‘A wicked problem’? risk assessment and decision-making when licensing possession and use of firearms in Greater London

This paper analyses the risk assessment and decision-making used by a police force to assess the suitability of a person to own a firearm. The decision to grant a firearms licence has many characteristics of a ‘wicked problem’. Firearms Enquiries Officers (FEOs) in the police force concerned primarily use professional judgement to solve this problem, employing various forms of reasoning and heuristics, but potentially also prone to cognitive bias. We conclude with some observations on how training of FEOs and their supervisors in risk assessment and decision-making might be further developed

Pragmatism and methodology: doing research that matters with mixed methods

DescriptionContentsResourcesCoursesAbout the Authors Taking a pragmatist approach to methods and methodology that fosters meaningful, impactful, and ethical research, this book rises to the challenge of today's data revolution. It shows how pragmatism can turn challenges, such as the abundance and accumulation of big qualitative data, into opportunities. The authors summarize the pragmatist approach to different aspects of research, from epistemology, theory, and questions to ethics, as well as data collection and analysis. The chapters outline and document a new type of mixed methods design called 'multi-resolution research,” which serves to overcome old divides between quantitative and qualitative methods. It is the ideal resource for students and researchers within the social and behavioural sciences seeking new ways to analyze large sets of qualitative data. This book is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it : An Abductive and Contextual Exploration of Maintenance Deferral

Objective: To create academic insights into how organisations approach and manage the maintenance of vendor-supplied information systems software. Approach: Three iterations of the Peircean Abduction methodology lead to the identification, conceptualisation, and application of new knowledge in vendor-supplied Information Systems (IS) maintenance deferral by means of undertaking a qualitative multiple-case study. The research goals are achieved through the appropriation and application of theories from Peircean Abduction and Systemic Functional Linguistics. Research questions: The following abductive statement is created through the application of the Peircean Abduction methodology: The surprising observation, “some organisations, having invested in a vendor-supplied IS software solution, defer the implementation of vendor-supplied maintenance”, is made; However, if “the existence of deterrents to maintenance, requiring a trigger event before the implementation of maintenance” were true, then “maintenance deferral” would be a matter of course. Hence there is a reason to suspect that “the existence of both deterrents, and of triggers” is true. From this abductive statement, three research questions are deduced. The first research question investigates the existence, characteristics and influence of deterrents; the second question investigates the existence, characteristics and influence of triggers. As a consequence of this approach, the final question provides a general understanding of IS maintenance deferral. Methodology: Following the implementation of a systematic literature review methodology, six themes are identified: 1. an acknowledgement that problems exist when considering vendor-supplied software maintenance; 2. deterrents as a driver in behaviour; 3. the occurrence of tipping-points which require vendor-supplied maintenance to be undertaken; 4. the consequences of deferral; 5. the value of maintenance; and 6. the formalisation of a maintenance lifecycle. Taking the insights arising from the systematic literature review, a multiple-case study following the pragmatic framework is constructed from data collected interviewing twelve participants across a diverse set of ten organisations. An abductive approach to this research topic creates opportunities for a comprehensive, well-grounded exploratory contribution to a scarcely investigated research domain. Major findings: The translation of Peircean abduction to an interpretative context generates a rich and substantive contribution to theory and practice. The existence of both deterrents and triggers are strongly supported, leading to the conclusion that maintenance deferral is a matter of course. The development of a new abductive and Systemic Functional Linguistic model enhances the knowledge of maintenance deferral and allows refinement of historical IS maintenance models. Finally, the application of Systems Thinking situates insights from the application of their mode within their respective organisational environments

Diagnostic reasoning in medical students using a simulated environment

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Design as interactions of problem framing and problem solving: a formal and empirical basis for problem framing in design

In this thesis, I present, illustrate and empirically validate a novel approach to modelling and explaining design process. The main outcome of this work is the formal definition of the problem framing, and the formulation of a recursive model of framing in design. The model (code-named RFD), represents a formalisation of a grey area in the science of design, and sees the design process as a recursive interaction of problem framing and problem solving. The proposed approach is based upon a phenomenon introduced in cognitive science and known as (reflective) solution talkback. Previously, there were no formalisations of the knowledge interactions occurring within this complex reasoning operation. The recursive model is thus an attempt to express the existing knowledge in a formal and structured manner. In spite of rather abstract, knowledge level on which the model is defined, it is a firm step in the clarification of design process. The RFD model is applied to the knowledge-level description of the conducted experimental study that is annotated and analysed in the defined terminology. Eventually, several schemas implied by the model are identified, exemplified, and elaborated to reflect the empirical results. The model features the mutual interaction of predicates ‘specifies’ and ‘satisfies’. The first asserts that a certain set of explicit statements is sufficient for expressing relevant desired states the design is aiming to achieve. The validity of predicate ‘specifies’ might not be provable directly in any problem solving theory. A particular specification can be upheld or rejected only by drawing upon the validity of a complementary predicate ‘satisfies’ and the (un-)acceptability of the considered candidate solution (e.g. technological artefact, product). It is the role of the predicate ‘satisfies’ to find and derive such a candidate solution. The predicates ‘specifies’ and ‘satisfies’ are contextually bound and can be evaluated only within a particular conceptual frame. Thus, a solution to the design problem is sound and admissible with respect to an explicit commitment to a particular specification and design frame. The role of the predicate ‘acceptable’ is to compare the admissible solutions and frames against the ‘real’ design problem. As if it answered the question: “Is this solution really what I wanted/intended?” Furthermore, I propose a set of principled schemas on the conceptual (knowledge) level with an aim to make the interactive patterns of the design process explicit. These conceptual schemas are elicited from the rigorous experiments that utilised the structured and principled approach to recording the designer’s conceptual reasoning steps and decisions. They include the refinement of an explicit problem specification within a conceptual frame; the refinement of an explicit problem specification using a re-framed reference; and the conceptual re-framing (i.e. the identification and articulation of new conceptual terms) Since the conceptual schemas reflect the sequence of the ‘typical’ decisions the designer may make during the design process, there is no single, symbol-level method for the implementation of these conceptual patterns. Thus, when one decides to follow the abstract patterns and schemas, this abstract model alone can foster a principled design on the knowledge level. It must be acknowledged that for the purpose of computer-based support, these abstract schemas need to be turned into operational models and consequently suitable methods. However, such operational perspective was beyond the time and resource constraints placed on this research

Situating mHealth in the workplace: a coordination studies perspective

A central assumption of extant mHealth literature is that the technology empowers health care staff and leads to increased efficiency in service delivery. This assumption foregrounds the transformative potential of mHealth and the active appropriation of the technology, but obscures how it integrates with existing workplace arrangements. To interrogate the limitations of this dominant assumption, this research examines how mHealth is coordinated in the workplace in practice, and the perceptions and experiences of health care staff of the place mHealth takes in their daily concerns. In this way the research reveals how existing workplace arrangements influence the way that mHealth operates in practice, and builds on extant research to clarify how this can shift responsibility for the success of the implementation onto those staff with the least recognition and security. An interpretive case study explores the coordination of mHealth in the workplace, and analyses unexpected outcomes to identify their implications for theory and practice. In order to highlight this phenomenon the research focussed on the experiences of the clinic staff who were responsible for mHealth implementation, but were not the end users and who did not receive direct benefits themselves. The analysis drew on coordination studies to identify social and artefact-based coordination mechanisms, as well as the significance of relationships in mHealth in the workplace, yielding robust evidence that social coordination mechanisms rather than the fitness for purpose of the specific technology shaped the coordination process. Issues arising from the specific setting also influenced coordination in important ways that were not predicted in the official training material. The research makes three theoretical contributions that advance understanding of mHealth in the workplace through abduction. First, it identifies two novel coordination mechanisms: role flexibility and covert routines. Second, through the novel concept of multiple accountability, it challenges one of the key integrative principles proposed in the coordination studies perspective, problematising it and proposing that relationships between health intermediaries and local communities are far more influential for the coordination of mHealth than extant theory has so far proposed. Third, it carries important implications for future mHealth (and, more broadly, technology coordination) scholarship, providing evidence that existing coordination mechanisms and relationships may be as influential as the transformative potential of the technology itself. The research also contributes to practice by enhancing understanding of how health intermediaries may be empowered to effectively employ mHealth in the workplace. In a context of policy and funding uncertainty, this research contributes to an emerging literature identifying the practical mHealth issues primary health care staff face in a resource-poor environment, interrogating approaches that fail to recognise these realities

Enabling autistic sociality: unrealised potentials in two-sided social interaction

Research on autism, which is defined as a life-long developmental disability affecting social interaction, has focussed predominantly on how autistic individuals perceive and interact with others with less emphasis on the perspectives of their interactional partners. Yet autistic viewpoints have highlighted how other people are part of a two-way breakdown in interaction originating from differences between people rather than the deficit of any one individual, a phenomenon known as the double empathy problem. A gap therefore exists in the literature in terms of understanding how autistic sociality (i.e. the range of social opportunities possible for a given individual on the spectrum) is shaped by different interactional partners. This thesis examines the double empathy problem in three interactional contexts. Study 1 examines relationships between autistic people and their family members through focussing on perspective-taking, the ability to impute mental states to others. In light of prior research where autistic abilities have been assessed using abstract scenarios, Study 1 implements a two-way measure of perspective-taking which considers both sides of 22 real-life relationships (n=44) consisting of autistic adults and their family members, to understand how autistic people are seen by familiar others as well as vice versa. It uses a mixed-methods approach, where members of each dyad were individually asked about 12 topics, providing quantitative scores and qualitative explanation of their rating of Self, their rating of their partner, and their predicted rating by their partner. Comparison of perspectives provided a means for detecting misunderstandings and their underlying rationale. The contribution of Study 1 is that it shows perspective-taking is two-sided: family members can be biased in underestimating the perspective-taking of their autistic relatives, while autistic adults are aware of being negatively viewed despite disagreeing with such views. Study 2 examines interactions between autistic adults (n=30) partaking in a naturally occurring activity of video-gaming at a charity. It is a qualitative study using participant observation, with each conversational turn systematically rated in terms of coherence, affect and symmetry to identify the key features of neurodivergent intersubjectivity, the process through which autistic people build shared understanding in their own non-normative ways. The contribution of Study 2 is to identify two forms of neurodivergent intersubjectivity which enable shared understanding to be achieved, but which have traditionally been viewed as undesirable from a normative social viewpoint: a generous assumption of common ground that, when understood, lead to rapid rapport, and, when not understood, resulted in potentially disruptive utterances; and a low demand for coordination that ameliorated many challenges associated with disruptive turns. Study 3 examines interactions involving lay people (n=256) who believe they are interacting with an autistic partner through an online collaborative game, when in fact they are playing with an intelligent virtual agent (IVA) who behaves the same way for all participants. Its contribution is methodological as it develops a new application for simulating interactions in experimental research called Dyad3D. Study 3 uses Dyad3D to explore how disclosure of an autism diagnosis by the IVA affects social perception and social behaviour in comparison to a disclosure of dyslexia and a condition where there is no diagnostic disclosure. Combined with a post-game questionnaire, Study 3 triangulates self-reported (quantitative rating scales and qualitative explanation) and behavioural measures (quantitative scores of actions within the game) to understand the interplay of positive and negative discrimination elicited through using the label of autism. It highlights that diagnostic disclosure of autism leads to significant positive bias in social perception when compared to a disclosure of dyslexia or a no disclosure condition; yet participants are not as helpful towards the autistic IVA as they think they are, indicating a potential bias in helping behaviour. The thesis takes an abductive methodological approach which integrates with a wider call for a more participatory model of research in the study of autism. Abduction is a form of reasoning which involves the iterative development of a hypothesis that holds the best explanatory scope for the underlying phenomena observed. It is inherently aligned with a participatory model of research because abduction involves the ongoing exploration of ideas that may originate from multiple sources (i.e. interactions with autistic people as well as research outputs). Taking a more holistic approach to the development of knowledge with autistic people which recognises the legitimacy of different claims to knowledge is important, because prior research in the field has often failed to critically reflect on researcherparticipant positionality and the principals underlying the development of research agenda. For this reason, the thesis details the participatory activities which surround and interconnect with the development of the three empirical studies. Overall the thesis contributes to understanding autistic sociality as a dynamic, interactionally shaped process. It reasons that autistic people have unrealised social potential, both in terms of imagining other perspectives (Study 1) and coordinating with others (Study 2). However, such social potential may not be easily recognised by other non-autistic people who may be biased in their assumptions about autism (Study 1 and Study 3). Consequently, the evidence presented in this thesis helps to explain some of the processes that underscore the double empathy problems reported in literature, including poor mental health (because autistic people are aware that they are misunderstood by others, see Study 1), employment prospects (because autistic social potential is under-recognised by others, see Study 1 and 3), and quality of life (because neurotypical standards of communication are not compatible with neurodivergent forms of intersubjectivity, see Study 2). The thesis therefore makes suggestions for how we design enabling environments which are sensitive to the dynamic factors that can enable autistic sociality to flourish

Vagueness in mathematics talk

The Cockcroft Report claimed that "mathematics provides a means of communication which is powerful, concise and unambiguous". Such precision in language may be a conventional aim of mathematics, particularly when communicated in writing. Nonetheless, as this thesis demonstrates, vagueness is commonplace when people talk about mathematics. In this thesis, I examine the circumstances in which vagueness arises in mathematics talk, and consider the practical purposes which speakers achieve by means of vague utterances in this context. The empirical database, which is considered in Chapters 4 to 7, consists almost entirely of transcripts of mathematical conversations between adult interviewers (including myself) and one or two children. The data were collected from clinical interviews focused on a small number of tasks, and from fragments of teaching. For the most part, the pupils involved in the study were aged between 9 and 12, although the age-range in Chapter 7 extends from 4 to 25. I draw on a number of approaches to discourse associated with 'pragmatics' -a field of linguistics - to analyse the motives and communicative effectiveness of speakers who deploy vagueness in mathematics talk. I claim that, for these speakers, vagueness fulfills a number of purposes, especially 'shielding', i. e. self-protection against accusation of being wrong. Another purpose is to give approximate information; sometimes to achieve shielding, but also to provide the level of detail that is deemed to be appropriate in a given situation. A different purpose, associated with a particular form of vagueness (of reference), is to compensate for lexical gaps in pursuit of effective communication of concepts and ideas. I show, in particular, how speakers use the pronouns 'it' and 'you' in mathematics talk to communicate concepts and generalisations. Some consideration is given to the intentions of 'expert speakers of mathematics when they deploy vague language. Their purposes include some of those identified for novices. Teachers also use vagueness as a means of indirectness in addressing pupils; this strategy is associated with the redress of 'face threatening acts'. My thesis is that vagueness can be viewed and presented, not as a disabling feature of language, but as a subtle and versatile device which speakers can and do deploy to make mathematical assertions with as much precision, accuracy or as much confidence as they judge is warranted by both the content and the circumstances of their utterances. I report on the validation and generalisation of my findings by an Informal Research Group of school teachers, who transcribed and analysed their own classroom interactions using the methods I had developed