When Natural met Social: A Review of Collaboration between the Natural and Social Sciences

Abstract

This paper investigates the opportunities for further collaboration between the natural and social sciences. From 81 systematically identified and reviewed papers published in scientific journals, it became clear that complex situations that depend on human behaviour as well as natural processes require natural–social science collaboration. The creation of a community of collaborative natural–social science research, that learns from and can contribute to best practice across the sciences, is advocated to support natural– social science collaboration. Across disciplines, it became clear that such a community should deal with (1) difference between paradigms in the current sciences; (2) creation of skills and competences of the involved scientists; (3) scarcity of institutions sympathetic to collaborative research; and (4) the internal organization of collaborative projects.     

Outsourcing local democracy? Evidence for and implications of the commercialisation of community engagement in Australian local government

ABSTRACT

Participatory governance practices are enjoying popularity, not least in local government. This is driven by legislation that requires councils to undertake some of these processes; also by communities and practitioners – parties that derive income from participatory governance. An industry is emerging: one characterised by demand and supply, with frameworks, strategies and processes, training and conferences. This industry warrants investigation so that its impacts upon local democracy can be understood. Following a theorisation of local democracy and community engagement, the paper describes the community engagement industry, presenting evidence about council activities, providers and professional associations to establish that the commercialisation of engagement is a significant phenomenon in Australian local government. Possible risks to local governance and local democracy are explored.     

Engaging Local Knowledge in Biodiversity Research: Experiences from Large Inter- and Transdisciplinary Projects

Abstract

The management of biodiversity represents a research topic that needs to involve not only several (sub-) disciplines from the natural sciences but, in particular, also the social sciences and humanities. Furthermore, over the last couple of years, the need for the integration of other kinds of knowledge (experience based or indigenous knowledge) is increasingly acknowledged. For instance, the incorporation of such knowledge is indispensable for place-based approaches to sustainable land management, which require that the specific ecological and social context is addressed. However, desirable as it may be, such an engagement of the holders of tacit knowledge is not easy to achieve. It demands reconciling well-established scientific procedural standards with the implicit or explicit criteria of relevance that apply in civil society — a process that typically causes severe tensions and comes up against both habitual as well as institutional constraints. The difficulty of managing such tensions is amplified particularly in large integrated projects and represents a major challenge to project management. At the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research — UFZ, several integrated research projects have been conducted over the past years in which experience has been gained with these specific challenges. This paper presents some of the lessons learned from large integrated projects, with an emphasis on project design and management structure. At the centre of the present contribution are experiences gained in the coordination and management of LEGATO (LEGATO stands for Land-use intensity and Ecological EnGineering — Assessment Tools for risks and Opportunities in irrigated rice based production systems, see www.legato-project.net), an ongoing, large-scale, inter- and transdisciplinary research project dealing with the management of irrigated rice landscapes in Southeast Asia. In this project, local expertise on traditional production systems is absolutely crucial but needs to be integrated with natural and social science research to identify future-proof land management systems.     

Gathering and using information at the fifteenth-century Church councils: the example of crusade

ABSTRACT

The discussion of crusade at the councils of Constance (1414–18) and Basel (1431–49) is used to test the hypothesis that in the fifteenth century increasing importance was attached to the gathering of information. At Constance the chief crusading topic was the past and future of the Baltic crusade; at Basel attention was given to the negotiation of peace with the Hussites and union with the Orthodox Greeks. The paper considers the origin and character of the information that reached the councils; how it was used in the discourse at Constance and Basel; and it then assesses the effect of information on collective decision-making at the councils. While it is only possible to see information exerting an impact in the case of peace with the Hussites, the overall value placed on it by the conciliar delegates was high, corroborating recent arguments that the fifteenth century was an ‘information age’.     

Disaffection and Everyday Life in Interregnum England

Abstract

This article analyses factional and institutional tensions on late-nineteenth-century Tyneside, using disputes over maritime public health and the prevention of seaborne epidemics as its central case study. The Tyne had a complex institutional landscape in this era, much of it created in the middle decades of the century to meet the challenges of increasing trade, mobility and industrial growth. Institutions such as the Tyne Improvement Commission and the Tyne Port Sanitary Authority struggled to balance their specialist missions against the demands of the town councils and sectional economic interests that were represented on their boards. They also faced difficulties in managing the new professional officers who worked for them, most notably, for the purposes of this article, the physicians responsible for port health. Although highly successful in protecting its communities from epidemics, the Tyne PSA casts revealing light on the tensions of late Victorian public service, and the pronounced localism that permeated Tyneside throughout and beyond this era.     

Design and self-assembly of information systems

ABSTRACT

The existence of biological information systems is generally taken as given in discussions of their function. However, any theory of such systems must be considered incomplete unless it can also explain how the system comes to exist. This article describes the ways in which complex functional systems in general can be created through design, self-assembly and evolution. The differences and relationship between physical and informational entities, organization, processes and dimensionality are also discussed. Through comparison with information technologies, whose origins we understand, conclusions are drawn concerning the creation of functional biological neural networks: specifically, that this involves the self-assembly of information entities into a number of strongly emergent levels of organization. Finally, potential approaches are considered to overcome the hurdles to scientific investigation of emergent information-based systems and the processes by which they are created.     

Fama publica,infamy and defamation: judicial violence and social control of crimes against sexual morals in medieval Castile

Control of crimes such as the sin of lust was one way in which the elites at the head of Castilian town councils emphasised their good government. Among all the such crimes, sodomy was considered to be the most terrible, which brought major misfortunes to the population, and against which it was necessary to avenge. For those accused of this crime, or who actually committed it, it meant exclusion from society. For the urban Castilian elites this struggle was a way of justifying themselves as a governing group. Defence of society against sodomites is related to the political context and to the internal struggles of the urban elites. In the lawsuits analysed, there is clear repetition of a series of words related to individual reputation and social esteem: fama, honour, Buena fama, fama publica, infamia. These can be shown to be vital to the defence of the accused, and also frequently recur in the legislation itself. Rumour was also used as propaganda to shape public opinion and to discredit rivals in the struggle for urban power.     

Universal,colonial, or Indonesian heritage? A multi-scalar approach to the historical representations and management of colonial heritage in the Old Town of Jakarta (Kota Tua) during its bid for World Heritage nomination in 2015–2018

ABSTRACT

Between 2015 and 2018 the Indonesian government unsuccessfully applied for World Heritage status for the old Dutch colonial neighborhood of Kota Tua in Jakarta. As this article aims to show, analyzing the process of writing a nomination dossier, especially in the case of a failed nomination, can be revealing in unraveling the inner workings of heritage conservation efforts and the many actors that are involved on different ‘scales’ and levels surrounding the heritage. As the project of writing the nomination dossier was delegated to a consortium of private actors from the elite circles of Jakarta, this article will finally address both the difficulties and advantages of involving the private sector in such nomination processes.     

Lowland Floodplain Responses to Extreme Flood Events: Long-Term Studies and Short-Term Microbial Community Response to Water Environment Impacts

Abstract

Targeted studies of waterlogged burial environments allow researchers to gain holistic insights into the physico-chemical and biological condition of wetlands that have the potential to contain organic remains of both anthropogenic and biogenic origin. Recent research has shown that microbial community diversity and functioning are intimately linked to physical and chemical parameters, such that environmental perturbations may have the potential to enhance the effectiveness of microbial communities in the degradation process. Our studies have shown that, as a consequence of the 2007 floods which impacted upon many British lowland rivers, a rapid microbial response to environmental perturbations can be demonstrated within the wetland deposits being monitored. As such, a quantification of the latent functionality of micro-organisms in a soil profile may be of fundamental importance for our understanding of potential in situ degradation processes; and, as a consequence, the likelihood for the biodegradation of sensitive archaeo-organic remains; a factor which is of primary importance for both ongoing and future mitigation strategies, and attempts at managing the cultural resource of wetlands.

This paper will present a consideration of the effectiveness of a long-term research project in a lowland wetland at Newington, Nottinghamshire, England, studied between 2004 and 2008; and evaluate the efficacy of this study in relation to the significant impacts that occurred as a result of the severe floods in 2007. We conclude that the data generated after the floods necessitated a total re-evaluation of the first approximately two years of environmental monitoring, and that the impacts throughout the sediment profile continued for some time after the initial flood event. These observations potentially have far-reaching implications for future in situ monitoring as disruptions to weather patterns influence the various environmental impacts on the wetland resource.     

Feminist geographies: fight and achievement of a place in the Brazilian scientific production

Abstract

This paper examines the development of the field of feminist geographies in Brazil, proposing a reflection upon the different aspects of the policy (personal, institutional and national/international) which are intertwined with the geographical scientific production on gender and sexualities. This research is based on a data survey comprising 17,636 papers published between 1974 and 2015 in 90 scientific journals kept by Brazilian geographical entities at all levels of the ranking established by the government. The study emphasizes that there was an expansion of the gender and sexualities approach after the 2000s, characterized for its production from the peripheral universities, by young researchers and its publication in scientific journals of lower scientific impact, when the formal criteria of evaluation recently set in Brazil are taken into consideration. The gender studies field can be considered consolidated in Brazil, however, the approach of sexualities in the Brazilian geography still requires some work to be finally recognized.     

A place-based policy for promoting Industry 4.0: the case of the Castellon ceramic tile district

ABSTRACT

Digitization and its impact on regions and clusters remains overlooked in the literature, and constitute this present paper’s goal. How does an industrial district transit collectively to the adoption of new radical changes brought about by Industry 4.0? This study explores the role of collective actors and innovation platforms during the early stages of a pilot policy to stimulate a collective transition of an entire MID (Marshallian Industrial District) into Industry 4.0. We posit that institutional isomorphism and the existent social capital in MIDs is a double-sword phenomenon that can also positively constitute an enabler for fostering change on a collective-basis. Technology transitions, such as Industry 4.0, can be supported and led by collective actors that are central in facilitating the adoption of Industry 4.0 in MIDs, enticing innovative firms to engage in that transition, establishing, legitimizing, and embedding a new set of processes, practices and inter-firm arrangements for digitizing and then promoting imitation: the positive leverage of isomorphism. Thus, MID transition is facilitated through capitalizing on the MID logic of cooperation-competition and isomorphism, by developing and promoting a collective understanding of the new paradigm, building a supportive infrastructure, educating in the new technology and avoiding cognitive inertia.     

The Allocation of Excepted Political Positions: What and Whose Executive Priorities Do They Serve?

Abstract

Scholars have only begun to examine the roles played by non-career SES and Schedule C personnel in managing the bureaucracy. This, despite the fact that these individuals help to establish, communicate, and implement policy, and despite the broad discretion presidential administrations have in appointing them, defining their duties, and allocating their positions across the federal government. As an effort to redress this neglect, we first provide an overview of what lower-level political personnel do and of the processes and constraints that determine how they are distributed. We then examine how changes in presidential administration have affected the allocation of political SES and Schedule C positions across departments. Although dramatic infusions of these personnel into some agencies can be tied to policy objectives, they appear to be idiosyncratic and driven more by the preferences of agency leaders than by the White House. As such, they provide little support for positive theories that frame the administrative presidency in terms of centralized strategic planning.     

Transdisciplinarity in Practice: The Emergence and Resolution of Dissonances in Collaborative Research on Brownfield Regeneration

Abstract

The restoration of areas contaminated by industrial or mining activities has been a major issue in environmental research in many European countries since the 1980s, and it also constitutes a major area of research at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research — UFZ. Within this research environment, a consortium consisting of natural and social scientists has developed an EU-funded research project aimed at providing problem- oriented, tailored approaches and technologies for the revitalization of contaminated areas. The approach taken by the project is one that seeks to integrate scientific and non-scientific knowledge. In this paper we show how the idea of joint knowledge production between scientists and non-scientists is pursued in the context of the project. We explore how the rather fuzzy presentation of the transdisciplinary approach in the project proposal opens the door to interpretation and appropriation by scientists and practitioners alike. We describe a number of ad hoc solutions that were deployed to overcome specific dissonances during the collaborative production of knowledge (e.g. substituting common group learning for the single-handed elaboration of concepts by one project partner, or substituting the consultation of external experts for the mere gathering of information). Finally, we show how the interdisciplinary research environment at UFZ enhances the ability of the project team to resolve dissonances, improves collaboration between partners, and increases the innovative potential of project outputs.     

Valuing an Ancient Palaestra in the Centre of Athens: The Public,the Experts,and Aristotle

Abstract

This paper investigates the values assigned to the archaeological site widely known as ‘Lykeion’ of Aristotle’ — the famous ancient Greek philosopher — by experts and non-experts. The paper revolves around the premise that values should be holistically conceived as both the ‘what’ is valued and the ‘whys’ that drive the ‘whats’. Based on semi-structured interviews and quantitative questionnaires, the diverse values attributed by professionals, such as architects, archaeologists, or conservators, and the wider public will be unveiled. It will be demonstrated that values vary fundamentally not only between experts and non-experts but also within groups of experts. Furthermore, it will be argued that the conduct of in-depth research aimed at exploring experts’ and non-experts’ values and meanings, prior to interventions for the enhancement of any archaeological site, is vital for managing potential tensions and for offering an integrated interpretation strategy.     

Errors of Fact and Errors of Representation: Response to Shepherd and Haber's Critique of the World Archaeological Congress

Abstract

The llisu dam in the Kurdish region of Turkey, if built, would displace up to 78,000 women, children and men, causing immense destruction of culture, past and present. The article outlines some major issues arising as a result of work by an archaeologist to examine the dam's cultural impacts, work that has supported villagers opposing the dam and aiming to contribute to campaigns in Europe. Some of the work was part of the successful campaigning from 2000–2002 that resulted in the collapse of the consortium of companies then planning to build the dam. As a new consortium revives the project, an assessment is needed: where archaeologists are working with grassroots communities who are fighting for survival, mutual accountability is required. But how difficult is this to achieve? In particular, women's case against the dam is shown to be vital in an approach that requires both objectivity and commitment from archaeologists.     

Seeds: Contracting the Audience in a Play about Science

Abstract

In pursuing the question ‘what can scientists learn from theatre?’ Particularly, ‘what can scientists, as scientists, learn from theatre?’ this paper argues that science lacks a normative framework that theatre is capable of providing. Despite science’s well-earned epistemic reputation, there is adequate reason to question its ethical reputation, particularly at the point where cutting edge scientific technology impacts society. I consider science as operating in four categories: the scientific method; the scientific hypothesis; the scientific experiment; and the scientist’s personal character. The realms of the scientist’s hypothesis and personal character are those where social pressures are reciprocally exerted, where imaginative play mentality and epistemic values are most in evidence. Theatre can examine these realms effectively because it is able to use narratives that appeal not only to logical and social moral judgements but to emotional and visceral responses, so as to situate science in the social context in which the pressures of law, funding, experimentation, society, and personal ambition converge in ‘the game of life’.

This can be seen in the theatrical process known as ‘contracting with the audience’. I point out a spectrum of traditional narrative tropes by which science makes “contracts with” audiences. The paper draws on theories of entrainment and theatrical game-play from Peter Stromberg and Philippe Gaulier, as well as my own practice and research into the process of contracting with the audience, to propose how to reach beyond tradition and to shift normalising contracts “outside the box”. To illustrate my proposition, I examine the play Seeds by Annabel Soutar as directed by Chris Abraham for Crow’s Theatre and Theatre Porte Parole. Seeds follows the controversial court battles of Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser against agricultural-biotech corporation Monsanto, which sued him for patent infringement of its Genetically Modified Organism Roundup Ready Canola. Seeds helps its audience define a public arena for discourse even as it brings to our attention the factors that make this difficult to do, while making an excellent contribution to the genre of ‘Documentary Theatre’. It is a successful contract with the audience that creates a public forum for discussion about contemporary ethical debates in science, thereby merging artistic ambiguity and scientific theory.     

Knowledge, uncertainty and physical geography: towards the development of methodologies for questioning belief

Although it is widely acknowledged that our understanding of environmental systems cannot be reduced to single predictions and unique explanations, determinism remains a common strategy in physical geography. This paper argues for explicit assessments of uncertainty in environmental data and models as a necessary, although not a sufficient, condition for balancing uncertain scientific arguments against uncertain social, ethical, moral and legal arguments in managing environmental systems. In particular, this paper aims to: (1) demonstrate the importance of assessing uncertainty within a realist research framework; (2) consider the nature of scientific uncertainty as the basis for developing methodologies that question belief; and (3) explore some important aspects of a methodology for evaluating uncertainties in environmental research.     

Paper 3: Impact of the Indoor Climate on the Performance of Building Materials Contaminated with Salt Mixtures

Abstract

Archaeological sites are essentially submitted to decay phenomena inherent on their history as well as the environment to which they are exposed after excavation. The history of such archaeological sites is particularly related to their long-term underground conservation conditions during which they were subject to salt migration into the architectural remains.

It is well known that soluble salts present in building materials can cause damage, mainly by producing stresses in the substrate. A lot of research has been done in the past concerning the behaviour of salts in built constructions. However, most studies include single salts, of which the deliquescence points are well documented, while in situ one mostly finds complex salt mixtures, which makes the conservation strategy much more intricate.

The environmental conditions to minimize damage of salt-laden porous building materials can be modelled using a computer program ECOS capable of predicting the crystallization behaviour of salt mixtures. To use the model data of quantitative salt analyses are required as input. The program is then able to predict from a thermodynamic point of view which minerals will exist in the solid state under specified climatic conditions.

This paper deals with the results of a systematic investigation of the salt contamination of the building materials of the Coudenberg site and a prediction of the behaviour of the salt mixture related to the actual climate, as part of the environmental assessment.