Summary: In tackling complex societal and environmental problems, diversity is critical for finding untapped knowledge, new insightful questions and fresh ideas, but also makes working together more challenging.
The topics covered in the primer are put into a broader context of the kinds of diversity relevant for research.
Summary: Mental models are small-scale simplified models about different aspects of reality that are unique to each person. They are functional, but necessarily incomplete.
Their characteristics are described, along with the challenges of developing shared mental models.
Summary: Ten different basic personal values are described: self-direction, stimulation, hedonism, achievement, power, security, conformity, tradition, benevolence and universalism.
Six characteristics of values are presented, along with two overarching sets of conflicting values.
Summary: Interests are things that a person is curious about, as well as things that a person has a stake in, where they stand to gain or lose depending on what happens to those things.
There is also a description of how interests tend to be expressed through positions, rather than directly.
Summary: While the principle of increasing diversity is admirable, putting it into practice is hard, time-consuming and risky. Four ways forward are discussed:
fostering plural innovation pathways and research consortia