96,601 research outputs found
Understanding the role of objects in cross-disciplinary collaboration
In this paper we make a case for the use of multiple theoretical perspectives – theory on boundary objects, epistemic objects, cultural historical activity theory and objects as infrastructure - to understand the role of objects in cross-disciplinary collaboration. A pluralist approach highlights that objects perform at least three types of work in this context: they motivate collaboration; they allow participants to work across different types of boundaries; and they constitute the fundamental infrastructure of the activity. Building on the results of an empirical study we illustrate the insights that each theoretical lens affords into practices of collaboration and develop a novel analytical framework that organizes objects according to the active work they perform. Our framework can help shed new light on the phenomenon, especially with regards the shifting status of objects and sources of conflict (and change) in collaboration. After discussing these novel insights, we outline directions for future research stemming from a pluralist approach. We conclude by noting the managerial implications of our finding
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Community Dimmensions of Learning Object Repositories. <i>Deliverable 1</i>: Report on Learning Communities and Repositories
Building a Disciplinary, World-Wide Data Infrastructure
Sharing scientific data, with the objective of making it fully discoverable,
accessible, assessable, intelligible, usable, and interoperable, requires work
at the disciplinary level to define in particular how the data should be
formatted and described. Each discipline has its own organization and history
as a starting point, and this paper explores the way a range of disciplines,
namely materials science, crystallography, astronomy, earth sciences,
humanities and linguistics get organized at the international level to tackle
this question. In each case, the disciplinary culture with respect to data
sharing, science drivers, organization and lessons learnt are briefly
described, as well as the elements of the specific data infrastructure which
are or could be shared with others. Commonalities and differences are assessed.
Common key elements for success are identified: data sharing should be science
driven; defining the disciplinary part of the interdisciplinary standards is
mandatory but challenging; sharing of applications should accompany data
sharing. Incentives such as journal and funding agency requirements are also
similar. For all, it also appears that social aspects are more challenging than
technological ones. Governance is more diverse, and linked to the discipline
organization. CODATA, the RDA and the WDS can facilitate the establishment of
disciplinary interoperability frameworks. Being problem-driven is also a key
factor of success for building bridges to enable interdisciplinary research.Comment: Proceedings of the session "Building a disciplinary, world-wide data
infrastructure" of SciDataCon 2016, held in Denver, CO, USA, 12-14 September
2016, to be published in ICSU CODATA Data Science Journal in 201
From Comparison to Collaboration: Experiments with a New Scholarly and Political Form
Society and the workplace are two factors that are important for the individual's health status. It is important that the individuals has the right skills to take care of their health. For organizations, it is important to strive for the welfare of their employees. This has proven to have a positive impact on work performance, reduced absenteeism and reduced costs for rehabilitation. In 2007, the local authorities in UmeĂĄ implemented a wellness offering for all employees working in the municipality administration. They later saw a need to assist employees who needed help getting started with new exercise habits. This study aims to examine how the participants in the "Get Started Programme", succeeded in creating lasting exercise habits , 3-4 years after completing the program. Research questions are: How have the participants increased their knowledge practically and theoretically after the programme has finished? How have the participants succeeded in creating the content of the programme in their daily lives? How do the participants assess their health compared to before they participated in the programme? Are there any beneficial factors highlighted by the participants as during the program? The study was conducted on the basis of semi-structured interviews with eight voluntary participants who previously participated in the Get Started Programme. The results show that six of the eight participants succeeded to get started with the goals for behavioral change, and still maintain a sufficient physical activity level today. Participants who do not consider themselves to have succeeded in reaching the goals they set up in the beginning of the program, point out that they have the tools needed to go on and continue the behavioral change they strive for
Rhetoric of landscape architecture and interior design discourses: preparation for cross-disciplinary practice
In the current reform context, the uniqueness of local disciplinary practices is being forgotten in the race towards cross-disciplinary practice. The rhetoric of the pedagogic discourses of landscape architectural students and interior design students is described as part of a doctoral study undertaken to document practices and orientations prior to cross-disciplinary collaboration. We draw on the theoretical framework of Bernstein and the rhetorical method of Burke to study the grammars of 'landscape' representation employed within these disciplinary examples. We offer a method of investigating how prepared final year students may be for working in a cross-disciplinary manner. The discursive interactions of their work, as illustrated by four examples of drawn images and written text, are described. Comparisons of these examples show both similarities and differences in the students' grammars of representation within their disciplines. Furthermore, however, the findings suggest a progressive weakening of the grammars of the pedagogic discourses that apply to the concepts and procedures of both disciplines. This poses some key issues for educators. It is argued that while weak grammars foster students' deeper understanding of concepts, they also weaken the pedagogic identity and autonomy of their discipline. Strong grammars resist domination and subordination, ensuring the ongoing relative autonomy of a discipline
The Extraction of Community Structures from Publication Networks to Support Ethnographic Observations of Field Differences in Scientific Communication
The scientific community of researchers in a research specialty is an
important unit of analysis for understanding the field specific shaping of
scientific communication practices. These scientific communities are, however,
a challenging unit of analysis to capture and compare because they overlap,
have fuzzy boundaries, and evolve over time. We describe a network analytic
approach that reveals the complexities of these communities through examination
of their publication networks in combination with insights from ethnographic
field studies. We suggest that the structures revealed indicate overlapping
sub- communities within a research specialty and we provide evidence that they
differ in disciplinary orientation and research practices. By mapping the
community structures of scientific fields we aim to increase confidence about
the domain of validity of ethnographic observations as well as of collaborative
patterns extracted from publication networks thereby enabling the systematic
study of field differences. The network analytic methods presented include
methods to optimize the delineation of a bibliographic data set in order to
adequately represent a research specialty, and methods to extract community
structures from this data. We demonstrate the application of these methods in a
case study of two research specialties in the physical and chemical sciences.Comment: Accepted for publication in JASIS
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