Work for Northumbria University’s Post

The dominant view within the academy, universities and policy makers is that research is a process involving knowledge generation by academic experts. There is growing interest in, and increased university support for, ‘engaged’ research, which deepens research approaches to involve communities and civil society. However, such engaged research is too often limited to conceptualisations within the ‘extractive’ paradigm of research, and places insufficient priority on participatory action research. Such participatory research are processes involving the co-construction of knowledge and social action with disadvantaged groups. There is a need, therefore, for a more expansive conceptualisation, definition and practice, of engaged research, which is normatively critical, social justice and social change orientated, participatory in both process and outcome. Delighted to see my chapter which outlines an expanded conceptualisation and definition of engaged research published as part of the book Rights and Social Justice in Research, Advancing Methodologies for Social Change, edited by my colleagues in the Department of Applied Social Studies MUAppSocSc - Applied Social Studies Maynooth Maynooth University https://lnkd.in/epkG7bhF

"Don't tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value." Joe Biden If you value #SocialJustice consider Rory Hearne's point here or follow the work of The Alliance of Working Class Academics (@AWCAcademics on Twitter) or the #TortoiseShack podcast episode with Emma Penney - to learn just how the underrepresentation of #workingclass voices and undervalued 'engaged' research undermines us all. Then consider how much money the Irish government invests in and subsidises research with innovation grants and programs connecting business/tech/engineering research with businesses to drive their success (requiring no paybacks or ROI) - and how little is invested and shared to drive social change. Let's demand that citizen's priorities, academics' methods, and our budgets reflect our #values.

I strongly believe that scientists have an obligation to incorporate diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) principles in how they conduct science. In 2022, I started a journal club in the Fraser lab centered around issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice within academia, specifically in the biological sciences. My goal was to create an environment for continued learning, critical discussion, and brainstorming action items that individuals and labs can implement. After each journal club, the discussion leader summarized the discussions and proposed action items in a blog post (https://lnkd.in/gNb54QVd). The discussions and proposed interventions reflect the participants' own opinions based on their own personal identities and lived experiences, and may differ from the identities and experiences of others. We decided to share our insights and ideas publicly as a way of holding ourselves accountable and to encourage other scientists to engage with DEIJ practitioners and their scholarship. Following extensive conversations with Stephanie Wankowicz, PhD and colleagues, we decided to write an article titled "Ten recommendations for hosting a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) journal club." By providing a framework for scientists to engage with DEIJ scholarship, we hope that more research groups will take the first step toward understanding how bias and discrimination persist in academia and what role we all play in creating more inclusive and equitable spaces within STEM academia. We welcome discussion and constructive feedback on our article. https://lnkd.in/g6xvU9AH

Check out the SJSU 2024 Silicon Valley Pain Index! Every year, the San José State Human Rights Institute releases the Silicon Valley Pain Index to demonstrate key outcomes of equity measures ranging from housing to education. Read the full 2024 SVPI here: https://lnkd.in/g-Jw8HuT The purpose of the Silicon Valley Pain Index (SVPI) report is to: - Provide an efficient, easily digestible, statistical overview of structured inequalities to inform policy and practice in Silicon Valley. - Serve to measure Santa Clara County’s performance as a “human rights county,” which it declared in 2018. - Spark collaborations between scholars, students, stakeholders, communities, and policymakers to address inequality and achieve greater human rights practice.

Please consider proposing a panel or session to the Civic Studies Related Group for the American Political Science Association’s 2025 annual meeting (next September 11-14, in Vancouver). We invite proposals for panels, round tables, and individual papers that make a significant contribution to the civic studies field; articulate a civic studies perspective on some important issue; or contribute to theoretical, empirical, or practical debates in civic studies. We especially encourage proposals that emphasize actual or potential civic responses to current social and political crises, their origins, and possible consequences. Civic studies is a field defined by diversity yet connected by participants’ commitments to promoting interdisciplinary research, theory, and practice in support of civic renewal: the strengthening of civic (i.e., citizen-powered and citizen-empowering) politics, initiatives, institutions, and culture. Its concern is not with citizenship understood as legal membership in a particular polity, but with guiding civic ideals and a practical ethos embraced by individuals loyal to, empowered by, and invested in the communities they form and re-form together. Its goal is to promote these ideals through improved institutional designs, enhanced public deliberation, new and improved forms of public work among citizens, or clearer and more imaginative political theory. The civic studies framework adopted in 2007 cites two ideals for the emerging discipline: “public spiritedness” (or “commitment to the public good”) and “the idea of the citizen as a creative agent.” Civic studies is an intellectual community that takes these two ideals seriously. Although new, it draws from several important strands of ongoing research and theory, including the work of Elinor and Vincent Ostrom and the Bloomington School, of Juergen Habermas and critical social theory, Brent Flyvbjerg and social science as phronesis, and more diffuse traditions such as philosophical pragmatism, Gandhian nonviolence, the African American Freedom Struggle. It supports work on deliberative democracy, on public work, on civic engagement and community organizing, among others. Once logged into the conference website (https://lnkd.in/gqb6J82Q), you can navigate to Submit a Division, or Related Group, … Proposal, then go to “Related Groups,” and find “Civic Studies.”

🧑🎓 Laura Bea is calling for research participants to join her PhD research on diverse evidence. 🌐 Her study argues for the need to clarify our understandings of diversity, evidence and knowledge, in order to develop both efficient and inclusive evidence policy processes. 👉 If you are a researcher who engaged with the policymaking process, policymaker who work with academic and non-academic evidence, or a knowledge broker who have ideas on diversity of evidence, please contact Laura at [email protected]! #Diversity #Inclusion #PolicyDevelopment #PublicPolicy #Research

How can arts participation in communities influence social cohesion and wellbeing? One Nation/One Project seeks to answer that question. From Jill Sonke's team in Florida. Our team has undertaken foundational studies that define “arts participation,” as well as reviewed current research concerning arts participation, social cohesion and wellbeing. To read our first research brief, click here! Our Theory of Change Study is exploring relationships between the arts, social cohesion, and wellbeing through surveys, focus groups, and participatory art murals. Lastly, our team is researching social prescribing and arts prescribing through implementation science studies and in-depth case study of three #ArtsForEveryBody communities creating social prescribing programs of their own!

Here is another publication from our team at Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley This gift is a toolkit on Transformative Research. "We, the coauthors of this toolkit, have learned by doing—“making the road by walking”—to act and reflect on our actions as a collective over the last three years, and separately for many years before that. The authors of this toolkit are movement builders, artists, and practitioners of PAR, justice research, cultural strategy, life-affirming approaches, collaborative governance, popular education, and healing justice. We have worked in many sectors: housing, transportation, policy, labor, environmental justice, psychology, public health, communications, academia, dance, poetry, music, visual arts, and more. We are made up of diverse and intersecting identities: Black, Latine, Filipina, white cis and non-binary, queer and straight, spiritual, diasporic, and working class and professional class."

Call for participation — Bridging Campus and Community: Librarian and Archivists’ Perspectives on Community Engagement in Higher Education https://lnkd.in/g7StBk8G The purpose of this study is to explore how academic information practitioners understand and carry out community engagement, especially in their work with off-campus publics. This research seeks to identify how information practitioners define community engagement, how they approach their engagement activities, and what challenges and opportunities they encounter. Additionally, the study aims to examine the support structures and competencies needed for effective community engagement in higher education.

Read the latest paper from researchers at Lurie Institute for Disability Policy ⬇