Integrating knowledge in the face of epistemic uncertainty: Dialogically drawing distinctions

In this article, we contribute to a processual understanding of knowledge integration in interdisciplinary collaboration by foregrounding the role of dialogue in dealing with epistemic uncertainty. Drawing on an ethnographic study of collaboration among scientists involved in developing a highly novel bioreactor, we suggest that knowledge integration is not a homogeneous process but requires switching between different knowledge integration practices over time. This is particularly notable in the case of ‘epistemic breakdowns’ – deeply unsettling events where hitherto-held understandings of the nature of problems appear unworkable. In such cases, it is not sufficient to deal solely with coordination issues; collaborators need to find ways to address generative knowledge integration processes and to venture, collectively, into the unknown. We demonstrate how this generative quest of knowledge integration is achieved through a dialogical process of drawing and testing new distinctions that allows actors to gradually handle the epistemic uncertainty they face.

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Social Movements and Prefigurative Organizing: Confronting entrenched inequalities in Occupy London

Organization Studies ◽

10.1177/0170840618759815 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 39 (9) ◽

pp. 1299-1321 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Juliane Reinecke

Keyword(s):

Social Movements ◽

Contentious Politics ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

The Face ◽

Future Society ◽

Prefigurative Politics ◽

Communal Space ◽

Strategic Politics ◽

Over Time

Organizational scholars have examined how social movements generate institutional change through contentious politics. However, little attention has been given to the role of prefigurative politics. The latter collapses expressive and strategic politics so as to enact the desired future society in the present and disrupt the reproduction of institutionalized structures that sustain deep-seated inequalities. The paper presents an ethnographic study of Occupy London and protesters’ encounter with people living homeless to examine how prefigurative politics is organized in the face of entrenched inequalities. Findings show how the macro-level inequalities that protesters set out to fight resurfaced in the day-to-day living in the camp itself. Initially, the creation of an exceptional space and communal space helped participants align expressive and strategic politics and imbued them with the emotional energy needed to confront challenges. But over time these deeply entrenched institutional inequalities frustrated participants’ attempts to maintain an exceptional and communal space, triggering a spiral of decline. The dilemma faced by Occupy invites us to reflect on how everyday constraints may be suspended so as to open up imagination for novel and more equal ways of organizing.

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The Clifford Paterson Lecture, 1985 Liquid crystals: an arena for research and industrial collaboration among chemists, physicists and engineers

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A - Mathematical and Physical Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspa.1985.0106 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 402 (1822) ◽

pp. 1-36 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Keyword(s):

Liquid Crystals ◽

Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽

Critical Role ◽

Applied Physics ◽

Display Devices ◽

Electronic Engineering ◽

The Face ◽

The Subject ◽

Direct Outcome

The subject of liquid crystals is a fascinating one. The involvements of the subject, representing, some would say, a ‘fourth state of matter’, range from the highly theoretical to the highly technical, and its investigators in both academic and industrial institutions belong to disciplines as distinct as chemistry, physics, electrical and electronic engineering, applied physics, and biology. The strong tempo of research in the subject today is of course a direct outcome of the technological applications of liquid crystals in electro-optical display devices and temperature-sensing devices. Successes in these areas have, however, arisen only through the closest of collaborations among research and industrial scientists from such different disciplines. After a suitable introduction, progress to date in the area of applications will be traced, with emphasis upon the critical role of interdisciplinary collaboration. Given its continuation in the face of growing competition, some technological prospects for the future will be examined.

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Religious Conversion and Kinship Cohesion

Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology ◽

10.1558/32187 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 27-45

Author(s):

Audrey Allas

Keyword(s):

Religious Identity ◽

Religious Conversion ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Marriage Contracts ◽

Conversion To Islam ◽

Kinship Relations ◽

Ethnographic Data ◽

Muslim Communities ◽

Over Time

This paper seeks to reveal the perceived significance of religious conversion in order to maintain social cohesion within British Pakistani Muslim kinship structures. The alternative to conversion is the prospect of re-structuring of kinship relations and social mores amongst British Pakistani Muslim communities, if indeed more individuals marry outside of Islam over time. Utilising ethnographic data, the author indicates that religious identity is meaningful for the cohesion of Pakistani Muslim kinship structures in Britain, not only for ideological reasons, but also for economic purposes. This paper begins its focus from an anthropological discussion of the role of kinship alliances. It then explores the various manifestations of religious conversion to Islam within the framework of intermarriage and kinship relations, examining contexts of gender responsibility and “spirituality.” Data collection concerning this endeavour was carried out qualitatively over the course of a year within a larger ethnographic study of British Pakistani Muslim marriages, and with a variety of respondents from diverse contexts and situations in life, but all of whom identify with British Pakistani Muslim belonging and with the general understanding of being in an mixed relationship, inclusive of British legal civil unions, nikah (legal sharia marriage contracts), and co-habiting relationships.

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Role of CPEB-Family Proteins in Memory

The Oxford Handbook of Neuronal Protein Synthesis ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190686307.013.11 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kausik Si

Keyword(s):

Molecular Mechanisms ◽

Family Members ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Cytoplasmic Polyadenylation ◽

Element Binding Protein ◽

The Face ◽

Specific Mrnas ◽

Over Time

A synapse-based mechanism of formation and persistence of long-term memory (LTM) entails some unique mechanistic challenges. It requires experience-dependent changes in synapse composition, function, and number. These changes must be specific to the synapse of interest, although all synapses in a neuron rely on the same genome. Finally, these changes must persist over time in the face of constant synaptic protein turnover. It has long been known that translation at the synapse is one of the fundamental requirements for LTM, and multiple mechanisms of synaptic translation have been characterized. Among these translation regulatory mechanisms, cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding protein (CPEB) family members fulfill some of the unique needs of LTM and can even be considered as contributing to the biochemical substrates of memory. These proteins orchestrate a “synaptic mark” and regulate translation of specific mRNAs required for changes in synaptic composition, function, and number. Some CPEB family members also self-assemble and alter their function to maintain the altered synaptic state over time, contributing to persistence of memory. This chapter summarizes the known function of different CPEB family members in memory, their underlying molecular mechanisms, and important issues that remain to be resolved.

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Calgary’s Chinese Kinship Associations: Their Role in Chinese Canadian Integration

Journal of Chinese Overseas ◽

10.1163/17932548-12341249 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 59-86 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lloyd Sciban ◽

Lloyd Wong

Keyword(s):

Chinese Immigrants ◽

Canadian Society ◽

Chinese Community ◽

Face To Face ◽

The Face ◽

Mainstream Society ◽

Chinese Canadian ◽

The City ◽

Over Time

Abstract The kinship associations in Calgary’s Chinese community were formed to assist Chinese immigrants in meeting their needs, such as housing and moral support, in the face of the discrimination they encountered during their early days of settlement in the city. In providing for these needs the kinship associations helped Chinese immigrants establish themselves, and thus, integrate into Canadian society. However, over time the opportunities to integrate into the Canadian society have increased and the question arises whether the kinship associations have been willing or able to take advantage of these opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether kinship associations in Calgary’s Chinese community are effectively promoting Chinese Canadian integration into mainstream society. Personal face-to-face interviews revealed the records of the kinship associations in integrating their members into Canadian society; these records were then compared with those of newer, non-kinship Chinese Canadian associations. The authors conclude that the integration efforts by the kinship associations are inadequate as compared to newer Calgary Chinese organisations, and that the integrative role of these kinship associations has diminished over time.

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Estado emocional de las personas ante situaciones de pandemia a través del tiempo

Revista de Pedagogía Critica ◽

10.35429/jcp.2020.12.4.21.31 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 21-31

Author(s):

Oscar Amaro-Del Real ◽

Luz María Cejas-Leyva / O ◽

Maura Antonia Lazcano-Franco ◽

Mario Gilberto García-Medina

Keyword(s):

Emotional State ◽

Research Process ◽

Theoretical Framework ◽

Analysis Procedure ◽

The World ◽

The Face ◽

The One ◽

Over Time ◽

Inductive Analysis

Objective: to publicize the emotional state of people in pandemic situations over time, through a compilation of readings carried out with the purpose of elaborating a semblance of the emotional conditions experienced throughout history, during the different pandemic outbreaks that have emerged, such as COVID-19. Methodology: the methodology used in this research process is based on the qualitative paradigm, because it sought to understand and elucidate what has emerged to date on the emotional state of people, due to the different pandemics experienced through over time such as that caused by COVID 19; through the systematization, organization and categorization of the information selected for presentation, both in the theoretical framework and in the results and conclusions of this article. To achieve the above, an inductive analysis procedure of the theory was followed, which played the role of guiding instrument by investigating the interaction of the subjects with the various diseases that have spread throughout the world through time. Contribution: a recapitulation of the emotional state of people in pandemic situations is presented, providing the reader with an overview of the emotional consequences that have been experienced in these situations at different times in history, such as the one currently being experienced in the face of COVID-19.

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