Choosing Not to Choose in Comparative Policy Research Design: The Case of the Research Network on Gender, Politics, and the State

This research note presents the research design for an in -progress comparative study on women's policy offices being conducted by the Research Network on Gender. Politics. and the State. The goal of this article is to examine how this project has been integrating a combined approach into its core research design. It argues that rather than conceptualizing the research design enterprise in terms of a zero-sum game, where a decision to use either quantitative or qualitative methodology compromises potential research findings, researchers may want to combine the strength of each approach in a single project.     

The Arizona community data set: a long‐term project for education and research in economic geography

Abstract

The teaching of economic geography has received considerable attention in the literature over the last three years. This paper contributes to the debate by illustrating and analyzing a project based at the University of Arizona, the Arizona Community Data Set (ACDS). The ACDS is a long‐term field‐project that has given students the opportunity to go in the field to collect and analyze regional economic data and to apply theory and techniques learned in the classroom. This unique data set has yielded additional benefits in the area of basic research. It is argued that projects such as the ACDS complement some of the theoretical and analytical curriculum developed and recently published by other instructors in economic geography. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that some of the limitations commonly associated with field projects, especially the cost, can partly be overcome through sponsorship by community agencies.     

‘Globalization with hardware’: ITER’s fusion of technology,policy, and politics

This article explores the history of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a fusion energy megaproject currently being built in southern France. It examines three main aspects of the project’s history, focusing largely on the European research community’s perspective. First, it explores how European scientists and science managers constructed a transnational research community around fusion energy after 1960 that was part of Europe’s larger technological integration. This article also expands Gabrielle Hecht’s concept of ‘technopolitics’ to the larger international dimension and explores how the political environment of the late Cold War and the post‐9/11 era helped shape ITER’s history, sometimes in ways not entirely within researchers’ control. Finally, this essay considers ITER as a technological project that gradually became globalized. At various stages in the project’s 30‐year history, we discover processes whereby national borders became less important while social, economic, legal and technological linkages created a shared social space for fusion research on an expanding scale.     

Alternative Pathways to Community and Economic Development: The Latrobe Valley Community Partnering Project

Conventional approaches to development in areas that are experiencing economic decline invariably focus on business growth through interventions such as incentives, infrastructure development and job readiness training. This paper reports on a pilot project aimed at developing an alternative approach to community and economic development in the context of the Latrobe Valley, Victoria, a resource region that has experienced downsizing and privatisation of its major employer, the state‐owned power industry. The project was shaped by a poststructuralist concern with the effects of representation. It sought to challenge familiar understandings of disadvantaged areas, the economy, community and the research process in order to open up new ways of addressing social and economic issues. The resulting four‐stage research project was informed by the techniques of asset‐based community development and action research, as well as by discourses of the diverse economy and communities of difference. During the two‐year span of the project, four community enterprises were developed. The varying degrees of success they have met with in the four years since the project concluded highlight the critical role of local agencies such as the council in providing ongoing support for such endeavours.     

Taking rumours seriously: Why organ thieves matter to malaria control

This article documents what happened when a group of researchers tried to gain consent to carry out a survey for a malaria‐related research project in the Sabah region of Malaysia at the end of 2015. Within weeks, rumours had begun to spread on social media that the team were fake and using the guise of a research project to steal organs. The refusal to participate is often considered only relevant to researchers in so far as it has implications for the project itself. However, non‐participation in research is a valuable area of inquiry in its own right, precisely because of what it reveals about what lies beyond the research project. Rumours that contribute to non‐participation are indicative of the murky space of social relationships and connections that surround health. In fact, as is illustrated in this case study, rumours do not just reveal or represent this interconnected world, they also incite affect. It is within this space that bodies are put at risk of a number of health issues ranging from malaria to organ theft and it is thus here where researchers should focus more attention.     

They did not Live by Grass Alone: the Politics and Palaeoecology of Animal Fodder in the North Atlantic Region

Abstract

A five year research project was set up to monitor soil moisture and groundwater levels of an extensive buried, mainly alluviated landscape located at the interface between the lower Great Ouse valley and the fen-edge in western Cambridgeshire. The intention was to monitor changes in hydrology, soil structure and geochemical status before, during and after large scale gravel extraction. The results presented here concern the pre-extraction monitoring period over three years. The project has identified three major landscape zones – shallowly buried former dryland, several sets of relict palaeochannel systems which still remain waterlogged, and a marginal zone between these where the monitored parameters fluctuate on a seasonal basis. The moisture levels of the alluvial overburden, buried soils and infills of the palaeochannel systems appear to act independently of each other, controlled by a combination of rainfall, agricultural land management, height above sea level and depth of burial. It is predicted that the removal of 1–3m of overburden accompanied by water abstraction when gravel extraction commences will lead to changes in the moisture regime of the immediate area and therefore of any contained archaeological contexts and the superficial sediments in this river valley/fen-edge landscape.     

生命理念的投射：嵇康与《圣贤高士传赞》

在三国时期的人物传记作品中,嵇康的《圣贤高士传赞》是第一部以“高士”命名的类传,嵇康采摭寓言、假说,收罗其所谓的“圣贤高士”,借他们的行事,寄寓与投射自我的生命理念。这部作品对后世有很大影响,后世模仿其体例,沿袭其题材的传记不断出现,代有其作,可以说,嵇康之作是有开路之功的。     

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.     

首都城市社区党建状况调研报告

城市社区党的建设是新世纪党的建设面临的重大课题之一。北京市作为全国城市社区建设和社区党建工作开展得比较早的城市之一 ,取得了可喜的成果 ,积累了一定的经验 ,但也存在一些问题和困难。我们进行了历时近 8个月的调研活动 ,对此提出一些看法、对策和建议     

Proximity and economic activity: An analysis of vendor‐university transactions

This paper uses transaction‐based data to provide new insights into the link between the geographic proximity of businesses and associated economic activity. It develops two new measures of, and a set of stylized facts about, the distances between observed transactions between customers and vendors for a research intensive sector. Spending on research inputs is more likely with businesses physically closer to universities than those further away. Firms supplying a university project in one year are more likely to subsequently open an establishment near that university. Vendors who have supplied a project, are subsequently more likely to be a vendor on the same or related project.     

Between fan pilgrimage and dark tourism: competing agendas in overseas field learning

An overseas field learning itinerary can be a powerful pedagogical tool for both directing student attention and complicating preexisting spatial narratives. However, one must beware of using the itinerary to replace one narrative with another. This paper examines the itinerary negotiation for a 15-day overseas field module conducted three consecutive years. It uses the concepts of fan pilgrimage and dark tourism to explain the inclusion of two destinations and introduces a student-led research project that produced nuanced understandings of Japan’s rural geographies. Evidence comes from reflective field diaries, oral debrief sessions, written assignments, and an anonymous post-module survey.     

The Dynamics of Metropolitan Change

A collaborative research project entitled “Nested Dynamics of Metropolitan Processes and Policies” was initiated at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in 1982. The ultimate objective is to enhance our primitive understanding with respect to interacting metropolitan change processes which are operating at significantly different speeds. In this introductory paper, some aspects and results of the project are summarized prior to a short discussion of the three related papers which follow in this volume.     

禹州瓦店 龙山聚落的多学科演练

瓦店遗址自1 980年代初以来,已经进行了四轮十数次考古发掘.这处位于潁河中游的龙山时代遗址,在"中华文明探源工程"大型学术项目中承担了重要的角色.多学科研究思想和新的科技手段被不断应用到该遗址的发掘过程里,不仅将考古学研究领域大为拓展,而且为探索公元前2000年前后中原地区的经济技术、社会精神文化发展水平,文明形成过程中社会发展与人口、资源、环境的密切关系,提供了丰富的资料。发掘者认为,该遗址的龙山时代中心聚落的确定,大型环壕和祭祀遗迹群的发现,以及垄断性高档遗物的出土,再联系到文献记载的夏之阳翟钧台均在禹州,表明这处遗址很可能与禹、启的阳翟城或钧台之享有关。     

In situ preservation of archaeological bone: a histological study within a multidisciplinary approach

To make preservation in situ a serious option for the management of archaeological sites, research has to be done on the factors affecting conservation of different archaeological materials, including bone. A European project has been started which deals with bone degradation in a multidisciplinary way. The goals of the project are to develop techniques to describe the preservation of archaeological bone, to make a classification of soil environments according to their preservation potential and to detect what factors in the environment of the bone affect its conservation. One technique used in this project to determine the state of preservation of archaeological bone is histology. The relevance of this technique for archaeological heritage management research is discussed.     

南京大学土地利用学科发展回顾与展望

南京大学是国内较早开展土地利用研究的高校之一。1949年后特别是改革开放以来,南京大学土地利用学科取得了突飞猛进的发展,目前已形成了一个相对完整的跨学科发展体系。经过长期的研究凝练,学科目前已逐步形成了"土地利用与规划"、"土地经济与政策"、"土地评价与整治"三个重点研究领域,并在"城市土地利用管理"和"农户土地利用行为"等方面形成了一定的研究特色。今后,南京大学将围绕"全面实现国内一流优势学科,达到国际同类研究一流水平"的目标,通过凝聚力量争取重大科研项目,引进或培养领军人物,加强重点实验室建设等战略举措,建成与国际接轨的具有南京大学特色的土地利用学科体系。     

RETHINKING THE SOCIAL IMPACTS OF THE ARTS

The paper presents a critical discussion of the current debate over the social impacts of the arts in the UK. It argues that the accepted understanding of the terms of the debate is rooted in a number of assumptions and beliefs that are rarely questioned. The paper goes on to present the interim findings of a three‐year research project, which aims to rethink the social impact of the arts, with a view to determining how these impacts might be better understood. The desirability of a historical approach is articulated, and a classification of the claims made within the Western intellectual tradition for what the arts “do” to people is presented and discussed.     

Where dogs,ghosts and lions roam: learning from mobile ethnographies on the journey from school

This paper draws on mobility research conducted with children in three countries: Ghana, Malawi and South Africa. It has two interlinked aims: to highlight the potential that mobile interviews can offer in research with young people, especially in research contexts where the main focus is on mobility and its impacts, and to contribute empirical evidence regarding the significance of everyday mobility to young people's lives and future life chances in sub-Saharan Africa. During the pilot phase of our research project on children, transport and mobility, the authors undertook walks home from school with teenage children1 We use the terms children and ‘young people’ interchangeably in this paper. When we asked young people aged ca. 12–18 years from the three countries at our Malawi inception workshop about terminology, they expressed no concern about the use of the term ‘child’ for people in their teens. View all notes in four different research sites: three remote rural, one peri-urban. As the children walked (usually over a distance of around 5 km) their stories of home, of school and of the environment in-between, gradually unfolded. The lived experiences narrated during these journeys offer considerable insights into the daily lives, fears and hopes of the young people concerned, and present a range of issues for further research as our study extends into its main phase.     

Museums and the History and Heritage of British Motoring

This paper has been developed from a research project 1 that was directed at understanding the changes taking place in the curatorial attitudes towards the location and use of motor-cars in museums. It identifies the key issues regarding the patterns of representation, collecting and questions of national policy. In this process the paper considers the ways in which new meanings are being attached to collections, and the extent to which narratives are obscuring an understanding of the objects and increasing the tensions between the history and heritage of British motoring.