Research Project as Boundary Object: negotiating the conceptual design of a tool for International Development

This paper reflects on the relationship between who one designs for and what one designs in the unstructured space of designing for political change; in particular, for supporting “International Development” with ICT. We look at an interdisciplinary research project with goals and funding, but no clearly defined beneficiary group at start, and how amorphousness contributed to impact. The reported project researched a bridging tool to connect producers with consumers across global contexts and show players in the supply chain and their circumstances. We explore how both the nature of the research and the tool’s function became contested as work progressed. To tell this tale, we invoke the idea of boundary objects and the value of tacking back and forth between elastic meanings of the project’s artefacts and processes. We examine the project’s role in India, Chile and other arenas to draw out ways that it functioned as a catalyst and how absence of committed design choices acted as an unexpected strength in reaching its goals

Using MCDA to generate and interpret evidence to inform local government investment in public health

Smoking is the single biggest cause of preventable death in the Uited Kingdom (UK) and is a major cause of coronary heart disease, some cancers, and respiratory disease, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. At the time of initiating the project, smoking prevalence had not changed across four local government areas in South Yorkshire for some years. Most spending had been focussed on helping people quit, an intervention where there was clear evidence of effectiveness. A number of changes occurred in public health structures and targets, requiring a reappraisal of the range of interventions offered. This was challenging due to a lack of clear evidence for some of the areas’ alternative interventions. The aim of this paper is to describe the use of a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach to support the health priority setting in local authorities to reduce smoking prevalence. There were three phases to this process: (1) problem structuring; (2) the multiple criteria decision analysis; (3) and using the MCDA results to influence decision making at the local government level. The MCDA approach was used to collate information in a consistent and transparent manner, using expert, stakeholder and public opinion to fill known gaps in evidence. Fifteen interventions (such as stop smoking support services, smoke-free spaces, communication and marketing exercises, and increased investment in enforcement) were ranked across eight criteria (relating to reductions in prevalence across relevant groups, as well as aspects relating to equity and feasibility), allowing a range of relevant concerns to be incorporated. Subsequent steps were taken to translate the results of this stage into workable policy options. The results differed significantly from current practice. Sensitivity analysis showed that the findings were robust to changes in preference weights. These results informed subsequent changes to the interventions offered across the four boroughs. The ability of MCDA techniques to incorporate data and both qualitative and quantitative judgements in a formal manner mean that they are well suited to support public health decision making, where evidence is often only partially available and many policies are value driven. MCDA methods, if used, should be chosen carefully based on their resource/time constraints, scientific validity, and the significance and broader context of the decision problem.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40070-016-0059-

Scraping the Social? Issues in live social research

What makes scraping methodologically interesting for social and cultural research? This paper seeks to contribute to debates about digital social research by exploring how a ‘medium-specific’ technique for online data capture may be rendered analytically productive for social research. As a device that is currently being imported into social research, scraping has the capacity to re-structure social research, and this in at least two ways. Firstly, as a technique that is not native to social research, scraping risks to introduce ‘alien’ methodological assumptions into social research (such as an pre-occupation with freshness). Secondly, to scrape is to risk importing into our inquiry categories that are prevalent in the social practices enabled by the media: scraping makes available already formatted data for social research. Scraped data, and online social data more generally, tend to come with ‘external’ analytics already built-in. This circumstance is often approached as a ‘problem’ with online data capture, but we propose it may be turned into virtue, insofar as data formats that have currency in the areas under scrutiny may serve as a source of social data themselves. Scraping, we propose, makes it possible to render traffic between the object and process of social research analytically productive. It enables a form of ‘real-time’ social research, in which the formats and life cycles of online data may lend structure to the analytic objects and findings of social research. By way of a conclusion, we demonstrate this point in an exercise of online issue profiling, and more particularly, by relying on Twitter to profile the issue of ‘austerity’. Here we distinguish between two forms of real-time research, those dedicated to monitoring live content (which terms are current?) and those concerned with analysing the liveliness of issues (which topics are happening?)

Defining appropriateness in coach-athlete sexual relationships: The voice of coaches

The sporting culture, with omnipotent coaches, fierce competition for recognition and funding, and ‘win at all cost’ ethos, creates an environment conducive to sexual exploitation of athletes. Recent increased public awareness and the development of child protection policies in sport have led to the questioning of previously accepted coach-athlete relationships. This study is an exploratory investigation into male swimming coaches’ perceptions of appropriateness of coach-athlete sexual relationships. Sexual relationships with athletes under the age of 16 were unanimously considered totally inappropriate. With regard to sexual relationships with athletes above the age of consent for heterosexual sex, opinions ranged from “totally inappropriate” to “it’s a question of civil liberties.” These results are discussed in relation to how coaches have adapted their own behaviours in the face of public scrutiny but are still reluctant to restrict the rights of their fellow coaches

Molybdenum oxide on Fe2O3 Core-Shell catalysts: Probing the nature of the structural motifs responsible for methanol oxidation catalysis

A series of MoOx-modified Fe2O3 catalysts have been prepared in an attempt to make core–shell oxidic materials of the type MoOx/Fe2O3. It is conclusively shown that for three monolayers of Mo dosed, the Mo stays in the surface region, even after annealing to high temperature. It is only when the material is annealed above 400 °C that it reacts with the iron oxide. We show by a combination of methods, and especially by XAFS, that at temperatures above 400 °C, most of the Mo converts to Fe2(MoO4)3, with Mo in a tetrahedral structure, whereas below that temperature, nanocrystalline MoO3 is present in the sample; however, the active catalysts have an octahedral MoOx layer at the surface even after calcination to 600 °C. This surface layer appears to be present at all temperatures between 300 and 600 °C, and it is the nanoparticles of MoO3 that are present at the lower temperature that react to form ferric molybdate, which underlies this surface layer. It is the MoOx layer on the Fe2(MoO4)3 underlayer that makes the surface active and selective for formaldehyde synthesis, whereas the iron oxide surface itself is a combustor. The material is both activated and improved in selectivity due to the dominance of the methoxy species on the Mo-doped material, as opposed to the much more stable formate, which is the main intermediate on Fe2O3

Corporate governance and financial constraints on strategic turnarounds

The paper extends the Robbins and Pearce (1992) two-stage turnaround response model to include governance factors. In addition to the retrenchment and recovery, the paper proposes the addition of a realignment stage, referring specifically to the re-alignment of expectations of principal and agent groups. The realignment stage imposes a threshold that must be crossed before the retrenchment and hence recovery stage can be entered. Crossing this threshold is problematic to the extent that the interests of governance-stakeholder groups diverge in a crisis situation. The severity of the crisis impacts on the bases of strategy contingent asset valuation leading to the fragmentation of stakeholder interests. In some cases the consequence may be that management are prevented from carrying out turnarounds by governance constraints. The paper uses a case study to illustrate these dynamics, and like the Robbins and Pearce study, it focuses on the textile industry. A longitudinal approach is used to show the impact of the removal of governance constraints. The empirical evidence suggests that such financial constraints become less serious to the extent that there is a functioning market for corporate control. Building on governance research and turnaround literature, the paper also outlines the general case necessary and sufficient conditions for successful turnarounds

Negotiating a third space for participatory research with people with learning disabilities: an examination of boundaries and spatial practices

The focus of this paper is participatory research with and by people with learning disabilities. Drawing on presentations and discussions that took place across five funded seminars we use the concepts of space and boundaries through which to examine the development of a shared new spatial practice through creative responses to a number of challenges. We examine the boundaries that exist between participatory research and non-participatory research' participatory research with people with learning disabilities and participatory research with other groups and between different stakeholders of participatory research with people with learning disabilities. With a particular focus on participatory data analysis and participatory research with people with high support needs we identify a number of ways in boundaries are being opened. We argue that the pushing of new boundaries opens up both new and messy spaces and that both are important for the development of participatory research methods

Infrastructural Speculations: Tactics for Designing and Interrogating Lifeworlds

This paper introduces “infrastructural speculations,” an orientation toward speculative design that considers the complex and long-lived relationships of technologies with broader systems, beyond moments of immediate invention and design. As modes of speculation are increasingly used to interrogate questions of broad societal concern, it is pertinent to develop an orientation that foregrounds the “lifeworld” of artifacts—the social, perceptual, and political environment in which they exist. While speculative designs often imply a lifeworld, infrastructural speculations place lifeworlds at the center of design concern, calling attention to the cultural, regulatory, environmental, and repair conditions that enable and surround particular future visions. By articulating connections and affinities between speculative design and infrastructure studies research, we contribute a set of design tactics for producing infrastructural speculations. These tactics help design researchers interrogate the complex and ongoing entanglements among technologies, institutions, practices, and systems of power when gauging the stakes of alternate lifeworlds