability Research ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Meta Analyses

Power is involved when researchers and practitioners work together in transdisciplinary sustainability research. Among other things, this has implications regarding who gets to decide which research questions are dealt with and which partners are involved, and may impede or foster joint knowledge production.We propose empirical questions that allow for the power dynamics to be rendered visible, thus providing a first step towards tackling them.While transdisciplinary (TD) sustainability research is closely tied to ideas of societal change, critical enquiries into power dynamics both within and stemming from these practices have been scant. In this article, we operationalise theories of power for an exploration of the multiple ways in which power relations pervade interactions between researchers and practitioners in these knowledge production processes. By combining theories of power over, power to and power with, we propose a set of empirical questions to systematically study both productive and repressive forms of power. Using empirical examples, we illustrate how the proposed approach makes it possible to trace power throughout TD processes: in 1. developing the project and framing the research problem, 2. co-producing knowledge, and 3. bringing results to fruition. The power perspective proposed here can guide the thinking of those actors involved in TD processes as well as meta-analyses by third parties. An enhanced understanding of the workings of power can help improve process design and facilitate reflexive TD practice.

Functional and sociocultural attitudes of code-switching and its relation to the meaning-making process: The case of dubbing Kim Possible into Arabic

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692110194
Author(s):  
Rashid Yahiaoui ◽  
Marwa J Aldous ◽  
Ashraf Fattah
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Sociocultural Attitudes ◽  
Switching Patterns ◽  
Switching Functions ◽  
Switching Type ◽  
Lebanese Arabic ◽  
Research Questions

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The aim of this study is to investigate the sociolinguistic functions of code-switching and its relation to the meaning-making process by using the animated series Kim Possible as a case study. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs Muysken’s taxonomy to draw on code-switching patterns in lexico-grammar in relation to human behavior. The study also uses the functional approaches of Muysken and Appel and Gumperz as binary investigatory frameworks to locate interlingual and intralingual code-switching particularities and to elaborate on code-switching functions. Data and analysis: The analysis encompasses 48 episodes. Firstly, we extracted and transcribed code-switching occurrences in light of Muysken’s typology episode-by-episode and categorized them according to their code-switching type (interlingual or intralingual). Secondly, we quantified the occurrences according to their syntactic form to make more systematic claims about code-switching patterns. Next, we triangulated the patterns by examining the context of utterances and extralinguistic factors in the original series vis-à-vis the dubbed version to draw upon information beyond the structure or grammar. Findings/conclusions: The Arabic dubbed version was able to communicate the characters’ cosmopolitan diversity, which correlates with the series’ sense of linguistic modernity and humor. At the same time, the Arabic version was able to portray the extralinguistic reality of Lebanon and its multi-linguistic tapestry. Originality: This research is original because it focuses on Lebanese-Arabic, a dialect seldom discussed in the context of translation. The research also examines language variations in the context of dubbed discourse, where code-switching is integrally pertinent to visual-signs and the cultural background of characters. Significance/implications: The study recognizes the intricacy of code-switching as a reflective phenomenon of social reality and power dynamics; therefore, it contributes in the fields of translation and sociolinguistics.

scholarly journals “What Kind of a Science is Sustainability Science?” An Evidence-Based Reexamination

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuening Fang ◽  
Bingbing Zhou ◽  
Xingyue Tu ◽  
Qun Ma ◽  
Jianguo Wu
Keyword(s):  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Change Point Detection ◽  
Exponential Growth Phase ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
Asymptotic Development ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Core Questions ◽  
Point Detection

Sustainability science (SS), rooted in multiple disciplines, has been developing rapidly during the last two decades and become a well-recognized new field of study. However, the “identity” of SS remains unclear. Therefore, this study was intended to help synthesize the key characteristics of SS by revisiting the question raised by the leading sustainability scientist, Robert Kates (2011): “What kind of a science is sustainability science?” Specifically, we reviewed the literature in SS, and developed a synthesis of definitions and core research questions of SS, using multiple methods including change-point detection, word cloud visualization, and content and thematic analyses. Our study has produced several main findings: (1) the development of SS exhibited an S-shaped growth pattern, with an exponential growth phase through to 2012, and a asymptotic development phase afterwards; (2) ten key elements from the existing definitions of SS were identified, of which understanding “human–environment interactions” and “use-inspired” were most prominent; and (3) sixteen core questions in SS were derived from the literature. We further proposed an eight-theme framework of SS to help understand how the sixteen questions are related to each other. We argue that SS is coming of age, but more integrative and concerted efforts are still needed to further consolidate its identity by developing a coherent and rigorous scientific core.

Citizens of the future

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-144
Author(s):  
Colin Milburn ◽  
Melissa Wills
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Responsible Innovation ◽  
Science Projects ◽  
Technical Innovations ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Utopian Thought

Over the last decade, a variety of ‘citizen science’ projects have turned to video games and other tools of gamification to enrol participants and to encourage public engagement with scientific research questions. This article examines the significance of sf in the field of citizen science, focusing on projects such as Eyewire, Be a Martian!, Sea Hero Quest, Play to Cure: Genes in Space, Forgotten Island and the ‘Project Discovery’ experiments in EVE Online. The sf stories that frame these projects often allegorise the neoliberal assumptions and immaterial labour practices of citizen science, even while seeming to hide or disguise them. At the same time, the fictional frames enable players to imagine social and technical innovations that, while not necessarily achievable in the present, nevertheless point to a future of democratic science, social progress and responsible innovation - blips of utopian thought from the zones of crowdsourced labour.

scholarly journals "Me and my students' smartphones in the classroom": A case study using arts-based methods

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Eleni Vakali ◽  
Alexios Brailas
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Education Research ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Arts Based Research ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Basic Features

There is a new area flourishing within qualitative research based on methods using all forms of art: music, theatre, visual arts, and literature. In this paper we present an overview of the basic features of arts-based research; emphasizing on their meaning on education research, on the freedom of expression given to the participants in the research, and on the method the researcher applies to evaluate the collected data. We then present an arts-based research case study where the research questions relate to teachers’ reactions to the use of smartphones by students in the classroom. In this case study, teachers, especially those working on secondary education, are invited to portray their thoughts, emotions, and images that respond to these questions by painting them on a paper using markers. The findings show that the majority of the teachers are negative about the children using their smartphone in the classroom, along with evidence for teachers’ emotional response and how to confront the phenomenon.

Critical Autoethnography for Social Justice Research in Doctoral Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 20-37
Author(s):  
Robin Throne
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Doctoral Education ◽  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Arts Based Research ◽  
Justice Research ◽  
Social Justice Research ◽  
Critical Autoethnography ◽  
Research Problems ◽  
The Many

As autoethnography and other methods for self-as-subject research continue to increase in use across doctoral education, this guide proposes to inform the methods in this area specific to critical autoethnography for doctoral scholars desiring to conduct the many forms of social justice research. This includes indigenous research, contemporary feminist research, and arts-based research, which have also seen rise across dissertation research among many disciplines. While many works exist to describe critical autoethnography within specific contexts, few research guides examine critical autoethnography specific for use by the doctoral scholar and specific examples across research focused on societal change and/or disruption of existing power dynamics, lack of parity, or historical trauma from acculturation and/or dispossession. Thus, this chapter offers a concise research methods resource for doctoral scholars and their research supervisors to facilitate use of critical autoethnography across disciplines and among diverse research problems of inquiry.

scholarly journals Towards More Sustainable M&A Deals: Scholars as Change Agents

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9623
Author(s):  
Olimpia Meglio
Keyword(s):  
Public Engagement ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Important Change ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Linguistic Turn ◽  
Sustainability Research ◽  
Available Information

Mergers and acquisitions have significantly contributed to making the world globally connected, providing benefits from globalization through acquisition waves. Along with benefits, acquisitions have also accentuated many sustainability and responsibility issues that are central to both public discourse and global policies. Nonetheless, acquisition and sustainability research have evolved separately, as scholars have left sustainability and responsibility topics at the margin of the acquisition discourse. This impacts the ability of academics to affect practice through teaching by restricting available information. Scholars are important change agents for making more sustainable deals through their research, teaching, and public engagement. I specifically focus on research as it permeates both teaching and public engagement. I focus my analysis on five intertwined issues—long term orientation, stakeholder lens, linguistic turn, umbrella constructs, and the engaged scholarship research approach—that may conjointly foster such a change.

scholarly journals Does public outreach impede research performance? Exploring the ‘researcher’s dilemma’ in a sustainability research center

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 710-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Kassab
Keyword(s):  
General Public ◽  
Evaluation System ◽  
Career Advancement ◽  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Center ◽  
Public Outreach ◽  
Sustainability Research ◽  
Broad Consensus

Abstract Researchers and universities are increasingly urged to communicate their findings to the general public. Despite the broad consensus about the necessity of this task, researchers are still reluctant to engage in public outreach activities. One major reason is that while being somewhat time consuming, engagement in public outreach is not adequately reflected in the metrics that are relevant for career advancement. The study at hand examines to what extent this dilemma is empirically justified. A series of statistical analyses are carried out on the basis of data from a sustainability science research center in Switzerland. The study comes to the conclusion that research performance is overall positively associated to engagement in public outreach activities. This insight has implications for the academic incentive and evaluation system.

Sustainability science: the changing landscape of sustainability research

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuya Kajikawa ◽  
Francisco Tacoa ◽  
Kiyohiro Yamaguchi
Keyword(s):  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Sustainability Research
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