Great article – congratulations! His research interests are procedural and distributive justice, methods and practice of transdisciplinary (research) processes, and social sustainability. The only thing I would complement is the importance of timing. Such a combination will not only contribute to impact by improving the the research question and understanding the audience, but will enable findings from one social context be more likely to be adaptable to another – increasing social impact. When the Ministry of Education commissions a research study, how even-handed and uncompromising can the researchers be? Some are already implementing solutions and others still question there is a problem at all. For example, a policy recommendation is of greater interest, when the policy is drafted, than when it’s just implemented. Biography: Michael Stauffacher is Titularprofessor (Adjunct Professor) at ETH Zurich and co-director of the Transdisciplinarity Lab of the Department of Environmental Systems Science (USYS TdLab) at ETH Zurich. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. “From the perspective of policy-makers, research is relevant if it influences practice. If a research study has no answers for the here and now, it’s not relevant.
In particular, we have adapted the concept developed by Donald Schön of the three artistries that mediate knowledge to practice (problem framing, implementation and improvisation). Addressing the interaction between science and governance framework represent a challenging and necessary task to allow scientific insights can operate effectively in the complex decision-making context. “This relation, a dangerous symbiosis between educational researchers and the Ministry of Education, has left us bereft of more critical researchers. Ha’aretz correspondent on education and social affairs, believes that “relevant research addresses problems that concern us all… but in a way that changes reality, rather than simply embracing it.” Kashti also spoke about the nature of the relationship between the establishment and academia. In fact, policy implementation has been in many of our transdisciplinary research projects essential: once a policy has been decided it remains still to be enforced, implemented, supported, etc. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. This echoes some of the things I wrote about in my 2014 paper, where we boiled this down to 5 principles (see also https://i2insights.org/2016/09/27/five-principles-for-impact/). This means that your research should fill a gap in the existing scientific knowledge. You are indeed right that timing is essential. His research interests are contested energy infrastructures, urban development, field experiments, and transdisciplinary research. Mato Grosso state University,Brazil Post was not sent - check your email addresses! “This is an issue that has to do with academic freedom, and of course it is also a political issue. He completed his habilitation at the University of Bern. Thanks Mark for sharing – your work looks really complementary to our contribution, glad to read! I hope to contribute a blog article here on this topic soon. The way we use the policy cycle in step 3 is more about becoming aware that different groups in society are at different stages of the cycle. Indeed , it is helpful if there are references to bodies of research and knowledge outside our own “domain”, since … One way to find a relevant topic is to look at the recommendations for follow-up studies that are made in existing scientific articles.
A researcher might face a number of questions (s)he was not necessarily trained to address, such as: Over the last several years, we developed 10 steps to provide a structured way of thinking through how to improve the societal relevance of a research project, as summarised in the table below. Pohl, C., Krütli, P. and Stauffacher, M. (2017). According to Shoshani: “All research is conducted within the context of the researcher’s value system and ideology… During the first two decades of Israel’s existence there was a general consensus regarding ideology. For the last 30 years, no such consensus has existed.”, Or Kashti, journalist and
GAIA, 26, 1: 43-51. Dr. Shimshon Shoshani, former director-general of the Ministry of Education. Dr. Ayman Agbaria, the head of the Mandel Scholars in Education at the Mandel Leadership Institute, in his concluding remarks. Something within the researcher herself, her training, her values orientation, the way she looks at reality. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research often aims at broader impact in society. In assessing a report of research, it is always helpful to be able to see clearly how the reported work builds upon previous work. Dear Anthony, in History we are taught that research is relevant when it is showing a hiatus in research, or brings new views into research. In our experience, the ten steps trigger reflection on one’s own research and allow for fruitful coproduction of knowledge in the project team on how to improve the societal relevance of projects. Your 10-step approach provides valuable lessons to increase the research impact on society. The role of context is one we are working on quite intensively ourselves. Thanks for sharing your framework for helping researchers to be more systematic in their thinking about co-production of knowledge. Congratulations, excellent article! >>, Log In
We start from the premise that context is not static but rather dynamic, that means, it is constructed, built during a transdisciplinary research project. Site Map
Please enable scripts and reload this page. You frame the article around improving impact in society. sum, we want research to be policy relevant because we want to solve problems and make the world a better place. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to make it a success. Enjoy! Very insightful and inspiring blogpost. The control that the ministry wields by commissioning researchers is an excellent tool for silencing them.”, Dr. Shirley Avrami, director of the Knesset Research and Information Center, claims that it is translation that makes information relevant - that is, translation of research language into the language of policy-makers.