Researcher-Led Development of E-Research in the Social Sciences: The Case of an E-Social Science Pilot Demonstrator Project

The introduction and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the process of research is extending beyond research management into research practice itself. This extension of the use of ICT in research is being termed as e-research. The characteristics of e-research are seen as the combination of three interrelated strands, which are: the increased computerization of the research process; research organized more predominantly in the form of distributed networks of researchers, and a strong emphasis on visualization. E-research has become established in the natural sciences but the development of e-research in relation to social sciences is variable and less pervasive. The richness of the social sciences and their variety of practices and engagement in diverse fields of study mean that e-research as utilized in the natural sciences cannot be easily migrated into the social sciences. This paper explores the development of e-research for the social sciences. The paper is based on an ESRC funded e-social science demonstrator project in which social scientists sought to shape the use of Grid ICT technologies in the research process. The project is called: \'Collaborative Analysis of Offenders\' Personal and Area-based Social Exclusion\': it addresses social exclusion in relation to how individual and neighbourhood effects account for geographical variations of crime patterns and explores the opportunities and challenges offered by e-research to address the research problem. The paper suggests that if e-research is driven from the needs of social research then it can enhance the practice of social science.E-Research; Social and Area-Based Exclusion; Young People at Risk of Crime; Information and Communication Technologies; Collaborative Research; Interdisciplinary Research

Locating the self in Web 2.0: explorations in creativity, identity and digital expression

An overarching assumption of Internet usage is that it allows users in everyday life as well as users in public institutions to engage in spheres of media communication. The development of Web 2.0 is facilitating greater interactivity for mainstream Internet users. This is resulting in everyday users and public institutions developing new forms of communication. Some of these forms involve improvisation in communication patterns whereas others require a degree of innovation in developing new frameworks for communication. To explore how individuals and institutions are engaging in Web 2.0 involves considering the dynamics of creativity, identity and forms of expression in digital culture. In this paper I discuss the shaping of the Web in relation to the case of the British Library and a study of student-led research projects

Social Media and Information Overload: Survey Results

A UK-based online questionnaire investigating aspects of usage of user-generated media (UGM), such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, attracted 587 participants. Results show a high degree of engagement with social networking media such as Facebook, and a significant engagement with other media such as professional media, microblogs and blogs. Participants who experience information overload are those who engage less frequently with the media, rather than those who have fewer posts to read. Professional users show different behaviours to social users. Microbloggers complain of information overload to the greatest extent. Two thirds of Twitter-users have felt that they receive too many posts, and over half of Twitter-users have felt the need for a tool to filter out the irrelevant posts. Generally speaking, participants express satisfaction with the media, though a significant minority express a range of concerns including information overload and privacy

Big data and employee wellbeing: walking the tightrope between utopia and dystopia

This special issue was inspired by an Economic & Social Research Council funded seminar series that explored the possibilities for using Big Data and data analytics for assessing health and wellbeing risks within organisations. The aim of this special issue was to build on some of the themes developed in the seminar series and draw together and update some key insights from different disciplinary perspectives on the opportunities, challenges and lessons that could be applied in this area. This editorial, therefore, draws together the findings and themes from the submitted papers and interprets these in light of the findings from the seminar series

A participatory design approach for the development of support environments in eGovernment services to citizens

The introduction of eGovernment services and applications leads to major changes in the structure and operation of public administrations. In this paper we describe the work in progress in an Italian project called “SPO.T.” aimed at the analysis, development, deployment and evaluation of tools and environments to support the people who plan, deliver, use and evaluate user-centred provision of One-Stop-Shop services to citizens. The “SPO.T.” project has focused on two requirements: 1. the support tools and environments must facilitate the active involvement of all stakeholders in the definition and evolution of eGovernment applications and services, and it is argued that through participatory design changes of structure, process and culture can be delivered effectively; 2. they must embody a set of architecturally coherent resources which reflect the new roles and relationships of public administration and which are sufficiently generic to be relevant to a wide range of local contexts across the community

Editor's introduction: The dynamics of film audiences: how they form and develop relationships with film

No abstract available

Підвищення ефективності теплопостачання при врахуванні температурно-погодних факторів

In this paper we will address the questions of what and where the value of open access to research data might be and how libraries and related stakeholders can contribute to achieve the benefits of freely sharing data. In particular, the emphasis is on how libraries need to acquire the competence for collaboration to train and encourage researchers and library staff to work with open data. The paper is based on the early results of the RECODE project, an EU FP7 project that addresses the drivers and barriers in developing open access to research data in Europe (http://www.recodeproject.eu)

Screen Choice : The Relations, Interactions and Articulations of Watching Film

People watch films on televisions, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and cinema screens. As technologies, each of these screen types provide different opportunities to select particular films, and to choose when and where to watch them. This raises questions about how and why people choose particular screens and the viewing experiences they gain from doing so. To address these questions, we draw on 200 semi-structured interviews with film audience members in England. We use Livingstone’s (1998, 2013) notion of interactions and relations and Hartmann’s (2006) notion of a ‘triple articulation’ of media to approach screens as technologies that carry a particular range of films. Here, films are understood as texts, and each screen a medium that provides opportunities to watch films in specific temporal and spatial contexts. We find that people tend to: (1) watch films at the cinema, either to socialise or to feel part of an temporary auditorium-based community – whilst immersing within the text; (2) on television sets in the living-room to relax or socialise; (3) on laptops or tablets in the bedroom for personalised engagement; and (4) via smartphones for convenience and to pass time when away from home. Overall, we argue that people’s film-watching is embedded within specific contexts and that people choose particular screen types for the opportunities they offer for watching particular films in particular times and places. In this, people choose screen types and configure various temporal and spatial aspects of their film-watching environments to seek out specific viewing experiences

The dynamics of audience practices: mobilities of film consumption

This article addresses a dynamic of audience practice in engaging with film and identifies that this is characterised through mobilities in film consumption. It draws on rich mixed methods data to argue that not only is film an accessible and highly popular cultural activity, but that it is engaged with in various ways, and shaped by particular configurations of social, cultural, economic, and political factors as well as personal choice. The article develops a novel theoretical approach, combining audience studies and New Cinema History literature. For this, it draws on Hartmann’s (2006) notion of a triple articulation of media, treating screens as technological objects, films as media texts, and the social, spatial, and temporal contexts in which films are watched as particular environments. Each of these are considered equally important to understanding film consumption. The article also incorporates Urry’s (2008) concept of ‘mobilities’ to account for how people move between triple articulations. Here, mobilities can be: corporeal with audiences physically travelling to watch at particular venues, or in adjusting their environment around bodies; social in as far as people share films, both as material objects and in the shared experience of watching together; virtual where audiences discuss films online, share on-demand platform logins, or watch simultaneously in different places; and/or integrative, where digital technologies provide new affordances for watching films while carrying out other practices, e.g. watching via a smartphone while commuting on a train. By combining triple articulation with mobilities to examine interview and survey data, the article identifies and examines five triple articulations of film: (1) going to watch films at the cinema; (2) watching films on television at home; (3) watching films on laptop or tablet whilst in bed; (4) watching films on a smartphone when away from home; and (5) watching films on an in-flight entertainment system (e.g. on long-haul flights). It contends that people move and migrate between triple articulations of film in various ways through a diverse set of mobilities. Overall, the article argues that film consumption is best explored not just through a focus on the film as text, or on the social, temporal and/or spatial environments in which film-watching takes place, but through an understanding that the two are related and framed by wider cultural and economic factors - as well as various interactions between films, people, places, platforms, screens, and venues

Equity in a sustainable energy transition: the importance of people and place. Briefing Report

No abstract available