Creating spaces for sustainability transformation at universities : conditions and practices at a transdisciplinary, student-driven center for sustainability in Uppsala, Sweden

Universities are systemically implicated in local and global sustainability problems. They, like many other institutions, face the challenging task of transforming themselves towards sustainability across their domains of education, research, outreach, collaboration and campus operations. Yet still little is known about how they do or should carry this out. This study explains conditions and practices at a sustainability-focused university center (CEMUS) which implements a unique student-led model and functions as an inter- and transdisciplinary meeting point for two large Swedish research universities (Uppsala University and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences). Since 1992 CEMUS has developed and nurtured ways of operating that offer insights into new ways of organising university activities for sustainable development. Analysing innovative social practices for implementing sustainability in higher education, and institutional contexts for enabling such practices, this study explains the creation of a 'shadow space' for social learning, semi-detached from institutional context, in which some innovative capacities for meeting the challenges of implementing sustainable development at universities has built up and been nurtured over time. The findings explain how an innovation in practice has led to new social arrangements and structures within the university environment that are relevant for efforts at sustainability transformation. This is evident in its 1) creating new types of student-faculty relationships, 2) working across and between disciplines as a matter of practice, 3) re-purposing courses as a way to form knowledge bases for learning and action sustainability problems and 4) creating a community of practice semi-detached from institutional context, in which innovative capacity for meeting the challenges of implementing sustainable development at universities has built up and been nurtured over time. In this case we see on the one hand a well-established sustainability-focused center for education, research and outreach and on the other a student-driven, student-faculty partnership model – a combination that has so far not been explored in literature on sustainability in higher education. The findings and questions raised by this exploratory study may be valuable for 1) those interested in locating innovations relevant for transformation towards sustainability at universities and learning from them 2) decision makers at universities who are interested in the challenges of transitioning towards sustainability and embedding it across operations, enacting new types of student engagement, and finding ways to create interdisciplinary education for sustainability; 3) students and teachers who seek to develop teaching and learning environments in which students are empowered contributors to a community rather than only receivers of knowledge or consumers of education, particularly in sustainability education. Ways forward for further research are suggested

Creating a Virtual Reality Experience in Service to a Non-Profit Agency

In the summer of 2018, RIT Professors Susan Lakin and Frank Deese discussed with the principal officers of the Society for the Protection and Care of Children (SPCC) in Rochester how the new technology of Virtual Reality might be used to not only impart information to viewers, but generate empathy for those receiving services from the organization as well as those performing those services. Their ultimate goal was to create an experience that could be viewed with VR headsets at fundraising events and on a website using low-cost Google Cardboard

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire: The effect of truncated testimony on juror decision making

Many countries around the world have modified their legislation to allow child complainants of abuse to present their evidence-in-chief via pre-recorded videotape, or through closed-circuit-television (CCTV), rather than through live testimony, which has been shown to be stressful for children. With this modification, many countries also allow for childrens’ videotaped evidence to be truncated for relevance or admissibility purposes. In the two experiments, we examined whether truncating testimony influenced how mock jurors rated the credibility of a 6-year-old child complainant when her testimony contained the primary core allegation only, or when the testimony was presented with either one or two additional—but less plausible— allegations. We also examined how mock jurors rated the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Contrary to what we predicted, we found that participants believed the child’s core allegation, regardless of whether or not it was presented with additional less plausible allegations. Moreover, jurors who read the transcripts containing multiple allegations of abuse were more likely to find the defendant guilty of the core allegation than were jurors who read the core allegation only. These findings suggest that the truncation of testimony may affect the outcome of a trial; however, more research is needed on the effects of truncated testimony on juror decision-making as we continue to try to make the criminal justice system as fair as possible for all of those involved

Cognitive consequences of perceiving social exclusion

Although a great deal is now known about how people mentally represent individuals and groups, less attention has been paid to the question of how interpersonal relationships are represented in memory. Drawing on principles of categorization, this paper reports an investigation into how we mentally represent the relationships of others. In three experiments, evidence for assimilation effects following social exclusion (and subsequent categorization) is found. Experiment 1 uses a judgment paradigm to demonstrate that social exclusion influences the perception of interpersonal closeness. Experiments 2 and 3 employ a memory confusion paradigm to establish that representations of relationship partners are assimilated following the exclusion of a third party. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Tensions in Transdisciplinary Research : A study of a climate research group

In a time of sustainability predicaments and ‘grand challenges’, transdisciplinarity has been put forward as an approach through which researchers can engage with societal transformation for a better world. This study examines tensions that arise in the on-the-ground efforts of researchers to establish and manage a transdisciplinary research group within a Norwegian university. Tensions have been of interest in both studies of science and studies of organizations. Scholars have inquired into the ways in which tensions between interrelated, divergent demands influence the work of scientific knowledge production and organizational life. Transdisciplinary research groups, centers and institutes are proliferating, yet studies of the tensions and challenges they face at the micro-level remain nascent. Drawing on intermittent fieldwork over a two-year period, this dissertation analyses a local case in which climate and energy researchers took a transdisciplinary approach in establishing a “societally engaged” research group and research center in a social sciences department. Key questions are: which tensions do they encounter? How do they respond to them?  The study makes use of concepts on tensions and paradox developed in organization and management studies to inform discussions on challenges in inter- and trans-disciplinary research in practice. The case study identifies, illustrates, and analyses several tensions salient for researchers: between the need for both consolidation and interrelation; between the need to grow and formalise the group while also maintaining its closeness and values; between ideas of researchers’ relationship to societal change as both distant and engaged; and between the need to maintain academic autonomy while providing usefulness to non-academic actors. Various responses to these tensions are identified and explored, including defending against, and actively embracing them. The findings allow for rethinking transdiscipclinary research in practice, with implications for research managers, practitioners, and policy makers