By Gabriele Bammer.
In research tackling complex societal and environmental problems, what is involved in taking context into account when aiming for more comprehensive understanding of a problem, as well as research support for policy and practice change so that the problem is better dealt with?
As outlined in my work developing Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S), considering context involves dealing with circumstances at three levels:
- social or big picture, eg., the historical, political, economic, cultural, geographical and other circumstances
- organizational, especially the structure and culture of the research and stakeholder organisations involved
- individual, especially the positionality or identity of researchers and stakeholders.
Each of these dimensions of context has widespread ramifications, affecting:
- how a problem manifests and is understood, including what is studied and how, as well as the unknowns considered to be pertinent
- what actions are likely to be considered and to have a chance of being successful.
Interestingly, there is no field of enquiry that sets out to deal with context in a comprehensive way.
In addition, context can never be perfectly or completely understood. Not only is there just too much to take into account, but understandings of context and their importance will also often be contested. That is one important reason why I argue that imperfection is inevitable when tackling complex problems.
Nevertheless, those tackling complex societal and environmental problems require expertise in addressing context, both “know-that” to understand the different dimensions of context and “know-how” to deal with those dimensions of context effectively. The first of these is dealt with here.
Social or big picture context
Social or big picture context takes in:
- the history of the problem, including how it has been understood, researched and acted on, as well as key events and the evolution of the problem and actions on it
- the politics of the problem, including legislation and other policy actions, recognition in political party platforms; political enquires; interest group and lobby group positions; and sources of power, including authorisation or legitimacy, for recognising and acting on the problem
- the economics of the problem, including what the problem costs society and specific social groups, as well as costs of options for addressing the problem and cost-benefit assessments
- the cultural aspects of the problem, including effects on particular societies or groups, plus different cultural perceptions and actions on the problem
- the geography of the problem, including the localities and environments it occurs in, such as local, national, global and sometimes even extra-terrestrial levels, as well as place-based constraints on action.
This list does not aim to be exhaustive, instead seeking to make the point that there are multiple social or big-picture circumstances that come in play when tackling complex societal and environmental problems. Two other key points are that:
- these social or big-picture circumstances interact, for example the history of the problem is often an account of the politics, economics, cultural aspects, geography and more
- while assessment of what is known and done (or attempted) is important, equally important, but harder to assess, is what is not known, ignored and undone.
Organisational context
Organisational context concerns the research and stakeholder institutions involved in developing more comprehensive knowledge, as well as in supporting policy and practice change, in addition to the specific government, business and civil society organisations involved in enacting change.
It is useful to tease apart organisational context into structure and culture.
Structure includes composition, hierarchy, roles, responsibilities, connections, funding, physical layout and available resources. If we consider research organisations, the different kinds of disciplinary experts employed, for example, will probably influence how a problem is tackled. Similarly, how well knowledge brokering occurs is likely to be affected by whether there are designated roles for this activity. As a final example, physical layout, including proximity of individual working spaces, natural gathering places, meeting rooms and opportunities for privacy, are all likely to have an impact on, for instance, opportunities to exchange ideas and work collaboratively.
Culture, particularly the customary ways of doing things in organisations, is also impactful. For example, decision makers may favour particular research groups or may eschew research input; community groups may have clear protocols for working with researchers or may be hard to contact and get involved; research organisations may have favoured epistemological approaches. Culture in research organisations also includes expectations about participation in research group meetings, seminars and social events; whether participation in public debate or expression of controversial views are encouraged; and how power plays out.
Individual context
The positionality of individual researchers and stakeholders can also be usefully seen as an aspect of context. Key aspects of positionality include the person’s relationship to the problem, to those involved in understanding and looking for actions to deal with the problem, and to the institutions and individuals in a position to influence the problem.
It is useful to ask, for example, how individual positionality affects:
- the approach to the research or potential actions
- conflicts of interest
- useful perspectives and blind spots
- expectations of those tasked with addressing the problem.
Concluding questions
Do these three dimensions of context look useful for your work? Do they miss critical areas? Do you have additional perspectives to share?
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Statement: Artificial intelligence was not used in the development of this i2Insights contribution or the work on which the contribution is based. (For i2Insights policy on artificial intelligence please see https://i2insights.org/contributing-to-i2insights/guidelines-for-authors/#artificial-intelligence.)
Biography: Gabriele Bammer PhD is Professor of Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S) at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at The Australian National University in Canberra. i2S provides theory and methods for tackling complex societal and environmental problems, especially for developing a more comprehensive understanding in order to generate fresh insights and ideas for action, supporting improved policy and practice responses by government, business and civil society, and effective interactions between disciplinary and stakeholder experts. She is the inaugural President of the Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity.